Michael Guest

Biography & Campaign Analysis

Background

Michael Guest was born Michael Patrick Guest on February 4, 1970. He graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor's degree in accounting and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Guest and his family are members of Brandon Baptist Church, where he serves as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.

Career

Guest spent his early legal career as assistant district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties from 1994 to 2008, and he became district attorney in 2008.

When Representative Gregg Harper declined to seek reelection in 2018, Guest led the six-way Republican primary for the 3rd district with 45% of the vote, won the runoff against Whit Hughes and defeated the Democratic nominee, state representative Michael Evans, in the general election.

He was reelected in 2020 with 64.7% of the vote against Democrat Dort Benford and again in 2022.

After the death of Jackie Walorski in August 2022, Guest became ranking member of the House Committee on Ethics, and he became its chair in the 118th Congress after Republicans won a House majority. He proposed the resolution that expelled George Santos from Congress. For the 119th Congress he chairs the Committee on Ethics and the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, and he serves on the Committee on Appropriations.

2026 race

Mississippi's 3rd congressional district is located in eastern and southwestern Mississippi, taking in Meridian, Starkville, Pearl, Brookhaven and most of the wealthier portions of Jackson, and Michael Guest is its Republican incumbent, re-elected unopposed in 2024.

Guest was the only candidate in the 2026 Republican primary and received 44,553 votes. He faces Democrat Michael Chiaradio, a regenerative farmer who was likewise the sole candidate for his party's nomination.

Libertarian Erik Kiehle, a property manager, also appears on the general election ballot for November 3, 2026.