January 15 is the deadline for determining which presidential primary candidates will be on the Mississippi Democratic and Republican presidential primary ballots. The primary is March 11. The Secretary of State had already announced a preliminary list of candidates (those mentioned in the news media), back on December 14. That list remains unchanged. In theory, anyone left off the list could have submitted 500 signatures between December 14 and January 14, but no one did so.

Democrats on the ballot will be Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama, and Richardson. Even though Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson have withdrawn publicly, none of them sent a letter to the Mississippi Secretary of State, asking to be withdrawn from the Mississippi primary, so their names remain.

Republicans will be Giuliani, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, McCain, Romney, Paul, Tancredo and Thompson. Tom Tancredo, like the three Democrats mentioned above, did not withdraw from the Mississippi primary even though he has publicly withdrawn.