Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says the state and nation would be better served with more racial diversity within the Democratic and Republican parties.
Speaking Tuesday to a mostly black audience at Jackson State University, Barbour, who was Republican National Committee chairman in the mid-1990s, says Mississippi does not need a white party and a black party.
Instead, Barbour says: "We need two salt-and-pepper parties."
Democrats controlled Mississippi politics for generations, but the state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980.
During Barbour's time as governor from 2004 to 2008, Republicans increased their presence in the Mississippi Legislature.
For the past four years, Republicans have controlled the state House and Senate. But, there are no black Republican lawmakers in the state with a 37 percent black population.
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