| Melanie Sojourner | |
| State Senate: | Mississippi |
| District: | 37th |
| Term Start: | January 7, 2020 |
| Term End: | January 2, 2024 |
| Predecessor: | Bob Dearing |
| Successor: | Albert Butler (redistricting) |
| Term Start1: | January 3, 2012 |
| Term End1: | January 5, 2016 |
| Predecessor1: | Bob Dearing |
| Successor1: | Bob Dearing |
| Birth Date: | 5 January 1968 |
| Birth Place: | Centreville, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Residence: | Natchez, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Louisiana State University |
| Party: | Republican |
| Relations: | Albert Boyd Sojourner (great-grandfather) |
Melanie Sojourner (born January 5, 1968) is an American politician from the state of Mississippi.[1] She served in the Mississippi State Senate, representing the 37th district. She is a member of the Republican Party.[2]
She was born in Centreville, Mississippi, and was raised in Kingston, Mississippi.[3] She is the great-granddaughter of Albert Boyd Sojourner, who was in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1916.
She attended Adams County Christian School, which was founded as a segregation academy and uses the Confederate flag as its symbol, and has enrolled her daughter there.[4] She opposed the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Flag of Mississippi.[5]
Sojourner graduated from Louisiana State University. She then worked for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association for eight years, and then as a 4-H associate for Mississippi State University.[6]
Sojourner defeated Bob Dearing in the 2011 elections to serve in the State Senate.[7] She served as the campaign manager for Chris McDaniel's 2014 U.S. Senate campaign.[8] Sojourner lost her reelection bid to Dearing in the 2015 elections.[9] She was elected back to the Senate in the 2019 elections.[10]
Sojourner's legislative district was effectively dismantled during 2022 redistricting and she ultimately did not seek re-election to the Senate in 2023.[11]