After being dominated for two and one-half decades by strong racial appeals, battlelines in Mississippi 's gubernatorial contests showed a significant shift in the early 1970s. Instead of defining public alternatives in terms of race, candidates began to define them in terms of class. A reemergence of the neopopulist appeal, which was so effective in the early decades of this century, has occurred and has been a major factor in the election of Mississippi's last two chief executives. The changing trends in gubernatorial politics and some of their implications are the primary concerns of this article. Some observations also will be made relative to the 1976 presidential vote in Mississippi in the light of the changing patterns in the governor's race.