The Musgrove-Wicker Special U. S. Senate Race

Mississippi's special U. S. Senate election between Ronnie Musgrove and Roger Wicker will be included on the November 4 general election ballot. This contest is for the remaining four years of the term to which the Republican Trent Lott was elected in 2006. Earlier this year, Gov. Haley Barbour appointed the Republican Wicker to fill the seat on an interim basis.

Yesterday Sidney Salter referred to "... Democratic U.S. Senate nominee and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove."

Since there are no party primaries in Mississippi's special elections, there are no party nominees. That's why no party labels will be listed next to Wicker's and Musgrove's names on the ballot. It just happened that (1) there are only two candidates in the special U. S. Senate race, and (2) one of those candidates is a Democrat and the other a Republican. It was possible for any number of candidates to run, and for all of those candidates to be from the same party or from any combination of parties.

Six candidates ran in the special U. S. Senate election in 1947, when John Stennis was first elected. The top five vote-getters were all Democrats, and the lone Republican received less than one percent of the vote.