Harrison: Gunn eyes rare Mississippi feat of serving as speaker, then governor

As speaker of Mississippi House from 2012 until 2024, Philip Gunn was a zealous defender of the powers of the Legislature from the overreach of the governor. Now, he wants to be governor.

Gunn announced last week he will be running for the state’s top elected position in 2027.

The Clinton Republican, who has been in private law practice since choosing in 2023 not to seek another four-year term in the state House, is trying to accomplish what has seldom been done in Mississippi politics.

He is vying to become the first person to serve as speaker of the state House and then as governor of Mississippi since Fielding Wright’s tenure as governor from 1946 until 1952 after a stint as speaker.

Wright, a Rolling Fork native, also has the distinction of being the vice presidential nominee for the segregationist Dixiecrat Party in 1948.

Wright was lieutenant governor in 1946 and filled the remainder of Thomas Bailey’s tenure as governor after Bailey died in office. In 1947, Wright was elected to a full four-year term.

Before then, Wright served from 1936 to 1940 as speaker of the Mississippi House.

Before Wright, there were others during that time frame, such as Martin Connor, James K. Vardaman and the aforementioned Bailey, who served a stint as speaker before being elected governor.

But in more recent times no speaker has served or even attempted to run for the office of governor.

In some ways Gunn’s candidacy for governor is ironic.

During Gunn’s tenure as speaker, he battled to either maintain or expand the powers of the legislative branch.

Gunn was insistent that $1.2 billion in federal funds the state received during the COVID-19 pandemic be controlled by the Legislature and not by the executive branch/governor.

He also played a key role in developing a process where, if legislators so chose, they could remain in session year-round at no added expense to the taxpayers, thus taking a key power away from the governor. Previously, most thought the only way legislators could come back after the normal 90-day session ended each year was to be called into a special session by the governor.

But the Legislature flipped that script during the pandemic, with Gunn presiding over the House as speaker and Delbert Hosemann presiding over the Senate as lieutenant governor. They used provisions of the Mississippi Constitution to keep on extending the regular session with a two-thirds vote of both chambers to remain technically in session most of the year even if they were not at the Capitol the whole time.

Speculation was that the Legislature would make staying in session year-round the norm, giving the speaker and lieutenant governor the option of calling members back to the Capitol if they determined legislative action was needed. There would be no additional costs to the state unless legislators were called back. And being called back by the speaker and lieutenant governor would be less expensive than being called into special session by the governor.

Then there is the comical account of Gunn hand-delivering bills to Reeves when the governor appeared to be attempting to delay picking up the bills passed by the Legislature. A delay would have given Reeves more time to sign or veto the legislation.

Despite Gunn’s staunch defense of legislative authority, it still should not be surprising that he is eying the Governor’s Mansion. Nearly from his first year in the state House in 2004, it was rumored that one day the affable Gunn would pursue statewide office, most likely the post of governor.

In a sense, the skills and personality traits needed to run for governor are different from those needed for the office of speaker. Generally speaking, candidates for governor need to possess retail political skills, the ability to campaign statewide and be likeable to a broad swarth of the electorate.

The office of speaker, on the other hand, often requires the skills of being able to operate behind the scenes with precision and often with a certain degree of brute force and sharp elbows.

In modern times it has become rare for speakers to seek other offices. Granted, part of the reason for not pursuing other offices is the fact that under the Mississippi system of government and constitution, few offices are more powerful than that of speaker.

Four-term speaker Tim Ford of Baldwyn ran unsuccessfully for a vacant U.S. House seat in 1994, losing in the Democratic primary to another northeast Mississippi state House member, Bill Wheeler of Tishomingo County. Many believed that losing that election would weaken Ford’s remaining tenure as state House speaker, but he rebounded and served his final two terms as the chamber’s presiding officer.

Now Gunn is going to try to accomplish what no Mississippi politician has even attempted to do in about three quarters of a century.

If he succeeds, it will be interesting to see if he tries to solidify the powers of the executive branch or respect the authority of the Legislature.

This column was produced by Mississippi Today, a nonprofit news organization that covers state government, public policy, politics and culture. Bobby Harrison is the editor of Mississippi Today Ideas.