In 1890, white Democrats consolidated their political power in Mississippi. For more than seventy years, the state was a Democratic stronghold in which Republicans and African Americans had little political clout. The elections of 1976, however, marked the last time Mississippi would cast its presidential electoral votes for a Democrat. That year, the state's Democratic lineup included the governor, both United States senators and three representatives, and all but five seats in the state legislature.

Thirty years later, Republican Haley Barbour is the state governor, four of the other seven statewide elected officials are Republicans, both United States Senators are Republicans, and the GOP boasts 69 of the 174 members in the state legislature.

Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2006 charts the political shift in Mississippi over the last thirty years, covering political campaigns and the struggle for power within the state legislature. Fierce debates about the tobacco industry, casinos, tort reform, education, and highways are all examined. Using extensive research, authors Jere Nash and Andy Taggart—political activists from different parties—examine forty years of reapportionment litigation and profile many of the personalities who changed the Mississippi political landscape. The book features interviews with more than 140 public officials, candidates, lobbyists, legislators, and others who reveal the public and backroom pressures that shaped history. A broad yet sharply detailed account of a tremendous transition with national implications, Mississippi Politics underscores how the state has evolved politically and where it may possibly be headed.