Yazoo City native Haley Reeves Barbour, 56, will take the oath of office Tuesday as Mississippi's 63rd governor. Barbour, a Republican attorney who built the nation's most successful lobbying firm, succeeds Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, D-Batesville.
The Haley Barbour File
Born Oct. 22, 1947, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Father dies when Barbour was two.
Graduate, Yazoo City H.S. and the University of Mississippi School of Law.
At age 21, organized 31 Mississippi counties in the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon.
Married to the former Marsha Dickson of Canton. Two sons, Sterling, 29, and Reeves, 24;
Deacon, First Presbyterian Church of Yazoo City.
Former executive director, Miss. Republican Party.
Defeated in a 1982 bid for the U.S. Senate against veteran U.S. Sen. John Stennis.
Miss. Republican National Committeeman from 1984-98.
Named White House Political Director during the second Reagan Administration from 1985-87.
Senior adviser to 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush.
Named Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1993 and is credited with helping orchestrate the GOP sweep in the 1994 and 1996 congressional elections. Served from 1993-97.
Returns in 1997 to former law/lobbying firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers, with offices in Mississippi and Washington, D.C. Firm sold to Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) in 1999, a publicly traded NYSE company. Fortune estimated the sale at $20 million. Barbour served as chairman and CEO of the firm.
One of ten members of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush's National Presidential Exploratory Committee in 1999.
Chaired the Bush for President Campaign Advisory Committee in 2000.
Defeats incumbent Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in the Nov. 4, 2003 general election.
Inauguration as Mississippi's 63rd governor slated Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004.
