Despite being ruled ineligible to run for public service commissioner in Mississippi’s northern district, Mandy Gunasekara is continuing to defend her legitimacy as a candidate for the governmental position.
Gunasekara, formerly an EPA official in the Trump Administration, is planning to file an emergency stay before the U.S. Supreme Court after the Mississippi Supreme Court disqualified her from seeking public office due to her alleged failure to meet a residency requirement.
According to Gunasekara, Mississippi’s highest court chose to take a procedural route in determining her eligibility to run for office, basing their decision on a provision of the 1890 Constitution which requires a candidate to live in the state for five years before running for office.
The former federal official finds the provision both antiquated and outlandish, specifically when used against someone who was raised in Mississippi, lived elsewhere for a brief period of time and returned with aspirations of improving the state.
“At this point, this is less about my personal campaign and more about fixing the law that is currently a slap in the face for anyone who has left the state and wants to come back to bring the skills, the value, the relationships they’ve developed to make our state even better,” Gunasekara said on Friday’s episode of The Gallo Show.
According to records, Gunasekara and her husband received a homestead reduction on property taxes in Washington, D.C. as recently as 2021. The Republican also voted in a D.C. election on Nov. 6, 2018.
However, Gunasekara has continued to maintain that her primary address has been in Mississippi since 2018, testifying that she and her husband purchased a property in Decatur in August 2018 with renovations lasting from September 2018 until June 2019. She also claims to hold deep Mississippi roots and a passion for the Magnolia State.
“At the end of the day, I grew up in Mississippi,” Gunasekara continued. “I spent my infancy here, elementary school, middle school, high school. I went to undergrad and I went to law school here. So the majority of my 38-year life has been spent in the state of Mississippi.”
Though Gunasekara knows that time is not on her side with the upcoming primaries scheduled for August 9, and is aware of the uphill battle at hand, she believes the fight is appropriate for future generations of Mississippians in the same boat as her.
Watch the full interview with Gunasekara below.
