The 1978 United States Senate election in Mississippi was held on November 5, 1978. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator

James Eastland James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 February 19, 1986) was an American attorney, plantation owner, and politician from Mississippi. A Democrat, he served in the United States Senate in 1941 and again from 1943 until his resignation on Decem ...

decided to retire. Republican

Thad Cochran William Thad Cochran (; December 7, 1937 – May 30, 2019) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator for Mississippi from 1978 until his resignation due to health issues in 2018. A Republican, he previously s ...

won the open seat, becoming the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate election in Mississippi since the end of

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

Democratic primary

Candidates

Maurice Dantin Maurice Dantin (died January 10, 2012) was an American attorney and politician. Early life Dantin attended Columbia High School (Mississippi), Columbia High School and played on the school's football team. He enrolled at the University of Mississ ...

, former District Attorney *

Cliff Finch Charles Clifton Finch (April 4, 1927 – April 22, 1986) was an American politician who served as the 57th Governor of the U.S. state of Mississippi, from 1976 to 1980. Early life Finch was born on April, 1927 in the village of Pope in Pan ...

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

*Robert L. Robinson * Charles L. Sullivan,

Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi The lieutenant governor of Mississippi is the second-highest ranking executive officer in Mississippi, below the governor of Mississippi. The office of lieutenant governor was established when Mississippi became a state, abolished for a few decade ...

*Richard C. Tedford * Bill Waller, former

*Helen M. Williams

Results

Runoff results

Republican primary

Candidates

, U.S. Representative from

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

Charles W. Pickering Charles Willis Pickering Sr. (born May 29, 1937) is an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and, briefly, of the Unit ...

, Chairman of the

Mississippi Republican Party The Mississippi Republican Party is the Mississippi state affiliate of the Republican Party (United States), United States Republican Party. The party chairman is Frank Bordeaux, and the party is based in Jackson, Mississippi. The original Repu ...

Results

General election

Candidates

, U.S. Representative from

(Republican) *Maurice Dantin, former District Attorney (Democratic) *

Charles Evers James Charles Evers (September 11, 1922July 22, 2020) was an American civil rights activist, businessman, radio personality, and politician. Evers was known for his role in the civil rights movement along with his younger brother Medgar Evers. A ...

, Mayor of Fayette (Independent) * Henry Jay Kirksey, civil rights activist and candidate for Governor in 1975 (Independent)

Campaign

Evers was the first African American elected since the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

to be mayor in any Mississippi city, in 1969. He ran as an independent, and as a result his campaign divided the Democrats and allowed Cochran to win the Senate seat with a 45 percent plurality. This made Cochran the first Republican in a century to win a statewide election (other than a presidential election) in Mississippi. Eastland resigned on December 27, 1978 to give Cochran a seniority advantage over new incoming senators.

Results

References

Works cited

* {{US Third Party Election

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

1978 Mississippi elections

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

Runoff results

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Results

See also

References

Works cited