Rubel Phillips - 1967 Election Results

1967 Election Results

Phillips was rudely treated during his appearance at the Tri-State Fair in Greenville even though Washington County gave him his best vote in the state in both 1963 (61 percent) and 1967 (49.7 percent). Overall, Phillips received only 133,379 votes (29.7 percent), 5,136 fewer than in 1963. Williams polled 315,38 votes. One Republican told Time magazine that the results had halted Republican growth in Mississippi by probably fifteen years. The GOP lost its three seats in the Mississippi legislature. Republican Representative Lewis L. McAllister, Jr., was among those defeated though he polled a majority within the boundaries of his former Meridian-based district. Two others who lost were State Senator Seeling B. Wise of Jonestown in Coahoma County and Representative Charles K. Pringle of Biloxi. A rare Republican victory was the election of Roy Fulton as a supervisor in Washington County. Even the Republican coroner in Hinds County, Dr. Thomas Davis, was swept from office in the Williams landslide. Phillips wired Williams to offer congratulations and support for what he called the new governor's "every progressive endeavor."

The Mississippi GOP slowly rebounded from Phillips' defeat. Five years later in 1972, two Republicans, Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, were elected to the U.S. House and both eventually became influential U.S. senators as well. Senator Lott was succeeded by another Republican still in office, Roger Wicker. The GOP did not offer a gubernatorial candidate in 1971 but has done so in all elections since 1975. The party nominee did not prevail until 1991, with the victory of the late Kirk Fordice. Since Fordice's two terms, Haley Barbour has also served two terms as governor. In 2012, a third Republican, Phil Bryant, assumed the office. In the 2011 elections, Republicans also won control of both houses of the legislature, advances unimaginable at the time of Rubel Phillips' second gubernatorial defeat.