Mississippi voters head to the polls today to cast ballots to pick nominees to replace now-Senator Roger Wicker and Rep. Chip Pickering in districts highly likely to favor Republicans in November. Republicans Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, and Glenn McCollough, the former mayor of Tupelo, are fighting over Wicker's First District, while former State Senator Charlie Ross and attorney Gregg Harper are battling over Pickering's Third District, where the incumbent is stepping down.

Wicker's seat, based in the northeast corner of the state, gave President Bush 62% of the vote in 2004 and 59% in 2000. The new senator never had a problem winning election after the retirement of Democratic Congressman Jamie Whitten in 1994. McCollough held a narrow 39%-37% lead after the March 11 primary and got the endorsement of third place finisher Randy Russell.

On the Democratic side, Prentiss County Clerk Travis Childers and State Rep. Steve Holland are fighting for the runoff victory. Childers took a 41%-31% lead on March 11 and appears favored to reach the general election. Whichever candidate wins will have a steep hill to climb to even come within ten points of beating the GOP nominee. Both parties will hold another primary on April 22 to determine nominees to fill the remainder of Wicker's term, a contest that will be decided in a May 13 runoff.

Pickering's Third District, which stretches diagonally from the northeastern border with Alabama, just south of Wicker's seat, to the southwestern border with Louisiana, is similarly Republican. The seat is home to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Ronald Reagan stopped on his announcement tour. At the time, a Democrat represented the area, but after Rep. Sonny Montgomery stepped down in 2006, Pickering easily won the increasingly heavy Republican district.

In the bid to replace Pickering, Ross narrowly led the primary field with 34% over Harper, who chairs the Rankin County Republican Party and clocked in with 28%. The winner will face Democrat Joel Gill, an alderman from the town of Pickens, in a seat where voters gave President Bush a 31-point win in 2004 and a 29-point win in 2000.

Democrats have other opportunities in the South, most notably this Saturday when voters choose runoff winners in Louisiana's First Congressional District. But for now, it appears that candidates who come out of today's Mississippi Republican runoffs should be safe bets to join Congress in January.