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{{short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Infobox political system|name='''Government of Mississippi'''|native_name=|image=Seal of Mississippi (2014).svg|image_size=150|caption=[[Seal of Mississippi| Great Seal of the State of Mississippi]]|part_of=[[United States of America]]|constitution=[[Constitution of Mississippi]]|legislature=[[Mississippi Legislature|Legislature]]|legislature_type=[[Bicameral]]|legislature_place=[[Mississippi State Capitol]]|upperhouse=[[Mississippi State Senate|Senate]]|upperhouse_speaker=[[Delbert Hosemann]]|upperhouse_speaker_title=President|lowerhouse=[[Mississippi House of Representatives| House of Representatives]]|lowerhouse_speaker=[[Jason White (politician)|Jason White]]|lowerhouse_speaker_title=Speaker|title_hosag=[[Governor of Mississippi|Governor]]|current_hosag=[[Tate Reeves]]|appointer_hosag=[[Election]]|cabinet_leader=[[Governor of Mississippi|Governor]]|cabinet_deputyleader=[[Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi|Lieutenant Governor]]|cabinet_hq=[[Mississippi State Capitol]]|judiciary_head_title=Chief Justice|courts=[[Courts of Mississippi]]|court1=[[Supreme Court of Mississippi]]|chief_judge1=[[Michael K. Randolph]]|court_seat1=[[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]]}}The '''Government of Mississippi''' is the government of the [[U.S. state]] of [[Mississippi]]. Power in Mississippi's government is distributed by the [[Constitution of Mississippi|state's Constitution]] between the executive and legislative branches. The state's current [[Governor of Mississippi|governor]] is [[Tate Reeves]]. The [[Mississippi Legislature]] consists of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] and [[Mississippi Senate|Senate]]. Mississippi is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years (others being [[Kentucky]], [[Louisiana]], [[New Jersey]], and [[Virginia]]). Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding [[Presidential election]] years
== Executive branch ==
{{See also|List of Governors of Mississippi|List of Lieutenant Governors of Mississippi|State Treasurer of Mississippi|Mississippi Attorney General|Secretary of State of Mississippi}}
The executive branch of Mississippi state government is composed of the [[governor of Mississippi|governor]], [[Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi|lieutenant governor]], [[Secretary of State of Mississippi|secretary of state]], [[Attorney General of Mississippi|attorney general]], [[State Auditor of Mississippi|state auditor]], [[Mississippi State Treasurer|state treasurer]], commissioner of agriculture and commerce, commissioner of insurance, the three-person [[Mississippi Public Service Commission]], and the three-person [[Mississippi Transportation Commission]]. The leaders of these offices are popularly elected to four-year terms. All can be re-elected continuously with the exception of the governor and lieutenant governor, who can only serve two terms consecutively.<ref name= clark>{{cite web| url = https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/government-of-mississippi-how-it-functions| title = The Government of Mississippi: How it Functions| last = Clark| first = Eric| date = December 2007| website = Mississippi History Now| publisher = Mississippi Department of Archives and History| access-date = March 17, 2023}}</ref>
The current governor is [[Tate Reeves]], the current lieutenant governor is [[Delbert Hosemann]], the current Secretary of State is [[Michael Watson (Mississippi politician)|Michael Watson]], the current Attorney General is [[Lynn Fitch]], the current Auditor is [[Shad White]], the current Treasurer is [[David McRae]], the current Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce is [[Andy Gipson]], and the current Commissioner of Insurance is [[Mike Chaney]]. All of these statewide officeholders are Republicans.
== Legislative branch ==
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[[File:Supreme Court of Mississippi.JPG|thumb|{{center|Carroll Gartin Justice Building – Mississippi Supreme Court}}]]
Supreme judicial authority rests with the [[Supreme Court of Mississippi|state Supreme Court]], which has statewide authority. In addition, there is a statewide [[Mississippi Court of Appeals|Court of Appeals]], as well as Circuit Courts, Chancery Courts and Justice Courts, which have more limited geographical jurisdiction. The nine judges of the Supreme Court are elected from three districts (three judges per district) by the state's citizens in non-partisan elections to eight-year staggered terms. The ten judges of the Court of Appeals are elected from five districts (two judges per district) for eight-year staggered terms. Judges for the smaller courts are elected to four-year terms by the state's citizens who live within that court's jurisdiction.
== Politics ==
During the Reconstruction era, freedmen gained freedom, citizenship, and the franchise. African Americans could vote in the state for the first time. They elected numerous representatives to local and state offices, despite being subject to intimidation and violence at the polls, increasingly so during the 1870s, when the [[Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Shirts]], paramilitary groups representing conservative white Democrats, tried to suppress the black vote. Despite efforts to keep black citizens from participating in legislative roles and elections, the first black U.S. congressman, [[Hiram Rhodes Revels|Hiram Revels]], was elected to the Republican Party and represented Mississippi in the Senate from 1870 to 1871. Revels also served as Secretary of State of Mississippi from 1872 to 1873.<ref>{{Cite web|title=REVELS, Hiram Rhodes {{!}} US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives|url=https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/REVELS,-Hiram-Rhodes-(R000166)/|access-date=2021-11-11|website=history.house.gov|language=en}}</ref> [[Blanche Bruce|Blanche K. Bruce]], also a Republican, was the 2nd African-American to serve in congress as a Mississippi Senator in 1875–1881.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1887-12-12|title=Hiram Revels was the 1st black man in Congress followed by Blanche K. Bruce. Both Republicans.|pages=1|work=Vicksburg Evening Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89158205/hiram-revels-was-the-1st-black-man-in/|access-date=2021-11-18}}</ref>
After a biracial Populist-Republican coalition gained power in the late 1880s, the Democrats returned in force to the state government. To prevent such a coalition and to reduce the violence around elections, they decided to expel African Americans from state politics. In 1890 Mississippi passed a new constitution with provisions to [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchise]] most blacks and many poor whites through use of the [[Poll tax (United States)|poll tax]] and [[literacy tests]] for voter registration, with the latter administered by white registrars. The number of black voters fell drastically, as they were prevented from registering. This was the reason the Democratic Party dominated state and federal elections in Mississippi into the 1960s.
=== Federal politics ===
{{PresHead|place=Mississippi|whig=yes| source=<ref>{{cite web|url= https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=28&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Mississippi|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=January 2, 2023|author=Leip, David}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|756,764|539,398|18,313|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|700,714|485,131|25,243|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|710,746|562,949|11,889|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|724,597|554,662|10,680|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|684,981|458,094|9,290|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|573,230|404,964|16,732|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|439,838|394,022|59,997|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|487,793|400,258|93,742|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|557,890|363,921|9,716|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|581,477|352,192|6,523|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|441,089|429,281|22,250|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|366,846|381,309|21,205|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|505,125|126,782|14,056|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|88,516|150,644|415,349|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|356,528|52,618|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1960|Dixiecrat|73,561|108,362|116,248|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|60,685|144,498|42,966|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|112,966|172,566|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1948|Dixiecrat|5,043|19,384|167,763|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|11,601|168,479|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|7,364|168,267|193|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|4,467|157,333|342|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|5,180|140,168|686|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|27,153|124,539|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|8,494|100,474|3,494|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|11,576|69,277|1,639|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|4,253|80,422|2,004|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|1,560|57,324|5,599|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|4,363|60,287|2,254|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|3,280|53,480|1,961|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|5,707|51,706|1,642|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|4,819|63,355|1,417|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1892|Democratic|1,398|40,030|11,091|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1888|Democratic|30,095|85,451|240|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1884|Democratic|43,035|77,653|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1880|Democratic|34,844|75,750|6,474|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1876|Democratic|52,603|112,173|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1872|Republican|82,175|47,282|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1860|Southern Democratic|0|3,282|65,813|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1856|Democratic|0|35,456|24,191|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1852|Democratic|17,558|26,896|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1848|Democratic|25,911|26,545|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1844|Democratic|19,158|25,846|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresRow|1840|Whig|19,515|17,010|0|Mississippi}}
{{PresFoot|1836|Democratic|9,782|10,297|0|Mississippi}}
Mississippi white residents, as in the rest of the South, long supported the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. The policies of [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], which included federally appointed [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] governors, led to white Southern resentment toward the Republican Party. Following the [[Compromise of 1877]], federal troops enforcing the provisions of Reconstruction were pulled out of the South. The Democratic Party regained political control of the state in the 1870s, partly by using violence and fraud to suppress black voter turnout and turn elections in their favor. Blacks had favored Republican candidates and the party of Lincoln.
In the 20th century, after years of indirectly supporting the disfranchisement of blacks in the South, northern Democrats began increasingly to support labor unions and civil rights for blacks. Many conservative white Democrats began to get restless.
In 1964, the white voters in the state swung over dramatically to support [[Barry Goldwater]], who took an unheard-of 87 percent of the state's white popular vote (this was while most African Americans were still disfranchised and effectively could not vote) in the midst of [[Lyndon Johnson]]'s 44-state national landslide.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/images/elections/maps/1964.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-06-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081127105056/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/images/elections/maps/1964.jpg |archive-date=2008-11-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Goldwater carried several counties with well over 90 percent of the vote, and his five best counties in the nation were all in Mississippi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/stats.php?year=1964&f=1&off=0&elect=0|title=1964 Presidential Election Statistics}}</ref>
Since then, there has been a major realignment, with white conservative voters supporting Republicans for the state's federal positions, even though Democrats nominally continued to have a majority of registered voters. Since 1964, Mississippi has supported a Democrat for president only once, in 1976, when Southerner [[Jimmy Carter]]
During the fall of 1963, civil rights activists registered 80,000 black voters in Mississippi for the straw [[1963 Freedom Ballot|Freedom Vote]], to demonstrate the people's ambition and eagerness to vote.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.africanaonline.com/orga_cofo.htm|title=Council of Federated Organizations, accessed 13 Mar 2008|access-date=19 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221135459/http://www.africanaonline.com/orga_cofo.htm|archive-date=21 December 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1964, the [[Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party]] (MFDP) was formed, creating a list of candidates to challenge the official, all-white slate of the state's [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. The MFDP also mounted protests at the national Democratic convention, seeking to be seated as official delegates.
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{{See also|List of counties in Mississippi}}
During disfranchisement and majority-white dominance of the Democratic Party and state politics, nearly all races were effectively decided in the Democratic primary, from which blacks were excluded by the "[[white primary]]" and other voter registration tricks. Although civil rights groups mounted legal challenges, Mississippi's constitution was upheld for some time. From 1877 to 1959, the Republicans
In 1991, [[Kirk Fordice]] became the first Republican to win the governorship since the end of Reconstruction.
In 2011, Hattiesburg mayor [[Johnny DuPree]] became the first African-American to be nominated as a Democrat for governor. Republican lieutenant governor [[Phil Bryant]] went on to defeat DuPree in the general election with 61% of the vote.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, Republicans have done similarly well in other statewide offices.
Despite increasing Republican successes in statewide races beginning in the 1980s, Democrats continued to maintain large advantages in the state legislature into the 21st Century. Democrats held supermajorities in both the [[Mississippi House of Representatives|State House]] and [[Mississippi State Senate|State Senate]] following the 1999 elections. Republicans narrowly captured the State Senate
== County government ==
Mississippi has [[List of counties in Mississippi|82 counties]] and presents the closest face of government to citizens. Members of the county Boards of Supervisors are elected from single-member districts, and several other county officials, such as sheriff, are elected [[at-large]]. At a time when the state was predominately rural, counties were divided into "beats," with each supervisor responsible for road and bridge maintenance in his beat. This arrangement was useful when areas were lightly settled and communication was difficult, but it persisted in most of the state until 1988. The counties serve both legislative and executive functions; the decentralization into beats with few controls on individual supervisors led to problems with wasteful purchasing, inefficient government and, in some cases, corruption. Unitary and centralized county government is considered more efficient for conducting county business.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nr90mH7ecakC&q=Function+of+beats+in+MS+counties|title=Operation Pretense: The FBI's Sting on County Corruption in Mississippi|first=James R.|last=Crockett|date=July 9, 2003|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-930-5|via=Google Books}}</ref>
During the 1980s, some 57 of Mississippi's 410 county supervisors, from 26 of the state's 82 counties, were charged by the federal government with corruption. The FBI had carried out a lengthy investigation and a [[Sting operation|sting]] called [[Operation Pretense]] to gain evidence in these cases. Reform led to an overhaul of the counties' purchasing systems.<ref>Crockett (2011), ''Operation Pretence''</ref>
==Issues==
Liquor laws in Mississippi are particularly strict, with some variation among jurisdictions. Statewide prohibition of alcohol did not end until 1966, making Mississippi the last state with such a ban in force. Liquor stores may only be opened from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and are disallowed from operating on [[New Year's Day]], [[Good Friday]], [[Thanksgiving]] Day, and [[Christmas]] Day. Currently, state law disallows the operation of liquor stores on Sundays. Many local jurisdictions similarly prevent the Sunday sale of beer for off-site consumption or restrict the Sunday sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants. Many cities and counties allow no alcohol sales at all ("[[dry county|dry counties]]"), while some employ different standards for different types of alcohol (e.g., no liquor sales, but beer sales permitted, or vice versa). In some cities, the sale of refrigerated beer for off-site consumption is prohibited, with such ordinances being notably enforced in the state's largest college towns of [[Oxford, Mississippi|Oxford]] and [[Starkville, Mississippi|Starkville]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordms.net/recent/Alcohol2007-10.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724182649/http://www.oxfordms.net/recent/Alcohol2007-10.pdf |archive-date=2008-07-24 |title=An ordinance amending Chapter 5 of the City of Oxford's Code of Ordinances |at=§ 5-23. Privilege license holder regulated |work=The City of Oxford}}</ref> Despite some of the strictest liquor laws in the country, Mississippi is the only state in the country without a statewide [[United States open-container laws|open container]] law but several cities and counties enforce local ordinances against the consumption of alcohol while operating a vehicle.
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In regard to other topics, it can be said that Mississippi has at times been one of the more innovative states in the country, having been the first state to implement a sales tax, and in 1882 the first state to pass a [[Married Women's Property Act 1882|Married Women's Property Act]].
==
Mississippi currently has 4 [[Mississippi's congressional districts|House districts]] In the 118th Congress, 3 of Mississippi's seats are held by Republicans and 1 is held by a Democrat. There are as follows:
*[[Mississippi's 1st congressional district]] represented by [[Trent Kelly]] (R)
*[[Mississippi's 2nd congressional district]] represented by [[Bennie Thompson]] (D)
*[[Mississippi's 3rd congressional district]] represented by [[Michael Guest (politician)|Michael Guest]] (R)
*[[Mississippi's 4th congressional district]] represented by [[Mike Ezell]] (R)
Mississippi's two United States Senators are Republicans [[Roger Wicker]] and [[Cindy Hyde-Smith]], serving since 2007 and 2018, respectively.
Mississippi is part of the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi]] and the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi]] in the federal judiciary. The district's cases are appealed to the Houston-based [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]].
== References ==
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* [http://www.sos.state.ms.us/ed_pubs/constitution/constitution.asp The Constitution of the State of Mississippi]
* [http://www.lawsource.com/also/usa.cgi?ms Mississippi], American Law Sources On-line
* [http://www.michie.com/mississippi/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=mscode Mississippi Code of 1972] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090427185707/http://www.michie.com/mississippi/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=mscode |date=2009-04-27 }}
* [http://library.mssc.state.ms.us/mscodeintro.htm Historic Codes of Mississippi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120094750/http://library.mssc.state.ms.us/mscodeintro.htm |date=2010-11-20 }}
{{Governments of the United States}}
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