Michael D. Watson Jr. (born December 22, 1977)[1] is an American politician and the incumbent Secretary of State of Mississippi.

[2] A Republican, he previously represented the 51st district in the Mississippi State Senate from 2008 to 2020.

He ran in the 2007 Mississippi elections for the state senate against Tommy Robertson, and won.

[4] While in the Mississippi Senate, Watson voted against legislation that would make it easier for college students in Mississippi to vote with absentee ballots; under the legislation, students would have been allowed to use college registrars as witnesses for their absentee ballot application.

[9] In a television interview on March 26, 2021, Watson expressed concern that "woke" college students in Mississippi, among others, would vote, falsely claiming that an Executive Order by President Biden on March 6, 2021, would automatically register people to vote.