Mississippi University for Women has backed out of a plan to host former Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday at Pohl Gymnasium.

Scott Colom, the Democratic challenger for Mississippi’s junior seat in the U.S. Senate, confirmed to The Dispatch that the campaign was set to hold a rally featuring Harris at 6 p.m. at Pohl Gymnasium, with plans to announce the venue Wednesday.

MUW leadership initially agreed to host the rally, Colom said, then reneged Tuesday. Leadership offered the campaign no reason why but were “apologetic,” Colom said.

“We’ve had plenty of communication with The W for like a week. It’s been regular, moving forward, and we were told everything was fine,” said Colom, who was campaigning Tuesday night in Olive Branch. “Now we’re declined.”

Colom, a Columbus native and third-term district attorney for the 16th Circuit Court District, is vying to unseat Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Nov. 3 general election. Harris, the latest in a lengthy list of prominent Democrats visiting Mississippi to campaign with Colom, will visit Clarksdale Thursday morning before the rally in Columbus that evening.

Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins confirmed he, along with officers with Columbus Police Department and MUW, met at Pohl Gymnasium on Tuesday morning to coordinate a security plan for Harris’ visit. At that meeting, he said, he expressed concerns about logistics.

“I’m asking questions like, ‘Where’s everybody going to park?’ I mean, this is a logistical nightmare,” Hawkins told The Dispatch. “But if that’s where they were going to have it, we were going to try to make it work. … We were meeting again (Wednesday) to put the plan in place.”

At about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, he said the MUW chief called and said Scott Tollison, the university’s interim president, canceled it.

“(The W police chief) told me the president at the college decided it wasn’t a good (venue) because of us not having enough time to plan for security,” Hawkins said. “I agree with him. We didn’t have enough time because they kind of sprung it on us (Tuesday).”

Tollison, in an emailed statement to The Dispatch, said The W never officially agreed to host the event.

“The W was a prospective, but not confirmed location for the event,” the email reads. “After reviewing the full scope of the operational details made available Tuesday afternoon, it was decided that all of the resources and logistical challenges necessary, including preparation prior to the event, would prove too disruptive to maintain normal campus operations.”

Colom said his campaign should Wednesday have a different venue secured for Thursday’s rally.

But he said The W, founded in 1884 as the nation’s first publicly funded college for women, declining to host the nation’s first female vice president is “disappointing.”

“That’s all I’m going to say,” Colom said.

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.