Trent Kelly
Trent Kelly, a Republican and retired Mississippi National Guard major general who has represented Mississippi's 1st congressional district since 2015, faces Democrat Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center, in 2026.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Trent Kelly.
- Born
- March 1, 1966
- Birthplace
- Union, Mississippi
- Education
- Union High School (1984)
East Central Community College (associate's degree)
University of Mississippi (bachelor's degree)
University of Mississippi School of Law
United States Army War College (master's degree in strategic studies, 2010)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Trent Kelly was born John Trent Kelly on March 1, 1966, in Union, Mississippi, to John and Barbara Kelly. He graduated from Union High School in 1984 and joined the Mississippi Army National Guard in 1985.
Kelly earned an associate's degree from East Central Community College in Decatur and a bachelor's degree from the University of Mississippi, and he then graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law.
In 2010 he received a master's degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.
Career
After law school, Kelly worked in private practice until 1999, when he became a city prosecutor in Tupelo. In 2011 he was elected district attorney of Mississippi's 1st Circuit Judicial District, defeating a nine-term Democratic incumbent, and he held that office from 2012 to 2015.
His National Guard service included mobilization for Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and two deployments to Iraq, and he was promoted to major general in November 2020 before retiring from the Guard in April 2025.
After the death of Representative Alan Nunnelee in 2015, Kelly entered the special election for the 1st district, finished second in a 13-candidate first round and won the June 2 runoff against Democrat Walter Zinn with 70% of the vote.
He was playing third base at the June 14, 2017, congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, when a gunman opened fire.
For the 119th Congress he serves on the Committee on Agriculture, the Committee on Armed Services, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
2026 race
Mississippi's 1st congressional district takes in the northeastern area of the state, including Columbus, Oxford, Southaven and Tupelo, and Trent Kelly is its Republican incumbent, re-elected with 69.8% of the vote in 2024. Kelly was the only candidate in the Republican primary.
His Democratic opponent is Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, who won his primary with 63.4% of the vote against former Holly Springs mayor Kelvin Buck. The general election takes place on November 3, 2026.