‘We Need Change’: Former Schumer Staffer Launches Primary Challenge Against Bennie Thompson

A former top lawyer for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday that he will challenge longtime Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi for his seat.

Evan Turnage, 33, joins the growing trend of younger Democrats looking to unseat longtime Congress members. They’re jumping into races spanning California, Georgia and Tennessee, arguing that it is time for new leadership in the party.

“We need change right now,” Turnage said in an exclusive interview with NOTUS. “It’s no longer enough to just be against Donald Trump, or to say you’re a Democrat or Republican. The people want to see a fighter for change right now.”

Turnage said that many members of the House have seen legislation they’ve wrote “sent over to the Senate and die.” He believes one of his biggest advantages if he wins the seat would be the relationships he built in the Senate.

“I’m the only person in this race who can walk right into Senate leadership and let Sen. Schumer know what he should be prioritizing for Mississippi, because I’ve had that sort of relationship with Chuck for years,” he said.

Turnage said that his main case against Thompson is that his hometown of Jackson, which falls in Thompson’s district, is still in the same state of poverty as it was when Thompson began representing the district in 1993.

“When I was born, this was the poorest district in the poorest state in the country,” Turnage said. “Benny Thompson was first elected when I was one year old. And today it is still the poorest district in the poorest state in the country. What do we have to show for that?”

Jackson, a majority-Black city, has the highest population in the state but has historically ranked as one of the most impoverished cities in the country.

Thompson, who is best known for his work as chair of the Jan 6th Select Committee, currently serves as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

In his 2020 and 2022 primaries, he received more than 90% of the vote. In 2024, Thompson ran unopposed in the primary and easily won the general election.

Turnage, meanwhile, served as senior counsel for Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office briefly, from Jan. 2023 to March 2023, before becoming Schumer’s chief counsel. Turnage left Schumer’s office in September 2025, and moved back to Jackson to focus on civic engagement work.

Turnage said that part of his campaign platform will include his “Come Home Agenda,” which will focus on finding ways to keep young people in the state rather than having them move away for college or for a job.

“It boils down to developing a set of federal incentives to keep our young people here in Mississippi, to incentivize them to come back, so that we can actually live productive lives of dignity with our families,” Turnage, who moved away to study in 2010 and returned at age 33, said.

While he is running for a safely Democratic seat, Turnage advises Democrats looking to be competitive in red districts to “start with acknowledging the reality” that Americans face.

“I think a mistake that the Democratic Party made in the last few years was trying to sell a vision of America that just wasn’t true,” Turnage said. “People were trying to be told that the economy was doing great, that jobs were up, the stock market was up, that things were on the up and up. But that just did not match people’s economic realities.”