In the coastal counties, Kennedy improved considerably upon what
Adlai Stevenson II achieved in 1956, but except for those counties around the cities of
Natchez and
Vicksburg, Kennedy otherwise showed a major decline from the Democratic result in 1956. suggesting that voters throughout the state had become more suspicious of the Democrats’ civil rights policies. Since the Republican percentage of the vote essentially failed to change – Nixon lost
Hancock and
Warren to Kennedy and
Adams to the unpledged slate but picked up
Tunica and
Lowndes Counties – the unpledged slate took almost all of Kennedy's lost votes and thus shaded him for the state overall. Mississippi was one of six states that swung toward Republicans compared to 1956, alongside Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Despite Kennedy's statewide defeat being only the second for a national Democrat in Mississippi since Reconstruction, this remains the last election when the coastal, French-influenced counties of
Harrison and
Jackson have voted for a Democratic presidential nominee. The following landlocked counties have also never voted Democratic since:
Choctaw,
Jones, and
Smith. ==Electoral slates==