Lynn Fitch hopes her campaign for governor exceeds previous best effort by woman, Evelyn Gandy in 1979

Per Mississippi Today, Lynn Fitch, Mississippi's Republican attorney general, is running for governor in twenty twenty-seven, hoping to become the first woman elected to that office in the state. Fitch, now in her second term as attorney general and previously serving two terms as state treasurer, announced her candidacy after completing a three-day campaign tour. Her bid echoes an attempt by Democrat Evelyn Gandy in nineteen seventy-nine, who became the first woman elected to any statewide Mississippi office. Gandy came close in that Democratic primary but fell short in the runoff against William Winter, who captured fifty-seven percent of the vote. The political landscape has shifted. Female candidates are now pursuing governorships across the South: Arkansas and Alabama currently have Republican female governors, and women are running in Georgia, Florida, and Texas. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a native of south Mississippi, is seeking the Tennessee governorship. If Fitch succeeds, Mississippi would join the ranks of states that have elected a woman governor — something that has eluded seventeen states to date.

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