The 1999 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 1999 to elect the

Governor of Mississippi The governor of Mississippi is the head of government of Mississippi and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state, state's Mississippi National Guard, military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either appro ...

. Incumbent Governor

Kirk Fordice Daniel Kirkwood "Kirk" Fordice Jr. (; February 10, 1934 – September 7, 2004) was an American politician and businessman who served as the 61st governor of Mississippi from 1992 to 2000. A member of the Republican Party, he was the state's fir ...

, a member of the Republican Party who had been first elected in 1991, was ineligible to run for reelection due to

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, w ...

s. In the general election,

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Lieutenant Governor

Ronnie Musgrove David Ronald Musgrove (born July 29, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 62nd governor of Mississippi from 2000 to 2004. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, he previously served as the 29th lieutenant governor ...

won a plurality of the vote over Republican Congressman Mike Parker. Per the

Mississippi Constitution The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constituti ...

, since no candidate had received a

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

of the vote, the election was decided by the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected for ...

in a contingent election. On January 4, 2000, the House voted 86–36, which was nearly along partisan lines, to elect Musgrove governor. As of , this remains the last time a Democrat was officially elected governor of Mississippi to date.

Democratic primary

Lieutenant Governor

won the Democratic primary, defeating former Commissioner of Public Safety Jim Roberts and five other candidates.

Results

Republican primary

Former U.S. Representative Michael Parker won the Republican primary, defeating former Lieutenant Governor

Eddie Briggs Eddie Jerome Briggs (born October 14, 1949) is an American politician and lawyer. After service in the Mississippi State Senate, Briggs was the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, a position which he held from 1992 to 1996. He was the first ...

and four other candidates.

Results

General election

Results

Under the 1890

Constitution of Mississippi The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constituti ...

, gubernatorial candidates must win a majority of the popular vote. In addition, the

acts as an

electoral college An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

; a candidate must win both a majority of the vote ''and'' a majority of the state house districts to be elected. With neither candidate winning the required popular and electoral majority, the House of Representatives, where the Democrats had a supermajority at the time, decided between the two candidates with the highest popular vote. Parker refused to concede, and the House elected Musgrove 86-36 along partisan lines.

References

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

1999 in Mississippi November 1999 in the United States Contingent elections in the United States {{Mississippi-election-stub