Brad Dye


Bradford Johnson Dye Jr. was an American politician who served three 4-year terms as 27th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1980 until 1992. Dye is the only individual in state history to have served as Lieutenant Governor for 12 consecutive years.

Early life

Dye was born in Charleston, Mississippi. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration and a law degree from the University of Mississippi.

Career

A member of the Democratic Party, Dye began his political career in 1950 as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives and subsequently worked for Paul B. Johnson Jr. He was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1960, later also serving in the Mississippi Senate and as Mississippi state Treasurer. He was a segregationist in the 1960s.
Dye was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1979. By then, he decided to "make his peace with integration, hiring African Americans onto his staff as lieutenant governor." In 1983, Dye won his second term as lieutenant governor by defeating Republican Gil Carmichael, an auto dealer from Meridian. Carmichael had been his party's nominee for governor in 1975 against Cliff Finch and in 1979 against William Winter. In 1987, Dye won re-election to a third consecutive four-year term in office. In 1986 a commission studying the state's constitution affirmed Dye's perspective on the powers of the lieutenant governor's office.
In September 2010 he was presented with the Mississippi Medal of Service by Governor Haley Barbour.

Death

Dye died of respiratory failure on July 1, 2018 in Ridgeland, Mississippi.