Rubel Phillips

Rubel Lex Phillips (March 29, 1925 – June 18, 2011) was an American politician and lawyer.

He grew up poor in Alcorn County, Mississippi, and graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Rubel Lex Phillips was born on March 29, 1925, in Alcorn County, Mississippi, to William T. Phillips and Ollie Fare Phillips.

He had four brothers, including future writer Thomas Hal Phillips.

The family grew up poor, and in the 1940s they moved to Kossuth.

Rubel Phillips graduated from Alcorn Agricultural High School in 1943 and enlisted in the United States Navy.

Hailing from a politically active family and initially a member of the Democratic Party, he served as a circuit court clerk from 1952 to 1956 and chaired the Mississippi Public Service Commission from 1956 to 1958.

Hailing from a politically active family and initially a member of the Democratic Party, Phillips was elected circuit court clerk for Alcorn County, serving from 1952 until 1956.

In 1955, he married Margaret James in Drew and subsequently had two sons with her.

He was elected to the Mississippi Public Service Commission in 1955 as its northern district member.

The two other members of the commission decided to name Phillips as the body's chairman upon their assumption of office.

He and the rest of the commission were sworn in on January 16, 1956.

During his tenure the commission's regulatory authority was strengthened and it successfully litigated the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company to lower its rates for Mississippi customers.

Johnson characterized Phillips as a covert racial moderate who had switched parties because he had little chance of winning a large Democratic primary, and his campaign publicized a memo Phillips had written as a public service commissioner in 1956 calling for a moderate approach to racial issues.

He and major state newspapers decried the threat posed by a two-party system to the political unity of white conservatives, warning that it would create an opening for black voters to gain influence.

Phillips also backed education reform, civil service reform, and right-to-work legislation.

He opposed sales tax increases.

He announced his resignation from the Public Service Commission on December 20, 1957, to join a law firm in Jackson.

Governor J. P. Coleman appointed his brother, Thomas, to succeed him on the commission.

His resignation went into effect on January 1, 1958.

In 1959 he worked on a campaign advisory committee for Ross Barnett.

Phillips opposed the nomination of John F. Kennedy as the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1960 and voted for the slate of unpledged electors during the general election.

In 1962 Phillips joined the Republican Party.

In late 1962 he began consulting Wirt Yerger Jr. on the possibility of him running for the office of governor of Mississippi with the backing of the Mississippi Republican Party, which Yerger chaired.

He ran as a Republican in the 1963 Mississippi gubernatorial election, the first person to do so since 1947.

Supporting a platform of racial segregation and opposition to the presidential administration of John F. Kennedy, he lost, garnering only 38 percent of the vote.

He served for four years, including duty in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and retained an officer's commission in the force until he retired from the navy with the rank of commander in 1963.

He graduated from Millsaps College and the University of Mississippi School of Law.

After several weeks of public speculation, on December 20, Phillips formally announced his decision to run as a Republican in the 1963 Mississippi gubernatorial election, making him the first Republican gubernatorial candidate in Mississippi since George L. Sheldon ran in 1947.

He justified his switch in party affiliation by arguing that the Republican Party offered Mississippi "a program of genuine conservatism and local responsibility" and accusing the "National Democratic Party" of promoting socialism.

Political columnist Bill Minor said of his party switch, "I really believe he converted to Republicanism as a political opportunity to raise money to run. I never saw him as adopting the philosophy."

Like his Democratic opponent, Paul B. Johnson Jr., Phillips' campaign was dominated by appeals to white supremacy and race-baiting, arguing that Republicans were better suited to protect Jim Crow racial segregation in the state than Democrats.

He declared in one campaign appearance, "I was born a segregationist, I am for segregation now, and I will be for segregation when I die."

He attempted to link Johnson with President Kennedy, using the campaign slogan "K.O. the Kennedys", and stated that he would help U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater get elected president in 1964.

He also stated that a strong two-party system in the state would "undermine the Negro" as "Negroes are all Democrats."

Phillips ran as a Republican a second time during the 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election with a more racially moderate approach, losing after getting only 30 percent of the vote.

He never ran for office again but continued to fundraise for Republican candidates throughout the rest of his life.

He thereafter became an executive at the Stirling Homex Corporation, but was incarcerated and disbarred after becoming involved in a scheme to inflate profit figures to investors and regulators.

Reinstated to the bar in 1982, he resumed legal practice and worked as a consultant and counsel for a telephone company.

He died at an assisted living facility in Ridgeland, Mississippi, in 2011.