Mississippi has never experienced a profusion of women running for statewide political office — much less actually electing many from the distaff side.
When Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won a full term last November, she became only the second female in a decade to capture a statewide office.
Emboldened by Hyde-Smith’s feat, one might be tempted to believe there would be more female candidates in this year’s statewide general election races. However, only five women qualified by the March 1 deadline. Several others are candidates for regional offices.
Former Jackson State University administrator and ex-military officer Valesha Williams became the first African-American woman to run for governor. She seeks the Democratic Party primary nod against eight men, including heavily favored state attorney general Jim Hood.
The best-known female seeking statewide office is Lynn Fitch, elected as state treasurer eight years ago and now pursuing the attorney general post. Before first winning the treasurer’s job, Fitch had worked in several state government jobs, including director of the State Personnel Board.
The last woman to win statewide office before Fitch was Amy Tuck, who served two terms as lieutenant governor from 2000-2008. Tuck has since been employed in an executive position at Mississippi State University.
Other female candidates for statewide office this year are these political newcomers: Democrat Jennifer Riley Collins, attorney general; Democrat Maryra Hodges Hunt, secretary of state; and Democrat Addie Green, state treasurer.
Also on ballots are: Democrat Dorothy Benford, central district public service commissioner; and Democrats Connie Moran and Sugar Stallings, southern district PSC.
Williams is among the few females to ever run for governor in Mississippi. Vicki Slater of Madison and Valerie Short of Ridgeland ran in the 2015 Democratic Primary against eventual winner Robert Gray, who lost the general election to incumbent Republican Phil Bryant.
Two females, Katie Perrone and Catherine Starr, lost in the 2003 Democratic Primary to incumbent Ronnie Musgrove, who fell to Republican Haley Barbour in the general election.
The one most political observers in the state view as the true women’s political trailblazer was Evelyn Gandy, who served in statewide positions that included lieutenant governor from 1976-1980. She lost the Democratic primary for governor to William Winter in 1979 and to Bill Allain in 1983, both of whom were elected to the office.
Miss Gandy had served as an aide to the virulent racist U.S. Sen. Theodore Bilbo in the mid-1940s before winning a seat in the state Legislature, where she earned more prestige than she did as an aide to Bilbo. She pushed for more public education funding and was a leader in promoting the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
She had earlier served as commissioner of public welfare, state treasurer and insurance commissioner. Following the two losses for governor, Gandy returned to her native Hattiesburg to practice law. She died in 2007 at the age of 87.
Gandy was not the first female to run for governor. Mary Dawson Cain, the fiery conservative editor of the Summit Sun weekly newspaper, holds that honor for her two bad losses for the state’s top job in 1951 and 1955.
Cain got only 5 percent of the vote in her initial campaign against eventual winner Hugh L. White. She also finished behind Paul B. Johnson and Ross Barnett, both of whom later claimed the office.
In her second bid, she got even fewer votes against winner J.P. Coleman, Johnson, Barnett and previous governor Fielding Wright.
Cain, who died in 1984 at age 80, gained national notoriety in her first run by railing against the employers’ withholding tax for the Social Security program. Her protest continued into 1952 when she refused to pay less than $50 in the taxes.
The IRS eventually padlocked the door of her newspaper and printing office in Summit. Cain cut it off and mailed it back to the agency, earning her the sobriquet of “Hacksaw Mary.”
--Mac Gordon is a part-time resident of McComb and a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmaryordon@gmail.com.
