Editing Ray Mabus (section)

=== 1987 election ===
{{main|1987 Mississippi gubernatorial election}}
[[File:Ray Mabus (MS).png|150px|thumb|left|Mabus as governor.]]
Mabus began planning a gubernatorial bid in 1985 and formally declared his candidacy four days after Operation Pretense was revealed to the public in 1987. Incumbent [[William Allain]] did not seek reelection.{{sfn|Nash|Taggart|2009|pp=196–197}} In the Democratic primary he faced seven other candidates, including former governor [[Bill Waller]], Attorney General [[Ed Pittman]], [[Maurice Dantin]], [[John Arthur Eaves]], and Mike Sturvidant.{{sfn|Sansing|2016|p=229}} Mabus had an advantage in being from northeast Mississippi, which usually heavily participated in Democratic primaries. He also enjoyed the good faith of many journalists for cracking down on corruption.{{sfn|Nash|Taggart|2009|p=197}} Some warned that county supervisors would organize against him as retaliation for his work as auditor, but these fears proved unfounded.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|pp=93–94}}{{efn|One undercover FBI agent, Jerry King, later stated that many supervisors were satisfied with Mabus' gubernatorial candidacy, noting that it would lead to his departure from the auditor's office.{{sfn|Crockett|2003|p=94}}}} Mabus led in the August 4 primary with 37 percent of the vote, while Sturvidant—who spent heavily on his campaign—placed second with 16 percent.{{sfn|Mullaney|1994|p=207}}<ref>{{cite news| title = Auditor in Mississippi Wins Democratic Slot for Governor| newspaper = The New York Times| agency = Associated Press| page = A14| edition = late| date = August 26, 1987}}</ref> A runoff was held on August 25 in which Mabus took 65 percent of the vote, the largest-ever margin of victory in a runoff in the state's history.{{sfn|Nash|Taggart|2009|p=197}}{{sfn|Mullaney|1994|p=207}}

In the 1987 general election Mabus faced Republican [[Jack Reed (Mississippi)|Jack Reed]]. A businessman from [[Tupelo, Mississippi|Tupelo]], Reed had worked with Winter on education reform and ran as a moderate, leaving voters with the impression that the two candidates had little to distinguish one from the other.{{sfn|Nash|Taggart|2009|p=198}} Mabus ran with the slogan "Mississippi will never be last again,"<ref name= sansing/> and while his campaign did not articulate many specific stances, it emphasized a theme of change.<ref name=boyer/> He pledged to raise the state's teacher salaries to the [[Southeastern United States|Southeastern]] average, which Reed criticized as necessitating either a tax hike or funding cuts to other government responsibilities. Mabus spent a total of $2.9 million on his campaign, the most ever spent on a Mississippi gubernatorial candidacy.{{sfn|Mullaney|1994|p=207}} He won with 53.4 percent of the vote, relying on a coalition of support from blacks, urbanites, and traditional Democrats from the northeastern portion of the state.{{sfn|Nash|Taggart|2009|p=198}} About two-thirds of the white electorate voted against him, but he secured almost 90 percent of the black vote. Mabus was inaugurated as the 60th Governor of Mississippi on January 12, 1988. Aged 39, he was the youngest governor in the country.<ref name= sansing>{{cite web| url = https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/ray-mabus-sixtieth-governor-of-mississippi-1988-1992| title = Ray Mabus: Sixtieth Governor of Mississippi: 1988-1992| last = Sansing| first = David| date = August 2009| website = Mississippi History Now| publisher = Mississippi Department of Archives and History| access-date = June 8, 2022| archive-date = May 29, 2022| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220529035110/https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/ray-mabus-sixtieth-governor-of-mississippi-1988-1992| url-status = live}}</ref>