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| Elections in Mississippi |
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The 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1967, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat Paul B. Johnson Jr. was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term.
No candidate received a majority in the Democratic primary, which featured seven contenders, so a runoff was held between the top two candidates. [1]
It was the first Democratic primary for the governorship since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, resulting in an increased registration for black voters from 29,500 to 195,000, making overt segregationist rhetoric less acceptable, as the Citizens' Councils complained by asking the contestants "why our ideals of states' rights and racial segregation" were not being "featured in this campaign as in the past." On the other hand, the abolition of poll tax benefited many poor whites, most of whom were supporters of segregation. As a result, each one of the seven candidates aired support for segregation, although to varying degrees. [1]
Waller, who prosecuted Byron De La Beckwith and attacked the Ku Klux Klan, additionally railed against civil rights "rabble-rousers.” He was the more moderate candidate on the race question along with Winter, who had to embrace segregationist rhetoric to stay in the race.
Barnett attempted to do a comeback, but more militant segregationists complained he did not do enough during the Ole Miss riot of 1962. Staunch segregationist Williams ironically used the least rhetoric since he could claim to have sacrificed his House career for Goldwater three years ago in 1964, although his supporters handed out flyers stating that "if William F. Winter is elected governor, the Negroes will run Mississippi." [1] [2]
The most openly segregationist candidate was Jimmy Swan, running on a promise to establish "FREE, private, SEGREGATED SCHOOLS for every white child in the State of Mississippi" in the first twelve months of his term, or else he would resign and publicly apologize. He proposed to save Mississippi "from the moral degeneracy of total mass integration that Washington has decreed for our children this fall", saying that granting equality to the blacks was to make savagery the equal of civilization and promising to use extreme force against any black urban riot, which he viewed as a "Communist monster", and openly courted the Klan, of which his campaign bodyguard Pat Massengale was a member. [3] Such rhetoric might have contributed to the relatively less extremist voters moving to vote for Barnett, viewed as more moderate, and similarly winning most extreme segregationists from Barnett. [2] [4] Swan always wore a white suit to demonstrate his beliefs on race. [5]
Vernon E. Brown, a 65-year-old tax assessor from Stone County, Mississippi, [6] and C. L. McKinley, a Creole pipefitter living in Pennsylvania, had no campaign organization. [1]
The runoff election was won by U.S. Representative John Bell Williams, who defeated state treasurer William Winter.
As was common at the time, the Democratic primary had higher turnout than the general election, as it was a given the Democrat would win. Black leaders avoided publicly supporting a candidate, out of fear that the candidate might lose votes. In some places, the MFDP called on blacks to boycott the primaries. [1]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | William Winter | 222,001 | 32.46 | |
| Democratic | John Bell Williams | 197,778 | 28.92 | |
| Democratic | Jimmy Swan | 124,361 | 18.18 | |
| Democratic | Ross Barnett | 76,053 | 11.12 | |
| Democratic | Bill Waller | 60,090 | 8.79 | |
| Democratic | Vernon E. Brown | 2,051 | 0.30 | |
| Democratic | C. L. McKinley | 1,671 | 0.24 | |
| Total votes | 684,005 | 100.00 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | John Bell Williams | 371,815 | 54.49 | |
| Democratic | William Winter | 310,527 | 45.51 | |
| Total votes | 682,342 | 100.00 | ||
Phillips, a former Democratic public service commissioner, had no running-mate. His previous nominee for lieutenant governor, Stanford Morse, endorsed Williams. Phillips later said that the GOP did not at the time realize the importance of offering full candidate slates. [9] The unopposed Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Charles L. Sullivan of Clarksdale, had defeated in his party's primary Governor Paul Johnson, who ran in 1967 for his former post of lieutenant governor. At the time Mississippi governors could not succeed themselves but could sit out a term and enter the next race four years later. [10] Sullivan earlier said that he could work with either Phillips or Williams, but he endorsed the Democratic nominee, having verbally sparred with Phillips at a meeting in Biloxi of the Mississippi Manufacturing Association. [11]
Clarke Reed of Greenville, who succeeded Yerger as state chairman in 1966, recalled that Phillips did not wish to run for governor again in 1967 but was persuaded to do so by party leaders in need of a candidate though there was little expectation of success. [12] For his second race, Phillips shed his past segregationist image and ran to the middle, as had Williams' unsuccessful primary opponent, state Treasurer William F. Winter, who ultimately won the governorship in 1979. Time magazine called Phillips "an erstwhile segregationist who this year appealed for an end to the racial rancor." [13] Phillips later said that his moderate stance hurt the Republicans at that time but that the party since "benefited from the things we did." [10]
In a television address, Phillips reaffirmed his belief in segregation but spoke in conciliatory language toward African Americans:
The influence of race ... is so dominant that it is utterly unrealistic to expect any significant progress in such vital fields as education, economic development, and federal-state relations until we have brought the race issue out into the open and begun, at least begun, to deal with it effectively. ... I advocate spending money to develop our underdeveloped human resources ... with the expectation of getting all that money back ... With God's help and your help, I will bring peace and harmony and material progress to Mississippi. [14]
The Meridian Star charged that Phillips had "made it plain that he is no conservative. He is a member of the Republican Party, not just here ... but at the national level." [15] The Clarion-Ledger judged Phillips' in his second race as "a weak candidate with a weak pitch" and termed his prospects as virtually "hopeless." [16]
Phillips took other heretical positions, having urged a "long-range master plan for education" and the reinstatement of compulsory attendance, which had been repealed in 1958. [17] Phillips questioned the need of the Mississippi Milk Commission, which he said kept the price of milk artificially too high. [18]
Presidential politics played some role in the 1967 campaign, as Williams stressed his friendship with George C. Wallace of Alabama, who was preparing for an independent candidacy in 1968. Phillips countered that only a Republican, perhaps Nixon or Governor Ronald Wilson Reagan of California, could defeat a national Democratic presidential nominee. Reagan cut a campaign commercial for Phillips; Maureen Reagan made some twenty appearances on Phillips' behalf at various places in the state. [19] Neighboring Governor Winthrop Rockefeller of Arkansas, younger brother of Nelson Rockefeller, spoke in Corinth and assisted Phillips in fundraising. Phillips raised $300,000 in the 1967 race. [20]
Williams rejected Phillips' pleas for debates, as had Paul Johnson in 1963. In fact, the congressman spent few days on the general election campaign trail and urged friends "to do the campaigning for me." [21] Williams, who had lost the lower part of his left arm while service in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, was hospitalized during the campaign with a leg ailment, which also stemmed from war injuries. [22] At a $40 per person fundraiser attended by some five thousand and hosted by the state's congressional delegation, Williams vowed to "destroy that Republican crowd so bad that they won't be able to find a Rubel in the rubble." [23]
Phillips obtained the endorsement of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which sent a rival delegation to the 1964 national party convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but he repudiated the support of that group. [24] The Freedom Democrats backed Phillips because he had expressed doubts that Williams as governor would be able to fight the desegregation policies of the then United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. [25]
As in 1963, the Greenville Delta Democrat-Times endorsed Phillips, having hailed his racial-moderation speech as "frank, honest, courageous ... the unvarnished truth." [26] The paper claimed that Phillips had abandoned the earlier GOP efforts to "out-Dixiecrat the Dixiecrats," a reference to Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. [26] An unidentified Republican told U.S. News & World Report that the GOP had "thrown off the tag of being a racist, segregationist party in the South." [27]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | John Bell Williams | 315,318 | 70.27% | ||
| Republican | Rubel Phillips | 133,379 | 29.73% | ||
| Total votes | 448,697 | 100.00% | |||
| County | John Bell Williams | Votes | Rubel Phillips | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Republican | ||||
| Adams | 64.32% | 5,810 | 35.68 | 3,223 | 9,033 |
| Alcorn | 53.39% | 3,468 | 46.61% | 3,027 | 6,495 |
| Amite | 86.60% | 2,631 | 13.40% | 407 | 3,038 |
| Attala | 77.24% | 3,834 | 22.76% | 1,130 | 4,964 |
| Benton | 77.46% | 928 | 22.54% | 270 | 1,198 |
| Bolivar | 71.96% | 6,432 | 28.04% | 2,506 | 8,938 |
| Calhoun | 90.13% | 3,143 | 9.87% | 344 | 3,487 |
| Carroll | 78.17% | 2,141 | 21.83% | 598 | 2,739 |
| Chickasaw | 82.76% | 2,976 | 17.24% | 620 | 3,596 |
| Choctaw | 84.17% | 1,850 | 15.83% | 348 | 2,198 |
| Claiborne | 56.33% | 1,309 | 43.67% | 1,015 | 2,324 |
| Clarke | 74.75% | 2,788 | 25.25% | 942 | 3,730 |
| Clay | 69.98% | 2,622 | 30.02% | 1,125 | 3,747 |
| Coahoma | 71.12% | 4,540 | 28.88% | 1,844 | 6,384 |
| Copiah | 74.10% | 4,434 | 25.90% | 1,550 | 5,984 |
| Covington | 78.13% | 2,851 | 21.87% | 798 | 3,649 |
| DeSoto | 79.69% | 3,175 | 20.31% | 809 | 3,984 |
| Forrest | 60.61% | 7,779 | 39.39% | 5,056 | 12,835 |
| Franklin | 83.54% | 2,055 | 16.46% | 405 | 2,460 |
| George | 89.31% | 1,979 | 10.69% | 237 | 2,216 |
| Greene | 84.45% | 1,390 | 15.55% | 256 | 1,646 |
| Grenada | 64.59% | 3,066 | 35.41% | 1,681 | 4,747 |
| Hancock | 74.18% | 2,534 | 25.82% | 882 | 3,416 |
| Harrison | 68.77% | 11,751 | 31.23% | 5,336 | 17,087 |
| Hinds | 59.02% | 26,077 | 40.98% | 18,109 | 44,186 |
| Holmes | 53.61% | 3,654 | 46.39% | 3,162 | 6,816 |
| Humphreys | 76.20% | 1,931 | 23.80% | 603 | 2,534 |
| Issaquena | 65.84% | 586 | 34.16% | 304 | 890 |
| Itawamba | 83.58% | 2,810 | 16.42% | 552 | 3,362 |
| Jackson | 68.56% | 8,165 | 31.44% | 3,744 | 11,909 |
| Jasper | 74.22% | 2,381 | 25.78% | 827 | 3,208 |
| Jefferson | 54.74% | 1,248 | 45.26% | 1,032 | 2,280 |
| Jefferson Davis | 78.36% | 2,194 | 21.64% | 606 | 2,800 |
| Jones | 63.33% | 9,096 | 36.67% | 5,267 | 14,363 |
| Kemper | 85.70% | 1,941 | 14.30% | 324 | 2,265 |
| Lafayette | 68.13% | 2,435 | 31.87% | 1,139 | 3,574 |
| Lamar | 78.72% | 3,200 | 21.28% | 865 | 4,065 |
| Lauderdale | 66.11% | 9,726 | 33.89% | 4,986 | 14,712 |
| Lawrence | 82.51% | 2,251 | 17.49% | 477 | 2,728 |
| Leake | 73.97% | 4,057 | 26.03% | 1,428 | 5,485 |
| Lee | 73.94% | 5,954 | 26.06% | 2,099 | 8,053 |
| Leflore | 68.52% | 5,133 | 31.48% | 2,358 | 7,491 |
| Lincoln | 81.37% | 4,985 | 18.63% | 1,141 | 6,126 |
| Lowndes | 65.08% | 5,986 | 34.92% | 3,212 | 9,198 |
| Madison | 60.68% | 3,401 | 39.32% | 2,204 | 5,605 |
| Marion | 77.29% | 5,096 | 22.71% | 1,497 | 6,593 |
| Marshall | 69.44% | 1,586 | 30.56% | 698 | 2,284 |
| Monroe | 73.03% | 4,691 | 26.97% | 1,732 | 6,423 |
| Montgomery | 77.87% | 2,452 | 22.13% | 697 | 3,149 |
| Neshoba | 77.60% | 4,777 | 22.40% | 1,379 | 6,156 |
| Newton | 78.16% | 4,011 | 21.84% | 1,121 | 5,132 |
| Noxubee | 59.90% | 1,746 | 40.10% | 1,169 | 2,915 |
| Oktibbeha | 66.42% | 3,165 | 33.58% | 1,600 | 4,765 |
| Panola | 70.38% | 3,331 | 29.62% | 1,402 | 4,733 |
| Pearl River | 73.90% | 3,769 | 26.10% | 1,331 | 5,100 |
| Perry | 77.41% | 1,573 | 22.59% | 459 | 2,032 |
| Pike | 74.07% | 6,119 | 25.93% | 2,142 | 8,261 |
| Pontotoc | 85.28% | 3,238 | 14.72% | 559 | 3,797 |
| Prentiss | 81.34% | 2,982 | 18.66% | 684 | 3,666 |
| Quitman | 81.67% | 1,867 | 18.33% | 419 | 2,286 |
| Rankin | 71.77% | 6,565 | 28.23% | 2,582 | 9,147 |
| Scott | 78.40% | 4,260 | 21.60% | 1,174 | 5,434 |
| Sharkey | 69.64% | 1,110 | 30.36% | 484 | 1,594 |
| Simpson | 70.52% | 3,868 | 29.48% | 1,617 | 5,485 |
| Smith | 80.37% | 3,730 | 19.63% | 911 | 4,641 |
| Stone | 83.03% | 1,453 | 16.97% | 297 | 1,750 |
| Sunflower | 69.01% | 4,320 | 30.99% | 1,940 | 6,260 |
| Tallahatchie | 73.78% | 2,395 | 26.22% | 851 | 3,246 |
| Tate | 81.18% | 2,994 | 18.82% | 694 | 3,688 |
| Tippah | 80.91% | 2,547 | 19.09% | 601 | 3,148 |
| Tunica | 76.66% | 1,406 | 23.34% | 428 | 1,834 |
| Union | 75.86% | 3,205 | 24.14% | 1,020 | 4,225 |
| Walthall | 83.80% | 3,005 | 16.20% | 581 | 3,586 |
| Warren | 66.08% | 6,330 | 33.92% | 3,250 | 9,580 |
| Washington | 50.31% | 5,529 | 49.69% | 5,460 | 10,989 |
| Wayne | 76.46% | 2,625 | 23.54% | 808 | 3,433 |
| Webster | 86.75% | 2,528 | 13.25% | 386 | 2,914 |
| Wilkinson | 75.47% | 1,640 | 24.53% | 533 | 2,173 |
| Winston | 76.62% | 3,091 | 23.38% | 943 | 4,034 |
| Yalobusha | 83.27% | 2,220 | 16.73% | 446 | 2,666 |
| Yazoo | 72.27% | 4,762 | 27.73% | 1,827 | 6,589 |
| Total | 70.27% | 315,318 | 29.73% | 133,379 | 448,697 [28] |
James Oliver Eastland was an American attorney, plantation owner, and politician from Mississippi. A Democrat, he served in the United States Senate in 1941 and again from 1943 until his resignation on December 27, 1978. Eastland was a leader of Southern resistance against racial integration during the civil rights movement, often speaking of African Americans as "an inferior race." Eastland has been called the "Voice of the White South" and the "Godfather of Mississippi Politics."
The States' Rights Democratic Party was a short-lived segregationist political party in the United States, active primarily in the South. It arose due to a Southern regional split in opposition to the regular Democratic Party. After President Harry S. Truman, the leader of the Democratic Party, ordered integration of the military in 1948 and other actions to address civil rights of African Americans, including the first presidential proposal for comprehensive civil and voting rights, many Southern white politicians who objected to this course organized themselves as a breakaway faction. They wished to protect the ability of states to maintain racial segregation. Its members were referred to as "Dixiecrats", a portmanteau of "Dixie", referring to the Southern United States, and "Democrat".
Ross Robert Barnett was the 53rd governor of Mississippi from 1960 to 1964. He was a Southern Democrat who supported racial segregation.
Fielding Lewis Wright was an American politician who served as the 19th lieutenant governor and 49th and 50th governor of Mississippi. During the 1948 presidential election he served as the vice presidential nominee of the States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) alongside presidential nominee Strom Thurmond. During his political career he fought to maintain racial segregation, fought with President Harry S. Truman over civil rights legislation, and held other racist views.
John Bell Williams was an American Democratic politician who represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1968 and served as the 55th governor of Mississippi from 1968 to 1972.
William Lowe Waller Sr. was an American politician and attorney. A Democrat, Waller served as the 56th governor of Mississippi from 1972 to 1976. Born near Oxford, Mississippi to a farming family, Waller went to law school and in 1950 established a law practice in Jackson. Nine years later, he was elected District Attorney of Hinds County, Mississippi. Waller attempted to reform the position and provoked the ire of local law enforcement for aggressively prosecuting several cases. In 1964, he twice prosecuted Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, with both trials resulting in deadlocked juries. In 1967, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for governor, finishing fifth in the Democratic primary.
James Plemon Coleman was an American judge, the 52nd governor of Mississippi and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Rubel Lex Phillips was an American politician and lawyer. He grew up poor in Alcorn County, Mississippi and graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Hailing from a politically active family and initially a member of the Democratic Party, he served as a circuit court clerk from 1952 to 1956 and chaired the Mississippi Public Service Commission from 1956 to 1958. In 1962 Phillips joined the Republican Party. He ran as a Republican in the 1963 Mississippi gubernatorial election, the first person to do so since 1947. Supporting a platform of racial segregation and opposition to the presidential administration of John F. Kennedy, he lost, garnering only 38 percent of the vote.
The 1964 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on March 3, 1964. Democrat John McKeithen won a highly-competitive primary and dispatched Republican Charlton Lyons in the general election, though Lyons made a historically good showing for a Louisiana Republican up to this point.
The 1960 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on April 19, 1960.
Edythe Evelyn Gandy was an American attorney and politician who served as Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1976 to 1980. A Democrat who held several public offices throughout her career, she was the first woman elected to a statewide constitutional office in Mississippi. Born in Hattiesburg, she attended the University of Mississippi School of Law as the only woman in her class. Following graduation, she took a job as a research assistant for United States Senator Theodore Bilbo. She briefly practiced law before being elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where she served from 1948 to 1952. Defeated for re-election, she worked as director of the Division of Legal Services in the State Department of Public Welfare and Assistant Attorney General of Mississippi until she was elected State Treasurer of Mississippi in 1959.
The 2008 United States Senate special election in Mississippi was held on November 4, 2008. This election was held on the same day of Thad Cochran's re-election bid in the regularly scheduled Class II election. The winner of this special election served the rest of the Senate term, which ended in January 2013. Unlike most Senate elections, this was a non-partisan election in which the candidate who got a majority of the vote won, and if the first-place candidate did not get 50%, a runoff election with the top two candidates would have been held. In the election, no run-off was necessary as Republican nominee and incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker won election to finish the term.
The 2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate. Incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran, first elected in 1978, ran for re-election to a seventh term. Primary elections were held on June 3, 2014.
The 2015 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 2015, to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Republican Governor Phil Bryant ran for re-election to a second and final term in office. This is the highest percentage that a Republican has ever won in a gubernatorial election in Mississippi.
Brandon Everitt Presley is an American politician who has served as a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission from the Northern District since 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, Presley previously served as the mayor of Nettleton, Mississippi, from 2001 to 2007.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Mississippi on November 3, 2015. All of Mississippi's executive officers were up for election. Primary elections were held on August 4, 2015, with primary runoffs to be held on August 25, 2015 if no candidate received a majority in the primary. The filing deadline for primary ballot access was February 27.
The 2019 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 2019, to choose the next Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Governor Phil Bryant was ineligible to run for a third term due to term limits. The Democratic Party nominated incumbent Attorney General Jim Hood, the only Democrat holding statewide office in Mississippi; the Republican Party nominated incumbent Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves. In the general election, Reeves defeated Hood by a margin of 5.08%, the closest gubernatorial election in Mississippi since 1999, with Reeves significantly underperforming Trump who won the state by 17 points, 3 years prior.
The 1963 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1963, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat Ross Barnett was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term.
The 1956 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 6, 1956. Mississippi voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
A special election to determine the member of the United States House of Representatives for Mississippi's 4th congressional district was held on June 23, 1981, with a runoff held two weeks later on July 6. Democrat Wayne Dowdy defeated Republican Liles Williams in the runoff by 912 votes. Dowdy replaced Republican U.S. Representative Jon Hinson, who resigned from Congress following his arrest for engaging in sodomy.
