David Ronald Musgrove is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served as the 29th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from January 16,1996 to January 11,2000 and as the 62nd Governor of Mississippi from January 11,2000 to January 13,2004. As to date,he is the last Democrat to have served as Governor of Mississippi.
Daniel Kirkwood "Kirk" Fordice Jr.,was an American politician and businessman who served as the 61st Governor of Mississippi from 1992 to 2000. He was the first Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction-era governor Adelbert Ames,who served from 1874 to 1876,and the first governor elected to two consecutive four-year terms. Fordice was a staunch conservative,running on a pro-business,anti-crime,low-tax,family values platform.
Raymond Edwin Mabus Jr. is an American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party,he served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2017. Mabus previously served as the State Auditor of Mississippi from 1984 to 1988,as the 60th Governor of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992,and as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996.
William Aloysius Allain was an American politician and lawyer who held office as the 59th Governor of Mississippi as a Democrat from 1984 to 1988. Born in Adams County,Mississippi,he attended the University of Notre Dame and received a law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1948.
Richard Henderson Molpus Jr. is an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as Secretary of State of Mississippi from 1984 until 1996. He unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1995 against Republican incumbent Kirk Fordice. He later established a timberland management company. Throughout his public life he has pushed for reforms to support public education and promote racial reconciliation.
William Lowe Waller Sr. was an American politician and attorney. A Democrat,Waller served as the 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.
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.
Bradford Johnson Dye Jr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1980 until 1992. Dye was the only individual in state history to have served as Lieutenant Governor for 12 consecutive years.
A general election was held in Mississippi on November 4,2003,to elect to 4 year terms all members of the state legislature,the offices of Governor,Lieutenant Governor,Attorney General,State Treasurer,State Auditor,Secretary of State,Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce,and Commissioner of Insurance,plus all three members of the Transportation Commission and all three members of the Public Service Commission.
Michael Cameron Moore is an American attorney and politician in the Democratic Party who was the Attorney General of Mississippi from 1988 to 2004.
John Arthur Eaves Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee in the 2007 general election for Governor of Mississippi.
Patrick H. "Pete" Johnson Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who served as State Auditor of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992. Originally a Democrat,he joined the Republican Party in 1989,thus becoming the first Republican to hold statewide office in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1991. He served as Federal Co-Chairman of the Delta Regional Authority from 2002 to 2011.
Jack Raymond Reed Sr. was an American businessman and politician. Born in Tupelo,Mississippi,he served in the United States Army during World War II and earned degrees from Vanderbilt University and New York University before returning home to help run his family's retail business. He later assumed control over their department store after his father's death in 1956. Active in local civic affairs,he chaired the Mississippi Economic Council from 1963 to 1964 and became a vocal proponent for public education. Appointed to the Mississippi Board of Education in 1984,he chaired the body until he decided to run for the office of governor of Mississippi in 1987 as a moderate Republican. Reed lost the general election but performed better than any Republican gubernatorial candidate had in Mississippi in the 20th century to that point. In his later life he continued to advocate for public education. He died in 2016.
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 1999 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 2,1999 to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Governor Kirk Fordice,a member of the Republican Party who had been first elected in 1991,was ineligible to run for reelection due to term limits.
The 1995 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 7,1995 to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Republican Kirk Fordice won reelection to a second term.
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.
Ellis Barkett Bodron was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician who served in the Mississippi State Senate from 1952 to 1984 and in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1948 to 1952. He was blind.
Gilbert Ellzey Carmichael was an American businessman and politician. Born in Columbia,Mississippi,he attended Texas A&M University and served in the United States Coast Guard during the Korean War,earning a Silver Lifesaving Medal for helping rescue crewmen from a sinking tanker. In June 1950 Carmichael was hired by the Dow Jones &Company to sell its newspaper,The Wall Street Journal. After eight years,he joined a friend in distributing cars in Shreveport,Louisiana. He later became a partner in a car dealership in Meridian,Mississippi before taking over the business. A member of the Republican Party,he became involved in politics in the 1960s,making two unsuccessful bids for a seat in the Mississippi State Legislature. Carmichael also ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 1972 and in 1975 ran for the office of Governor of Mississippi,the first serious Republican contender for the post in decades. He lost a narrow race and made another unsuccessful bid in 1979. He also launched an unsuccessful independent campaign in 1983 to be elected Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi. From the 1970s to the 1990s he served on various national transportation advisory boards. He died in 2016.
Steven A. Patterson is an American lawyer and politician who served as State Auditor of Mississippi from 1992 to 1996. A Democrat,he worked on several political campaigns in the 1970s and served as treasurer for Bill Allain's 1983 gubernatorial campaign. With Allain's backing,Patterson assumed the chairmanship of the Mississippi Democratic Party,which he held until 1987.
