This year's race for Mississippi Attorney General will be historic.

On Nov. 5, as Democrat Jennifer Riley Collins, former executive director of the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union, faces off with Republican Mississippi State Treasurer Lynn Fitch. Voters will elect the first woman to serve as the state's attorney general.

If Collins wins, she will have the additional distinction of being Mississippi's first African American elected official for a state-wide office since Reconstruction.

If Fitch wins, she'll be the state's first Republican attorney general since the 1870s.

Collins said, as attorney general, she will make sure "the law evenly applies to everyone."

"I have been a fighter for people, for all people, not just a contingency of people," Collins said. "....I am running to represent all Mississippians — rich, poor, black, white, gay straight."

Collins said her opponent, Fitch, who touts her conservative credentials and connections with President Donald Trump, won't do the same.

Fitch has said that her 34 years of experience has prepared her to step into the role of attorney general.

"I'll be ready to go day one and be there ready to work for all Mississippians from the very beginning," Fitch said when she won a runoff election in August.

Who is Jennifer Riley Collins?

A native of Meridian, Collins served in the U.S. Army for 32 years, including a deployment to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She retired as a colonel in 2017.

Collins was the executive director of the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union and resigned this year to run for office.

Collins says she's had 19 years of experience as a lawyer. She's worked as a trial attorney handling medical malpractice and pharmaceutical litigation and as a criminal defense attorney. She has also worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center and interned with the Hinds County District Attorney's Office.

Collins received more than $370,000 in campaign contributions this year and spent more than $315,000.

Her largest contributor this reporting period, which began in July, was Washington D.C.-based DAGA (Democratic Attorneys General) Mississippi, which donated more than $50,000 in monetary contributions and thousands more in in-kind contributions. It appears that the majority of her donors are from Mississippi, but a notable number of them are from out-of-state.

Who is Lynn Fitch?

Fitch grew up in Holly Springs and began practicing law as special assistant attorney general before moving to private practice as a bond lawyer, according to her website. She has been an attorney for more than three decades.

Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour picked Fitch to become executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board in 2009. Prior to that she was deputy executive director for the Mississippi Department of Employment Security and counsel for committees under the house of representatives.

Fitch was elected as state treasurer in 2011.

Fitch's campaign has raised more than $1.2 million this year. The most recent campaign finance reports show that nearly 90 attorneys contributed to her campaign since July.

The largest contribution this period being $150,000 from Washington D.C.-based RAGA Mississippi PAC. RAGA appears to stand for the Republican Attorneys General Association.

Fitch has spent more than $1.2 million on her campaign since January, much on consulting and advertising, reports show.

Fitch returned $2,500 from Dr. Shahjahan Sultan, of Madison, after he was indicted this summer for fraud and distribution and dispensing a controlled substance.

What are their stances?

Both Collins and Fitch vow to support victims of crime, combat the state's opioid crisis and fight for Mississippi's most vulnerable, including children and the elderly.

Abortion

Collins vows to fight to protect Roe v. Wade, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

"I would uphold a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her own healthcare, regarding her own economic opportunity," Collins said. "Playing politics with people's lives is wrong.

Mississippi has joined other states in passing increasingly restrictive anti-abortion legislation, with the intent to overturn Roe v. Wade. The "heartbeat" abortion law, which would have that would have banned abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, was supposed to have gone into effect this summer. It's on hold as a lawsuit makes its way through the courts.

The Susan B. Anthony List, a national anti-abortion group, endorsed Fitch.

"She is committed to upholding Mississippi’s pro-life laws and ensuring they are vigorously defended as attorney general," the anti-abortion group said in a news release in August.

Opioid crisis

Collins said she'll continue to litigate against opioid companies to "hold the corporations accountable."

Mississippi ⁠— along with several other states ⁠— has sued drug distributors, claiming that they have contributed to hundreds of fatal overdoses statewide.

Collins said she'll also prioritize those who suffer from substance abuse problems. She said she'll help them seek treatment instead of throwing them in jail.

Fitch has also promised to fight the opioid crisis in the state, but has offered little detail on how she intends to do so.

In an interview with SuperTalk Mississippi, Fitch said many different groups including law enforcement, educators, mental health professionals and businesses must work together to solve the crisis.

"That’s a crisis across our country, that’s a crisis across our state. In order to get better, get stronger, make true changes, now it’s going to take all of us working together," she said on the radio show.

Gun rights

Fitch's website says that "as a gun owner and proud NRA life member, (she) will defend our Second Amendment rights."

Collins said she also supports 2nd Amendment rights while advocating reforms that "make sense."

"We need to rethink how we’re approaching gun violence in Mississippi. We have some of the most permissive gun laws and have some of the highest rates of gun violence in our state," Collins said. "Let’s prioritize gun safety — making sure the weapons are securely stored, requiring training for people who buy weapons."

Collins also supports a ban on military-style weapons.

"I don’t think people need military-style weapons to go hunting or even to protect their families," she said.

Use of trial attorneys by the AG's office

Jim Hood, who has served as attorney general for 16 years, is running for governor against Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. Reeves has criticized Hood for his practice as attorney general of outsourcing major state cases to private lawyers, who earn a hefty cut of any settlement. Some of those lawyers have donated back to Hood, netting his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Asked if Collins intends on continuing the use of trial lawyers if she becomes attorney general, she indicated yes.

Collins said her priority would be to ensure that the citizens of Mississippi have competent representation.

"When the expertise does not lie within our grasp, we would outsource that to make sure we are upholding our own to our citizens, to our clients," she said.

Fitch said she would do the same.

"I will always look to some outside counsel if needed, knowing that I’m always going to first look to my own attorney generals to participate (first)," Fitch said. "However, I would be doing a disservice if I did not look on certain issues where I needed some subject matter experts to handle those cases."

Illegal immigration

Collins criticized the way recent immigration raids were handled by federal officials. In August, immigration officials arrested 680 people from Mississippi chicken processing plants.

"Rounding up people who are at work, been at work for 10, 15 years, who have shown themselves not to be threat to society, leaving children traumatized, crying on the sidewalk, babies who are breastfeeding without their mothers milk, to prove some point," Collins said. "....There's a need for comprehensive immigration reform."

Collins said local law enforcement should have a say in whether arresting undocumented immigrants should be a priority in their community.

She called for teachers, school workers, and other agencies to have a conversation about how to help children whose parents are caught up in immigration raids.

"You cannot leave local communities holding the bag with the trauma that is left behind," Collins said.

Fitch has said before that she supports Trump's plan to build a wall along U.S.'s southern border.

In a written statement to the Clarion Ledger, Fitch said she will "relentlessly pursue" drug traffickers and human traffickers and help their victims, "but it starts with securing our borders!'

Correction: A previous version of this story failed to mention Mississippi previously had one Republican attorney general, George Emrick Harris, who served in the 1870s. Fitch has incorrectly said she will be the state's "first Republican attorney general."

Contact Alissa Zhu at azhu@gannett.com. Follow @AlissaZhu on Twitter.