Sid Salter
- Wilson Golden draws strong parallels between the political careers of William Winter and Jimmy Carter.
Native Mississippian Wilson Golden is a proud “yellow dog” Democrat. A Marshall County product with strong ties to Clarksdale and Greenville, Golden’s connections to the presidential campaigns of former President Jimmy Carter are significant.
Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100 after a lengthy illness at his home in Plains, GA.
Golden, 77, now resides in Gainesville, GA, after successful careers as an attorney, lobbyist, state government staffer and Democratic party operative. In 1976, Golden was a young Mississippi Democratic National Convention delegate for Carter at Madison Square Garden in New York.
He later served as a DNC delegate for both Bill and Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and was a member of the Democratic National Committee in the early 1990s. In Mississippi, Golden was a key legislative staffer for the late William Winter.
Golden draws strong parallels between the political careers of Winter and Carter.
“Their careers were great transitional times. In the South, it was difficult for Democrats to sidestep the issue of segregation and civil rights regardless their actual beliefs. But at some point, both Carter and Winter grew weary of having to nod to segregation,” Golden said.
“Both had lost campaigns over the issue, and both decided to be who they were – which coincided with some of their greatest campaign victories,” he said. “They shared the traits of moderate, progressive stances on race, and they shared a strong religious faith.”
In 1976, Carter was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority in Mississippi and one of only two to carry the state since Adlai Stevenson II of Illinois carried it in 1952 and 1956 against Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Carter’s 1976 win was a narrow one, taking only 49.56% of the vote but winning all seven pledged Mississippi electors in the Electoral College.
The former president was also a close friend and confidante of the late Owen Cooper of Yazoo City, the driving force behind what would become Mississippi Chemical Company, a farmer-owned nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing company. Cooper was also a pillar of the Southern Baptist Convention (serving as president in 1972) and that group’s domestic outreach arm, the Home Mission Board.
Cooper’s outspoken moderate stance on race went against the white political majority and saw him lead ventures to address domestic U.S. poverty and healthcare disparities along with global hunger challenges in India.
It was Cooper’s national notoriety in agricultural interests and moderate Southern racial initiatives that brought successful Georgia peanut farmer and Georgia Baptist Convention leader Jimmy Carter into Cooper’s orbit. Cooper’s backing was a key reason that Carter carried Mississippi’s 1976 presidential election vote.
The Carter presidency is best known for the accomplishments of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel that Carter brokered between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin that brought progress on the path to peace in the Middle East. The work would eventually earn the 39th President the Nobel Peace Prize.
But the Carter administration also struggled mightily with the Iranian Hostage Crisis, scandals involving his Office of Management and Budget director Bert Lance and his late brother, Billy Carter, and a national economy that draws comparison to issues confounding the nation today – high inflation, rising interest rates and the added malady of high unemployment.
Carter’s re-election bid was a political disaster as Republican Ronald Reagan won the 1980 race in a national electoral landslide, including a win in Mississippi by 1.33% of the popular vote. But the 1980 race established the GOP dominance of presidential politics in Mississippi that continues today.
Asked about the future of the Democratic Party in Mississippi, Golden said that while he viewed his party as having “a very healthy minority” he didn’t “see a Democratic majority coming any time soon.”
“Trump has carried Mississippi for three straight presidential elections,” Golden said, “Republicans have prevailed in six straight Mississippi gubernatorial elections. For state and local politicians, many seem to be choosing the path of least resistance.”
By presidential executive order, a National Day of Mourning for Carter is scheduled for Jan. 9. A state funeral will be held at Washington National Cathedral on that date.
Sid Salter
