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MS Governor

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United States > Mississippi > Governor

Office

Governor

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

00, 0000 - 12:00pm

Polls Open

November 05, 1963 - 06:00am

Polls Close

November 05, 1963 - 06:00pm

Term Start

January 21, 1964 - 12:00pm

Term End

January 16, 1968 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Some say...

Last Modified

RBH December 09, 2008 02:38pm

Data Sources

America Votes, Vol 24, Scammon, p. 247

Description

The first major Republican challenge for statewide office in over 80 years.

[Link]

"Traditionally in Mississippi, after the two Democratic primaries the Democratic nominee had no further campaign work to do. On the day of the general election the Democratic nominee's name would stand alone on the ballot, and a handful of voters would turn out to actually vote him into office. Paul B. Johnson, Jr. was infuriated by Phillips' forcing him to run yet another campaign, after the grueling two primaries. Johnson said he didn't like having to run in this "third primary," and that after he was elected governor he would make sure "This never happens again." Rubel Phillips warned that his opponent wanted to secure new legislation that would kill all opposition parties, leaving Mississippi with a political system not unlike that of the Soviet Union.

Although a number of issues surfaced in the 1963 general election campaign, only one mattered: Which candidate hated the Kennedys the most? Whichever one had the stronger anti-Kennedy credentials was likely to win. John and Robert Kennedy were hated not only for their role in the University of Mississippi integration. They had intervened a number of times to protect black civil rights activists in the South. They also sought new congressional civil rights laws.

Rubel Phillips said if you hated the Kennedys (and most Mississippi voters did) then you should not vote for the Kennedys' party, but should vote for the Republican candidate instead. Once again, he predicted the 1964 presidential election would pit John F. Kennedy against Barry Goldwater, and so Mississippians should get used to voting Republican. The party of Paul B. Johnson, Jr., Phillips argued, was the party of Hubert Humphrey and other liberals.

Paul B. Johnson, Jr. responded that the Republican party was the original party of black voting rights--at least back in the 1870s. While he admitted the current national Democratic party was out of touch with Mississippi, he urged that the state Democratic party was the best bulwark against federal intrusion into the state's affairs. To prove it, he pointed to his work with Governor Barnett to keep James Meredith out of the University of Mississippi."