Haley Barbour defeated incumbent Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to win the 2003 Mississippi governor's race with 53 percent of the vote.

Barbour won re-election in 2007 by 57 percent, defeating John Arthur Eaves Jr.

Barbour lost the 1982 race for the U.S. Senate to Democratic incumbent John C. Stennis in 1982.

(Last updated by Emily Wagster Pettus on May 11, 2009.)

Thad Cochran was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978, with 45 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Maurice Danton and independent Charles Evers. Cochran was re-elected in 1984, with 64 percent of the vote, defeating Democratic former Gov. William Winter. Cochran was unopposed for re-election in 1990.

In 1996, Cochran received 71 percent of the vote as he defeated Democrat James Hunt. In 2002, Cochran received 85 percent of the vote as he defeated Reform Party candidate Shawn O'Hara.

In 2008, Cochran received 61 percent of the vote and defeated Democrat Erik Fleming of Clinton, a former state representative who had unsuccessfully challenged Republican Sen. Trent Lott in 2006.

Cochran was elected to the U.S. House in 1972 and was re-elected in 1974 and 1976.

(Last updated by Emily Wagster Pettus on May 11, 2009.)

Republican Roger Wicker received 55 percent of the vote to defeat former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, in a special election in November 2008 to fill the Senate seat of Republican Trent Lott. After Lott retired four years into his six-year term in December 2007, Mississippi's Republican governor, Haley Barbour, appointed Wicker to fill the Senate seat until the special election.

Wicker was elected to the U.S. House in 1994, defeating Democrat Bill Wheeler with 63 percent of the vote in a northern Mississippi district that had been represented for decades by Democrat Jamie Whitten. Whitten chose not to run again in 1994.

Wicker was re-elected in 1996 with 68 percent of the vote against Democrat Henry Boyd. Wicker won a third term in 1998 by getting 67 percent of the vote against Democrat Rex Weathers. Wicker was re-elected in 2000 with 70 percent of the vote and in 2002 with 71 percent.

Mississippi went from five U.S. House seats to four after the 2000 Census because the state grew more slowly than many others during the 1990s. Redistricting only made Wicker's district more conservative. He was re-elected in 2004 with 79 percent of the vote. He won in 2006 with 66 percent over Democrat James K. "Ken" Hurt.

Wicker served in the Mississippi state Senate from 1987 to 1994. He was first elected to the U.S. House in 1994.

(Last updated by Emily Wagster Pettus on May 11, 2009.)