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Mississippi gubernatorial election, 1975

Mississippi gubernatorial election, 1975
Mississippi
← 1971 November 4, 1975 1979 →
  Cliff Finch.jpg No image.svg
Nominee Cliff Finch Gil Carmichael
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 369,568 319,632
Percentage 52.19% 45.14%

Mississippi Governor 1975.svg
County results

Governor before election

Bill Waller
Democratic

Elected Governor

Cliff Finch
Democratic


Bill Waller
Democratic

Cliff Finch
Democratic

The 1975 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 1975, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat Bill Waller was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term.

No candidate received a majority in the Democratic primary, which featured 6 contenders, so a runoff was held between the top two candidates. The runoff election was won by former state representative Cliff Finch, who defeated Lieutenant Governor William Winter.

During the campaign, Finch forged a coalition of African American and working class white voters in a populist-style gubernatorial campaign, adopted the campaign slogan "The working man's friend". This campaign tactic proved popular as Finch was elected over Republican nominee Gil Carmichael and the African American independent candidate Henry Kirksey. Carmichael did, however, draw 45 percent of the vote, an exceptionally high figure for a statewide Republican candidate at that time.



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