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United States · Election results history · 1971
Election 1971 Results

Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.

1971 governor election results by state and county

Democrats won both governor races of 1971, with Wendell H. Ford taking Kentucky back from the Republicans and William L. Waller winning Mississippi easily.

2 governor races were held in 1971. Democrats won 2 and Republicans 0.

The closest were Kentucky (D+6.2) and Mississippi (D+77.0). 1 governorship changed party: Kentucky to the Democrats.

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Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.

About the 1971 governor elections

Only Kentucky and Mississippi held regular governor elections in 1971, during Richard Nixon's first term. In Kentucky, Democrat Wendell H. Ford, the lieutenant governor, beat Republican Thomas Emberton by about six points and returned the governorship to the Democrats after Louie Nunn's term. Ford later served in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades. In Mississippi, Democrat William L. Waller won by a wide margin. Waller, a former district attorney, had twice prosecuted Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, with both trials ending in hung juries. By 1971 the Voting Rights Act had brought many more Black Mississippians onto the rolls, but the Democratic nominee still won comfortably. Both results kept the two states in the Democratic column a year before Richard Nixon carried every Southern state on his way to re-election.

Every race

StateDemocratVotesRepublicanVotesOthersMargin
Kentucky flip Wendell H. Ford470,722 (50.6%) Thomas Emberton412,653 (44.3%) 47,417 D+6.2
Mississippi William L. Waller601,222 (77.0%) none Charles Evers (Independent) 172,762 (22.1%)
 D+77.0

Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Margins are Democrat minus Republican, of all votes. Certified results, from the states' own archives, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Heideman (2026) and Algara & Amlani (2021). By county: "As they were" draws each county as it stood on election day; "Today's" shares the old votes among today's counties by area. County boundaries: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5). How these results were checked.

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