1947 Mississippi Democratic gubernatorial primary

← 1943 November 4, 1947 1951 →

Candidate Fielding L. Wright Paul B. Johnson Jr. Jesse M. Byrd Party Democratic Democratic Democratic Popular vote 182,771 112,123 37,997 Percentage 51.71% 30.70% 10.40%

Democratic primary results by county General election results by county Wright:     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     90–100% Johnson:     40–50%     50–60% Byrd:     40–50%

Governor before election Fielding L. Wright Democratic Elected Governor Fielding L. Wright Democratic

The1947 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 1947, to elect thegovernor of Mississippi. Incumbent DemocratFielding L. Wright, who had succeeded to the governorship a year prior following the death ofThomas L. Bailey, ran for election to a first full term.

As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate won in a landslide, so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was consideredtantamount to election. In fact, this was the first election since 1881 in which the Republican Party even fielded a nominal candidate, former Governor of NebraskaGeorge L. Sheldon, and the first since 1919 in which any opposition party did.

In the Democratic primary, incumbent GovernorFielding L. Wright defeated lawyerPaul B. Johnson Jr., the son of former GovernorPaul B. Johnson Sr., and three other candidates. He received a majority (55%) of the vote, thereby eliminating the need for a runoff.

In the general election, Wright ran against RepublicanGeorge L. Sheldon, who served asGovernor of Nebraska from 1907 until 1909. Sheldon moved to Mississippi after his service as governor and served a single term in theMississippi House of Representatives, becoming an influential figure in the state Republican Party. However, the Republicans had such minimal influence in Mississippi at the time that Wright won in a landslide with almost 98% of the vote.

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