1971 Mississippi gubernatorial election
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
County results Waller: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90% >90% Evers: 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=link}
| Elections in Mississippi |
|---|
The 1971 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on 2 November 1971 for the post of Governor of Mississippi. The incumbent governor, Democrat John Bell Williams, was ineligible due to term limits, a rule that was changed to two back-to-back terms in the 1980s.
Democrat Bill Waller, the former District Attorney of Hinds County, was chosen as his party's nominee in a contested primary. Running as an independent, mayor of Fayette Charles Evers became the first African-American candidate for governor of Mississippi.
To date, this is the most recent time that Rankin County voted Democratic in a gubernatorial election.