Preceded by Michael Retzer Name Jim Herring Residence Canton, Mississippi | Spouse(s) Beverly Herring Succeeded by Brad White | |
Political party Democrat-turned-Republican Children James Herring, Jr.
Daughters Caroline and Christine | ||
James Harrell Herring, Sr., known as Jim Herring (born November 13, 1938), is a lawyer in private practice from his native Canton in Madison County in central Mississippi, outside the capital city of Jackson. From 1997 to 1999, he was a judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals and from 2001 to 2008 the state chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party.
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Background
In 1960, Herring received a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Mississippi at Oxford, where he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity. In 1963, he obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He served in the United States Army for three years of active duty as a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps. For another twenty-one years, he was an Army reservist, in which capacity he reached the rank of colonel. He received the Army Commendation Medal and three Meritorious Service medals.
Herring and his wife, Beverly, have a son, James, Jr., and two daughters, Caroline, a folk singer, and Christine. He is an elder in the Grave Chapel Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Canton.
Political career
A former prosecuting attorney for Madison County, Herring was elected as a Democrat in 1971 as the district attorney for the 20th Circuit District of Mississippi. On August 7, 1979, Herring ran for governor of Mississippi and polled 135,812 votes (18.4 percent) in the Democratic primary election. In a runoff election, the nomination went to William F. Winter, who defeated Evelyn Gandy, the lieutenant governor, who carried the backing of former U.S. Senator James O. Eastland. Winter then handily defeated Republican Gil Carmichael of Meridian in the general election in what became Carmichael's second consecutive defeat for the state's highest office.At some point after the 1979 election, Herring defected to the Republican Party.
In 1996, Governor Kirk Fordice, the first Republican chief executive in his state since Reconstruction, appointed Herring to the Mississippi State Personnel Board. In 1997, Fordice named him to the state Court of Appeals, in which a capacity, he participated in more than one thousand legal cases. Governor Haley Barbour named him a special judge of the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Herring has been a member of both the Executive and Rules Committees of the Republican National Committee. Through an appointment from the national party chairman, he has been the "Chairman of the Chairmen" of all state and territorial Republican Parties. U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Herring to the trustees of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation for a six-year term. He was also vice chairman of the foundation board. He is a board member of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. In 2012, he headed the transition team for incoming Republican Governor Phil Bryant.
Herring considers himself an advocate of the Eleventh Commandment, promoted by former U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan.