WEEK 5: PARTY ORGANIZATION

How party organizations are created. Each state has a state law which indicates how a political party is legally recognized by that state. In Mississippi, for example, a political party must have a state executive committee, congressional district committees, and county committees, and the state party must provide the Secretary of State with the names of each body’s chairman and secretary. There are 10 registered political parties in Mississippi. Each Democratic District Committee has 20 members, and each Republican District Committee has 13 members. All of those district committee members constitute the parties’ state executive committees. Both major parties have County Chairs in each of the state’s 82 counties (see Mississippi Blue Book). These party members are selected in a multi-stage process in each state, usually in the presidential election year. Typically, there are precinct caucus meetings to select delegates to attend the county convention weeks later. At the county convention meetings, the members of the county party committee are chosen, as well as delegates to attend the congressional district conventions, held weeks later. At the district conventions, the district committee members are selected, plus delegates to attend the state party convention, plus some delegates to attend the national convention. At the state party convention, the state party officials such as chair and vice-chair are selected, plus the remaining delegates to attend the national convention. So, when MSU College Republicans or College Democrats become active in the Oktibbeha county executive committee meetings, they can become part of this party building effort.

The Mississippi Democratic Party is a fascinating case study of how a national party can exert oversight over a state party, and of how a party can transform itself as its mass voter base changes. Therefore, this next subject, the History of the Mississippi Democratic Party, is very important, and you should remember the following 11 important points.

1) Mississippi is a Deep South state, and was one of the most racially segregated states in the nation. Indeed, when Strom Thurmond was the presidential candidate of the States’ Rights Party in 1948 fighting to uphold segregation, his Vice-Presidential candidate was the governor of Mississippi, Fielding Wright! As such, the Democratic organization up to 1964 was all white. In the state legislature, all 122 state house members and 52 state senators were white. The Mississippi Democratic delegation to the national party convention was always all white. They were called the white “regular” Democrats.

2) In 1964, a Mississippi African American civil rights worker, Fannie Lou Hamer, showed courage and took the initiative to speak at the national Democratic party’s credentials committee. She revealed the segregation and disfranchisement that existed in Mississippi. Indeed, at that time only 7% of adult African Americans were registered to vote in the state, due to discriminatory voting measures (talked about in my upcoming class, Southern Politics). As she talked about being arrested and even beaten, the stunned delegates passed a new national party rule that prohibited racial discrimination in the selection of delegates at future national conventions. They recommended a compromise between the all-white regulars and the African American challenging delegation (they called themselves the Freedom Democrats). Both factions rejected the compromise, and sat out the convention. (It didn’t really matter since President Johnson was easily renominated.)

3) In 1968, the African American Freedom Democrats joined with the white AFL-CIO and the Young Democrats, and called themselves the Loyalists. Loyalists means loyal to the national Democratic Party (that is, willing to support even a “liberal” presidential candidate). The Loyalists attended the district and state party conventions held by the regulars, and were able to comprise about 10% of these bodies. However, that representation is far below the African American percentage in the population, and the segregationist Governor John Bell Williams opposed adding additional black representation to the national convention delegation. The Loyalists then held their own conventions in 72 counties, documented the election irregularities of the regulars, and ended up successfully unseating the regulars at the national convention. Both Democratic National Committee members from Mississippi were now loyalists, so the national party in essence was recognizing the loyalists as the legitimate Democratic Party of Mississippi. However, the all-white regulars still held nearly every elected office in the state. Even after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, white regulars controlled the election machinery in Mississippi. In 1967, the first and only African American was elected to the state legislature, Robert Clark. It took until 1975 for 3 more African Americans to join him. In short, the biracial loyalist Democrats unseated the white regulars at the national convention.

4) In 1972, Mississippi had its first New South governor, a racial moderate, Bill Waller. He offered the loyalists 40% of the party’s positions at the county and state levels and in the national delegation. The Loyalists unsuccessfully requested 50%, which more accurately reflected the racial division in the state party. Also, the loyalists were concerned that the regulars could not guarantee their promises, since party building and delegate selection occurs under that complex multi-stage process that we have already talked about. So once again, the loyalists sent a competing delegation to the national convention. In the 1972 George McGovern year of racial and sex quotas, the national party (as in 1968) decided that the loyalists had better followed national rules than the regulars had, so they seated the loyalists rather than the regulars. Both 1968 and 1972 showed a fascinating situation unmatched in other states, where a national party had to choose between two factions of a state party, with one faction being overwhelmingly white and controlling nearly all state and local government offices, and the other faction being largely black and having almost no elected office positions in the state, but holding the state’s two seats on the national Democratic Party’s committee.

5) In 1976, the state Democrats finally reunified their party under a co-chairmanship consisting of a black loyalist and a white regular. The African American loyalist was Aaron Henry, and the white regular was Tom Ridell. This unification was made possible by a second racial moderate governor, Cliff Finch (interesting guy, elected by being the working man’s candidate who carried a lunch box; ran unsuccessfully for presidential nomination, was photographed in Las Vegas in a heart-shaped bathtub). Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter encouraged the reunification, as he was also a New South governor (of Georgia), and ended up elected President by winning all except one southern state with a biracial coalition. Also, the state’s white conservative Democratic congressmen were getting negative votes for committee chairmanships because of the state’s racist reputation, so even segregationist Senator Eastland counseled reunification. The state party held a nice state party meeting where the theme was “unity”.

6) In 1980, Mississippi inaugurated (our governors are actually elected in the odd numbered year, right before a presidential election) its first racially liberal governor William Winter. Winter was an historian who had written about and talked about the state’s racist segregationist past. His reputation as a racial liberal had cost him the party’s gubernatorial nomination twice. Winter is nationally recognized as the architect of the state’s landmark 1982 Education Reform Act. Winter wanted to completely reunify the party by having only one state party chairman, and he said that he didn’t think Mississippi was ready for an African American. So he got a white, Danny Cupit, as chairman. Cupit had been a Loyalist, at least. The state party also passed a party rule requiring all party committees and committee chairs to reflect the state’s racial composition. Also, in 1981 an African American, Ed Cole, was named Vice-Chairman. Cole was a young, articulate, personable man who had been a congressional aide for both Senators, Stennis and Eastland. Interesting how the party maintained unity- a white chair, but a black vice-chair; also note how the African American was “acceptable” to white leaders rather than being an extreme liberal. Most importantly, Mississippi was changing in a positive manner.

7) In 1984, racial moderate governor Bill Allain again gets a white as chair, his campaign supporter Steve Patterson. Patterson even beat a former black Freedom Democratic leader. But this wasn’t really a setback for African American interests, since: Patterson had genuinely sought African American support for becoming chairman; governor Allain had attended the state NAACP convention and publicly thanked the members for their support for his gubernatorial bid. In his 1983 gubernatorial election the historically weak Republicans had come up with a gubernatorial nominee who charged that then attorney general Allain had driven down Farish street in Jackson soliciting black male prostitutes. A few had come forward and made the claims, Allain passed a lie detector test refuting the allegations, and after the election the prostitutes recanted their claims.

8) The 1987 and 1988 events illustrate how a state political party can become an independent force. It also showed the growing power of African Americans in the state party. Party Vice Chair Ed Cole, an African American, moved up to become Chairman of the state party after Patterson resigned. However, he ended up supporting a losing candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, so when progressive education backer Ray Mabus became governor, he tried to get the state Democratic executive committee to replace Cole with a Mabus campaign supporter (a white female). The state party committee held a meeting that became emotional with some members invoking the memory of Martin Luther King, so they voted to keep Cole as Chairman. Ed Cole became not just the first African American state party chairman in Mississippi, but also the first African American state party chair in the nation. This is also an interesting example for political observers who complain that U.S. Presidents have too much influence over their national political party. Well, Mississippi showed how a state party can be an independent force.

9) In 1994 the state Democratic party selected another African American, Johnnie Walls, to follow Ed Cole as state party chairman. Not only was he the second African American to lead a formally all-white party organization, but he was also a prominent state senator. This showed that the state party was also a legislative, policy making influence (Democrats were the majority party in the legislature until recently). The party also maintained its racial unity by hiring knowledgeable executive directors from other states, both of whom were white females (Lisa Walker in 1989 and Alice Skelton in 1995). Executive directors are important because they run the mechanism of the state party on a day-to-day basis.

10) 1996 was a little racially divisive, but I find that it provided some interesting political lessons for any student of politics such as you all. The party had one white and one black national committee members from Mississippi, but Congressman Bennie Thompson (only the second African American congressman from Mississippi since Reconstruction, who replaced Mike Espy; today, he is the only Democrat in our federal congressional delegation) was angered that the white’s labor union failed to “max out” in making the maximum contribution to his congressional campaign. The state convention replaced the white labor union leader with an African American, so that for a short time all three Democratic leaders (2 national committee members and the state party chair) were African Americans. I didn’t see the big problem myself, since the white guy who had challenged Johnnie Walls for state party chairman was named as the Vice-Chair; plus, all Democratic statewide elected officials were white (at that time, of the eight statewide elected officials, only one was a Republican, Governor Kirk Fordice). But some white political commentators in the state were angered by what they saw as a double standard- black lawmakers rejecting governor Fordice’s all white male, four college board nominations (but backing three all-black party leaders). African Americans had become so powerful in the state senate than one chaired the Senate Universities Committee, and he appointed another African American (Johnnie Walls, the state party chair) to chair the subcommittee considering these college board nominations. The senate committee voted to reject all four nominees- all black lawmakers voted against them, all Republicans voted for them, and the three white Democrats voted 2-1 against them. The way I saw it, African Americans were afraid that the state would go back to all white boards, which they had had in the 1960s. Also, Fordice’s appointees were pretty narrow, not just all white males, but all businessmen and from only the largest universities in the state. Fordice ended up picking four new nominees which included one African American and one woman. (Ironically, talking about qualifications, the one nominee who couldn’t even name all eight public universities was a white male.)

11) Since 2000, the Mississippi Democratic Party has been a racially unified party, where African Americans wield so much influence that they have permitted white males to often serve as state party chairs. All five of the white male chairs  have had a progressive orientation. They have included: Rickey Cole, a white liberal; Wayne Dowdy, a former congressman and racial liberal but strong on national defense (Dowdy is very country, and would claim that party politics was like a car’s transmission- “You put it in D to go forward, and put it in R to go backwards.”); Jamie Franks, a former state representative from a working class background; and Bobby Moak, the former state house minority leader; Jon Levingston was former governor Musgrove’s ally. Levingston’s brief reign at the turn of the century illustrates once again that a political party can be an independent force. Apparently, Levingston got upset at the state executive director, who at that time was not paid much, and was a student at Jackson State University. He fired him. The state executive committee considered the dispute, and hired the kid back. Levingston then resigned his position. One negative for the state Democrats is that they have lost some of their racial diversity in the state legislature. An “unholy alliance” between white Republicans and African American Democratic lawmakers across the nation during the Bush 1 administration began drawing racially and partisan gerrymandered districts to elect as many blacks as possible (which Republicans cheered since drawing more largely black districts resulted in the other districts being largely white, which then got more Republicans elected). After the 2019 Mississippi state elections, for example, of the 47 Democrats in the state house, 40 were African American and only 7 were whites; of the 16 Democratic senators, 14 were black and only 2 were whites. Republican lawmakers, whom were all white, now controlled both of the state’s legislative chambers with over a 60% margin. In short, Democratic lawmakers are overwhelmingly African American, the reverse of the state party’s historical pattern. More recently (in 2020), though, African American Tyree Irving was elected state party chair; he had been elected three times to the state Court of Appeals and had been the first African American assistant U.S. attorney in Mississippi. And most recently in 2023, a conflict between him and the state's executive director (Andre Wagner, another African American male) over how national DNC money would be spent led the state executive Democratic committee to choose a new state party chair. That current chair is another African American male, state Representative Cheikh Taylor from Starkville, who also had experience as the executive director of a nonprofit.

The Republican state party organization in Mississippi has been a pretty conservative one with all of its state party chairs being white. Chairman Clarke Reed from 1965-1976 helped grow the party, as the state party provided campaign assistance to candidates. Reed became a leader of southern Republican parties more generally, and at the 1976 GOP national convention he was a kingmaker who helped President Ford win renomination over conservative California governor Ronald Reagan. Businessman Mike Retzer was state chair twice (1978-1982, 1996-2001), and he is fondly remembered for Thad Cochran’s Senate victory, Reagan’s win in Mississippi, and Yazoo City’s Haley Barbour being state executive director in his earlier term (Barbour went on to become the national GOP chairman in 1994, when Republicans won control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in forty years). From 1982 thru 1993, two women were state GOP chair, Ebbie Spivey and Evelyn McPhail; both retained the title chairman rather than just chair or chairwoman, showing a conservative reaction against political correctness (McPhail went on to become RNC Vice-Chair). Jim Herring, a former Democrat, was chair in 2001-2007, and his conservatism favored “limited government,” low taxes and low spending. The current chairman is Frank Bordeaux, who was Governor Reeves’ choice in 2020. A businessman, he was Reeves’ Harrison County campaign committee chair, and was the gubernatorial appointee on the state flag change commission. As you can see with GOP state activists such as Haley Barbour, Mississippi Republicans can rise to national prominence.

Historically, state parties have engaged in extensive fund-raising efforts. Mississippi Democrats have given small donors Yellow Dog Democrats designation and pins, they have had local Beans and Greens fundraisers (with political candidates campaigning), and held state Jefferson-Jackson day dinners with major speakers. Today, those annual state dinners have been renamed the Hamer-Winter dinners, honoring civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and the architect of the 1982 Education Reform Act, William Winter. Mississippi Republicans have had the United Republican Fund donor designation, among others. Both parties solicit donations with credit cards on their websites.

Ideologically, when the Democrats were the majority party in America, Democrats seemed to be a more ideologically inclusive party. In Mississippi, equal numbers of party organization members were liberals, moderates, and conservatives. Republicans seemed to be divided only between party organization members who were “very conservative” or “somewhat conservative.” Unsuccessful gubernatorial candidates like Gil Carmichael and Jack Reed were of the somewhat conservative wing, while Governor Kirk Fordice was very conservative. Today, the Democratic Party has probably also moved to one ideological pole, divided between moderate liberals like Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and the very liberal AOC “progressive” caucus. Historically, there have been three major incentives for why citizens become active in a political party: solidary reasons of family, making friendships, party attachments; material reasons, such as getting a job or money; purposive incentives of wishing to influence public policy. Scholars also studied party organization members’ motivations in backing candidates with some members being purists (amateurs) who valued ideology over winning elections, and others being professionals who wanted a winning candidate. Purists produced the Republican nomination of conservative Goldwater in 1964 and the Democratic nomination of liberal McGovern in 1972, and both lost the general election. Professionals backed the more “centrist” Joe Biden in 2020, and he was elected President.