Mississippi 2011 Election Results

Mississippi held its general election on November 8, 2011, deciding 174 legislative seats and 8 statewide offices led by the governorship. Control shifted: the House moved from a 67-54 Democratic majority to a 63-59 Republican majority.

Highlights

• The House takeover, along with a Republican Senate majority that grew from 27-25 to 30-22, gave Republicans almost complete control of state government, and in January the House elected Philip Gunn (R) as its first Republican speaker since 1876.
• The seat that put the GOP over the top was House District 25, where Gene Alday (R) unseated John Mayo (D) by about 750 votes. Three days after the election, Rep. Donnie Bell (D) jumped to the GOP. In all, 11 incumbents lost, several by razor-thin margins:
  • Charles Busby (R) beat Brandon Jones (D) by 35 votes in House District 111.
  • Brad Oberhousen (D) beat James Ellington (R) by 73 votes in House District 73.
  • Ellington was one of three Republican incumbents to lose; the others, Sidney Bondurant (R) in House District 24 and Russ Nowell (R) in House District 43, each lost by fewer than 170 votes.
  • Carolyn Crawford (R) unseated Rep. Diane Peranich (D), in office since 1988, by about 300 votes in House District 121.
  • Democratic Reps. Dirk Dedeaux (D) in House District 93, Mark DuVall (D) in House District 19, and Jimmy Puckett (D) in House District 20 also lost to Republicans.
  • In the Senate, Melanie Sojourner (R) unseated Robert Dearing (D) by about 460 votes in Senate District 37, and Rita Parks (R) beat Eric Powell (D) by about 250 votes in Senate District 4.
• Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant (R) beat Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree (D) by about 22 points for governor; DuPree was the first major-party African-American nominee for governor in Mississippi since Reconstruction. Attorney General Jim Hood (D) won re-election by about 22 points over Steve Simpson (R) and became the last remaining Democrat in statewide office.
• Republicans won every other statewide office. Tate Reeves (R), Lynn Fitch (R), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) won the open lieutenant governor, treasurer, and agriculture commissioner posts. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann (R), Auditor Stacey E. Pickering (R), and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R) were re-elected.
• Voters rejected Initiative 26, the personhood amendment that would have effectively banned abortion, by about 15 points, a surprising margin for a measure that days earlier was expected to pass. They approved Initiative 27, requiring voter ID at the polls, and Initiative 31, limiting government takings of private property by eminent domain.

Legislature

• House (122 seats): 68 D, 54 R before the election, 58 D, 64 R after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.
• Senate (52 seats): 25 D, 27 R before the election, 21 D, 31 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures