55. Sen. Chris McDaniel is registered to vote at an address that appears to have used no water for three years.

Since political season in Mississippi is getting hotter by the day I wanted to share something I discovered recently about a candidate for statewide office.

Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisville) has represented District 42 in the Mississippi Legislature since 2008. I moved to Ellisville, which is in that district, several years ago. Shortly after I did, I noticed McDaniel’s home address, as listed on the state Legislature’s website, appeared unoccupied.

That address—506 South Court Street in Ellisville—is less than a mile from my home, and a block from a neighborhood grocery. In four-plus years I’ve never seen any activity at the home. Curtains are always drawn. No lights ever appear on. The backyard gazebo, where McDaniel says he prayed about entering the 2014 U.S. Senate race, looks abandoned. Also, other Ellisville residents have told me over the years that the place is unoccupied. I just scratched my head about it until earlier this year when McDaniel announced he was running for lieutenant governor—one of the most powerful elected offices in Mississippi. Being an old reporter, I decided to check it out.

In March I called the Jones County Circuit Clerk’s office and asked where McDaniel was registered to vote. I was told he has been registered at 506 South Court Street in Ellisville since 2009. I checked property records, which indicated that the house on South Court Street is the only house McDaniel owns in Jones County. Then I emailed McDaniel and asked why he was registered to vote at a house that appeared unoccupied. I added that I planned to write about it in my newsletter.

McDaniel’s campaign team responded and said the house on South Court Street “remains occupied and central to the McDaniel family’s daily lives.” His campaign team said 506 South Court Street is McDaniel’s “legal domicile,” that he has owned it for more than 23 years, that clothes hang in closets, that furnishings are in place, that mail is received there and that McDaniel has no plans to ever abandon the house.

The campaign added, however, that McDaniel and his family have been “forced to spend nights elsewhere” since black mold was discovered in the home, and they won’t be able to spend nights there again until contractors address the problem. It is a family health matter, his campaign explained, which is certainly understandable (though I’ve never noticed contractors or any work being done at the property). When I asked when McDaniel stopped spending nights at the home, his campaign offered no date.

His campaign added that because of McDaniel’s legislative duties, he and his family sometimes spend nights in/near Jackson. When I asked where they stayed when the Legislature was not in session, the campaign did not respond. I explained that I did not want or expect an address but was curious if McDaniel spent nights in Ellisville and/or in District 42 or elsewhere. His campaign did not say.

The campaign sent this statement from McDaniel: “Ellisville is currently and will always be my family’s home—where I intend to grow old in our home on South Center [sic] Street. While renovations are underway to protect the health and safety of my children, our home is visited daily by my family. It remains our legal domicile, and we have no intent of ever abandoning our forever home.”

McDaniel’s campaign team mentioned, too, that 506 South Court Street has electricity and running water. So in April I submitted a Public Records Act request to the city of Ellisville, asking for copies of the water bill at 506 South Court Street from January 2018 to March 2023.

According to the records I received from the city, the water meter had the same reading from Dec. 2017 to Feb. 2018. Then, in March 2018, the account in McDaniel's name at 506 South Court Street was closed, according to the records I received from the city. I asked McDaniel's team why the account would have been closed. I did not receive a response.

I know that in late Feb. 2018, McDaniel announced that he would run for the U.S. Senate. He lost that race in Nov. 2018. There was speculation in early 2019 that he would run for governor but in late Feb. 2019 he announced he would seek re-election to the state Senate District 42 seat. Less than two weeks later, someone paid a $45 deposit to open a water account in McDaniel’s name at 506 South Court Street, according to the records I received from the city.

From April 2019 to April 2020, the water meter at 506 South Court Street registered water use in four months: Approximately 2,000 gallons in April 2019; approximately 1,000 gallons in May 2019; approximately 4,000 gallons in October 2019; and approximately 1,000 gallons in April 2020, according to the records I received from the city.

According to those same records, the meter reading at 506 South Court Street stayed the same from May 2020 through March 2023. That would indicate that if any water was used at the property during those 34 months, it amounted to less than 1,000 gallons total. (The EPA says the average American household uses 300-plus gallons a day.) Or perhaps the meter faltered.

I asked McDaniel’s campaign about this, pointing out that it seemed odd that such a small amount of water, if any, had been used at the address in years, especially since McDaniel claims the home is visited daily. His campaign did not respond.

McDaniel is challenging incumbent lieutenant governor Delbert Hosemann in the Republican primary. A statewide vote will be held Aug. 8.