Cliff Finch

Finch was born in the village of Pope in Panola County, northern Mississippi, the son of Ruth Christine (McMinn) and Carl Bedford Finch.[1] At the age of 18, he enlisted in World War II and was sent into the Italian Campaign as part of the 88th Infantry Division. After the war, Finch worked in construction on the Pacific island of Guam. He then attended the University of Mississippi at Oxford. In 1958, he graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Finch entered politics in 1960 and was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives. In 1964 and again in 1968, he was elected district attorney for the Seventeenth Judicial District. In 1971, he was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor.

Finch was the unexpected victor in two rounds of Democratic primaries leading up to the 1975 gubernatorial election.[2] He forged a coalition of African American and working-class white voters in a populist-style gubernatorial campaign. To show his concern for working people, he sacked groceries, drove bulldozers, and performed other menial jobs. Finch adopted the campaign slogan "The working man's friend", with those letters featured on a black lunch box in drawings and placards.

Finch was elected over the Republican nominee Gil Carmichael, a businessman from Meridian, and the African American independent candidate Henry Jay Kirksey.[2] The election was close, with Finch winning with just slightly more than half the vote.[2] In the same election, Evelyn Gandy won the lieutenant governorship, and Democrats retained control of the state legislature.[2] Carmichael drew 45 percent of the vote, an exceptionally high figure for a statewide Republican candidate at that time.

As governor, Finch helped save Mississippi's savings and loan industry from collapse, and provided flood relief after the 1979 Easter flood.

While still governor, Finch ran for the United States Senate in 1978, but he was defeated in the Democratic party primary by Maurice Dantin, who then lost in the general election to the Republican U.S. Representative Thad Cochran.

After leaving office, Finch ran in 1980 against U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He received 48,032 votes (0.3 percent of the Democratic primary vote total) in nine primaries. After the campaign, Finch resumed practicing law.

Finch died on April 22, 1986 in Batesville in Panola County, Mississippi, from a massive heart attack.[3]

• Cliff Finch at Find a Grave