List of Governors of Mississippi

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This is a list of the Governors of the State of Mississippi.

Prior to 1804, parts of Mississippi were part of the state of Georgia; see List of Governors of Georgia for this period.
The southern bit of Mississippi was part of the self-proclaimed Republic of West Florida in 1810; it had only one president, Fulwar Skipwith.
Prior to then, that bit was part of the Spanish colony of West Florida; see List of Colonial Governors of Florida.

1 Governors of Mississippi Territory, 1798–1817
2 Governors of the State of Mississippi, 1820–present
3 Notes
4 Other high offices held
5 Living former governors
6 See also

Governors of Mississippi Territory, 1798–1817

#	Name	Party	Term
1	Winthorp Sargent	Federalist	May 7 1798–May 25 1801
2	William C. C. Claiborne	Democratic	May 25 1801–March 1 1805
3	Robert Williams	Democratic	March 1 1805–March 7 1809
4	David Holmes	Democratic	March 7 1809–December 10 1817

Governors of the State of Mississippi, 1820–present

#	Name	Took office	Left office	Party	Notes
1	David Holmes	December 10 1817	January 5 1820	Democratic	^[1]
2	George Poindexter	January 5 1820	January 7 1822	Democratic
3	Walter Leake	January 7 1822	November 17 1825	Democratic	^[2]
4	Gerard Brandon	November 17 1825	January 7 1826	Democratic	^[3]
5	David Holmes	January 7 1826	July 25 1826	Democratic	^[4]
6	Gerard Brandon	July 25 1826	January 9 1832	Democratic
7	Abram M. Scott	January 9 1832	July 12 1833	Democratic	^[2]
8	Charles Lynch	July 12 1833	November 20 1833	Democratic	^[5]
9	Hiram Runnels	November 20 1833	November 20 1835	Democratic
10	John A. Quitman	December 3 1835	January 7 1836	Whig	^[5]
11	Charles Lynch	January 7 1836	January 8 1838	Democratic
12	Alexander G. McNutt	January 8 1838	January 10 1842	Democratic
13	Tilghman Tucker	January 10 1842	January 10 1844	Democratic
14	Albert G. Brown	January 10 1844	January 10 1848	Democratic
15	Joseph W. Matthews	January 10 1848	January 10 1850	Democratic
16	John A. Quitman	January 10 1850	February 3 1851	Democratic	^[6]
17	John I. Guion	February 3 1851	November 4 1851	Democratic	^[7]
18	James Whitfield	November 24 1851	January 10 1852	Democratic	^[8]
19	Henry S. Foote	January 10 1852	January 5 1854	Union Democratic	^[9]
20	John J. Pettus	January 5 1854	January 10 1854	Democratic	^[8]
21	John J. McRae	January 10 1854	November 16 1857	Democratic
22	William McWillie	November 16 1857	November 21 1859	Democratic
23	John J. Pettus	November 21 1859	November 16 1863	Democratic
24	Charles Clark	November 16 1863	May 22 1865	Democratic	^[10]
25	William L. Sharkey	June 13 1865	October 16 1865	Provisional	^[11]
26	Benjamin G. Humphreys	October 16 1865	June 15 1868	Democratic	^[12]
27	Adelbert Ames	June 15 1868	March 10 1870	Military	^[11]^[13]
28	James L. Alcorn	March 10 1870	November 30 1871	Republican	^[14]
29	Ridgley C. Powers	November 30 1871	January 4 1874	Republican	^[15]
30	Adelbert Ames	January 4 1874	March 20 1876	Republican	^[16]
31	John M. Stone	March 20 1876	January 29 1882	Democratic	^[17]
32	Robert Lowry	January 2 1882	January 13 1890	Democratic
33	John M. Stone	January 13 1890	January 20 1896	Democratic
34	Anselm J. McLaurin	January 20 1896	January 16 1900	Democratic
35	Andrew H. Longino	January 16 1900	January 19 1904	Democratic
36	James K. Vardaman	January 19 1904	January 21 1908	Democratic
37	Edmond Noel	January 21 1908	January 16 1912	Democratic
38	Earl L. Brewer	January 16 1912	January 18 1916	Democratic
39	Theodore G. Bilbo	January 18 1916	January 18 1920	Democratic
40	Lee M. Russell	January 18 1920	January 18 1924	Democratic
41	Henry L. Whitfield	January 18 1924	March 18 1927	Democratic	^[2]
42	Dennis Murphree	March 18 1927	January 16 1928	Democratic	^[15]
43	Theodore G. Bilbo	January 16 1928	January 19 1932	Democratic
44	Martin Sennett Conner	January 19 1932	January 21 1936	Democratic
45	Hugh L. White	January 21 1936	January 16 1940	Democratic
46	Paul B. Johnson, Sr.	January 16 1940	December 26 1943	Democratic	^[2]
47	Dennis Murphree	December 26 1943	January 18 1944	Democratic	^[15]
48	Thomas L. Bailey	January 18 1944	November 2 1946	Democratic	^[2]
49	Fielding L. Wright	November 2 1946	January 22 1952	Democratic	^[18]
50	Hugh L. White	January 22 1952	January 17 1956	Democratic
51	James P. Coleman	January 17 1956	January 19 1960	Democratic
52	Ross R. Barnett	January 19 1960	January 21 1964	Democratic
53	Paul B. Johnson, Jr.	January 21 1964	January 16 1968	Democratic
54	John Bell Williams	January 16 1968	January 18 1972	Democratic
55	William Waller	January 18 1972	January 20 1976	Democratic
56	Cliff Finch	January 20 1976	January 22 1980	Democratic
58	William Winter	January 22 1980	January 10 1984	Democratic
59	William Allain	January 10 1984	January 12 1988	Democratic
60	Ray Mabus	January 12 1988	January 14 1992	Democratic
61	Kirk Fordice	January 14 1992	January 11 2000	Republican
62	Ronnie Musgrove	January 11 2000	January 13 2004	Democratic
63	Haley Barbour	January 13 2004	Incumbent	Republican	^[19]

Notes

^ David Holmes was inaugurated as the first state governor on October 7 1817, but Mississippi did not officially become a state until December 10 1817.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Died in office.
^ As lieutenant governor, filled term until next election.
^ Resigned due to illness.
^ ^a ^b As president of the state senate, filled term until next election.
^ Resigned following an arrest for violating neutrality laws by assisting with the liberation of Cuba. He was found not guilty, but the political fallout led to his resignation.
^ As president of the senate, filled term until his senate term expired.
^ ^a ^b As president of the senate, filled unexpired term.
^ Resigned due to political tension over secession.
^ Charles Clark's term effective ended when he was arrested by [[Union (American Civil War)|]] forces.
^ ^a ^b Appointed by President Andrew Johnson following the end of the American Civil War.
^ Forced to resign and physically removed from office by federal forces after his government failed to comply with Reconstruction.
^ Left office as Reconstruction ended.
^ Resigned to take an elected seat in the United States Senate; Alcorn's senate term began March 4 1871 but he delayed taking it, preferring to continue as governor.
^ ^a ^b ^c As lieutenant governor, filled unexpired term.
^ Impeached; made a deal with the legislature to resign, and all charges were dropped.
^ As president of the senate, filled unexpired term, and was later elected in his own right; since both the governor and lieutenant governor had been impeached, with the governor resigning and lieutenant governor being removed from office, Stone was next in line for governor.
^ As lieutenant governor, filled unexpired term, and was later elected in his own right.
^ Governor Barbour's first term expires in 2008; he won re-election to a second term, which expires in 2012.

Other high offices held

This is a table of congressional, confederate, other governorships, and other federal offices held by governors. All representatives and senators mentioned represented Mississippi except where noted. * denotes those offices which the governor resigned to take.

Name	Gubernatorial term	U.S. Congress		Other offices held
Name	Gubernatorial term	House	Senate	Other offices held
William C. C. Claiborne	1801–1805 (territorial)			U.S. Representative from Tennessee, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, Governor of Orleans Territory, Governor of Louisiana
Robert Williams	1805–1809 (territorial)			U.S. Representative from North Carolina
David Holmes (politician)	1809–1820, 1826		S	U.S. Representative from Virginia
George Poindexter	1820–1822	H	S	Territorial Delegate, President pro tempore of the Senate
Walter Leake	1822–1825		S
John A. Quitman	1835–1836, 1850–1851	H
Tilghman Tucker	1842–1844	H
Albert G. Brown	1844–1848	H	S	Confederate Senator
Henry S. Foote	1852–1854		S	Confederate Representative
John J. McRae	1854–1857	H	S	Confederate Representative
William McWillie	1857–1859	H
Adelbert Ames	1868–1870, 1874–1876		S
James L. Alcorn	1870–1871		S*
Anselm J. McLaurin	1896–1900		S
James K. Vardaman	1904–1908		S
Theodore G. Bilbo	1916–1920, 1928–1932		S
Paul B. Johnson, Sr.	1940–1943	H
James P. Coleman	1956–1960			Fifth Circuit Court Judge
John Bell Williams	1968–1972	H
Ray Mabus	1988–1992			Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Living former governors

As of August 2007, five former governors were alive, the oldest being William Winter (1980–1984, born 1923). The most recent governor to die was Kirk Fordice (1992–2000), on September 7 2004.

Name	Gubernatorial term	Date of birth
Bill Waller	1972–1976	October 21 1926
William Winter	1980–1984	February 21 1923
William Allain	1984–1988	February 14 1928
Ray Mabus	1988–1992	October 11 1948
Ronnie Musgrove	2000–2004	July 29 1956

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