Bill Graham / The Meridian StarJay Hughes, a Democrat from Oxford, announces on Thursday that he is running for lieutenant governor in 2019.

A Mississippi legislator says he’ll help improve public education, infrastructure and mental health services if he is elected lieutenant governor in 2019.

Jay Hughes, a Democrat from Oxford, announced Thursday in Meridian that he is running for the office next year.

Hughes, a U.S. Army veteran, is an attorney and developer who served as an Oxford alderman before winning a House seat in 2015.

“Four decades ago, former Governor William Winter said that the road out of poverty leads through the schoolhouse door,” he told a small crowd gathered at Dumont Plaza. “It’s 2018, and we still haven’t built that road.”

Hughes, 54, is the first candidate to announce for the seat, which will be open because Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is limited to two terms and is preparing to run for governor.

The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate and has considerable influence over which bills become law. Republican Delbert Hosemann, the third-term secretary of state, is widely considered another possible candidate for lieutenant governor.

Republicans hold seven of eight statewide offices in Mississippi. The last person elected lieutenant governor as a Democrat was Amy Tuck, in 1999. She switched to the Republican Party in late 2002 and won a second term the next year.

Hughes, who was joined by supporters such as Meridian Mayor Percy Bland and Rep. Charles Young (D-Meridian) during Thursday’s announcement, has the backing of Democratic former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.

“Jay Hughes has been a consistent voice for improving and investing in education,” said Musgrove, who served two terms in the state Senate and one as lieutenant governor before serving as governor from 2000 to 2004.

Hughes has been a frequent critic of Republican leaders in the Mississippi House and is known for frequent social media posts giving his own ideas about education funding and other issues.

State GOP chairman Lucien Smith said in a statement: “Jay Hughes is an Oxford liberal best known at the Capitol for not supporting gun rights, running from legislation to protect the unborn, and generally achieving nothing except getting his name in the papers. Mississippi voters should reject him just as they’ve rejected other liberals like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.