Situated in the
Deep South as a
socially conservative Bible Belt state,
Mississippi is one of the most Republican states in the country. No Democrat has been elected to the governorship since
Ronnie Musgrove in
1999. However, the state's Democratic Attorney General, Jim Hood, who had held his office since 2004 and had yet to lose a statewide election, put the Republicans' winning streak of four elections in a row to the test, as the race became unusually competitive. Reeves defeated Hood in the general election by a margin of 5.1%, making this the closest a Democrat had come to winning a Mississippi gubernatorial election since 1999. Hood pulled off the best performance by a Democrat since the
2003 Mississippi gubernatorial election, when fellow Democrat
Ronnie Musgrove took 45.81% of the vote. Hood flipped the counties of
Chickasaw,
Lafayette,
Madison,
Panola, and
Warren, which had all voted for Republican
Donald Trump in the
2016 United States presidential election. Uniquely among the states, the
Constitution of Mississippi at the time established a sort of
electoral college at the state level. For the election of governor. Article 5, Section 140 of the state constitution stated that each state House district was to be assigned an electoral vote, and that a candidate running for governor must receive a majority of electoral votes (essentially, they must win a majority of state House districts) in addition to winning a majority of the popular vote in order to be elected governor. Article 5, Section 141 of the state constitution stated that if no candidate won both a popular and electoral vote majority, the state
House of Representatives would decide the winner, choosing from the two highest popular vote winners. This provision came into play only one time in the state's history; Democratic candidate
Ronnie Musgrove in the
1999 gubernatorial election garnered a plurality, but not a majority; the House selected Musgrove. In the lead-up to the election, controversy emerged over these constitutional provisions establishing a state system of electoral votes, with a federal lawsuit claiming the provisions were racially biased. These provisions were put in place with the 1890 Mississippi Constitution, itself established by the segregationist
Redeemers and overturning the
Reconstruction-era 1868 Constitution, as part of
Jim Crow Era policy to minimize the power of African Americans in politics. Because of this, as well as
gerrymandering that packed African Americans into a small number of districts, the plaintiffs claied the provisions should be struck down on the basis of racial bias. On November 3, 2020,
an amendment was passed removing the electoral college, with 79% of the vote. ==Republican primary==