Superintendent Craig Chapman was surprised Wednesday when he and other Columbus Municipal School District leaders received a request from U.S. Senate Democratic challenger Scott Colom’s campaign representatives about hosting a rally at its high school.
But not just any campaign rally. This one would feature former Vice President Kamala Harris, and it needed to happen in less than 36 hours.
After the initial shock wore off, Chapman said staff put their heads down and started organizing to make the event a reality.
“I really don’t know that we had an opportunity to even think about it,” Chapman told The Dispatch Friday. “… It was just, ‘Hey, let’s get to work (and) make it happen. And that’s what we did.”
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. The stop with Harris in Columbus was the latest in a series of prominent Democrats visiting Mississippi to campaign with Colom.
The event was initially planned to be hosted at Pohl Gymnasium at Mississippi University for Women until officials backed out of the event just two days before it was scheduled to occur.
The school district Wednesday morning quickly got to work determining logistics for hosting the rally, which Chapman said included the school’s maintenance crew setting up, janitorial cleanup and developing safety measures with the school’s police department.
Natashea Brown, CMSD police chief, said planning for Thursday’s rally, which was one of the most “high-level” events she has worked on in her career, involved a lot of security.
Safety measures included performing walk-throughs of the gymnasium with Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins and Columbus Police Chief Garland Ward, as well as multiple meetings discussing security checkpoints with metal detectors, planning police escorts for both Harris and Colom to the venue and coordinating communications between agencies and with the public throughout the event.
“We (had) a general idea how we wanted it to look and everything like that,” Brown said. “(But) I cannot stress one entity, one agency alone (could not do this). … It is a collaborative effort; a partnership is what I like to say. I can’t stress that enough. And you don’t have any egos. All egos aside, everybody has one common goal.”
Ward said CPD’s efforts Thursday night centered on escorting Harris and Colom to the school, blocking off neighboring streets with police cruisers and helping to coordinate positions for Tupelo Police Department officers providing additional security.
Ward said snipers with LCSO and TPD were placed on the roof to observe and alert any potential threats seen from nearby neighborhoods. In total, Ward said there were more than 50 officers and deputies from the departments present to ensure the rally went off without a hitch.
“This is a big difference (compared to security for other events) because of the personnel side of it,” Ward said. “Because you never want a former (or) sitting vice president to get injured on your watch. At the same time, you don’t want your current district attorney/Senate candidate (injured) either. So it takes a lot.”
Hawkins was not available for comment by press time Friday.
Without the combined experience and coordination of the three departments alongside the additional assistance from TPD and the Columbus Fire Department, Brown said the event would not have been possible.
Brown said she was proud to see the group’s plan working so effectively as hundreds of Colom supporters began to funnel into the gymnasium. Those attending responded well, she said, and there were no issues with the security checkpoints or the clear bag policy put in place ahead of the event.
“The public was very receptive, and to my knowledge, we did not have any issues whatsoever,” Brown said. “They did a great job listening and following instructions. … And as (updated) information was going out, they were passing along information.”
In a statement sent to The Dispatch on Friday, Colom said he was thankful for “all the volunteers, community members and (his) staff” who helped to organize the event on such short notice.
“It was an honor to host Vice President Harris last night in my hometown of Columbus,” Colom wrote. “… I know it took a lot of work at the last minute, and I’m eternally grateful.”
Chapman said that though the planning surrounding the event was hectic, he was proud to see the district and its departments come together to pull off such a large-scale event.
“The CMSD team was very accommodating, always willing to work and make this happen … because we knew this was going to be a historic event,” Chapman said. “… Having the opportunity to work with those other agencies to see how they manage and how their processes work, that was a learning opportunity for us as well because you never know when another event may take place. … Being able to display our team and the things that we do on that type of stage, I felt like that was a great way for us to let people see some of the great work that we do.”