Johnny DuPree (born November 18, 1953) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the mayor of Hattiesburg, Mississippi from 2001 to 2017. He was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Mississippi in 2011, the first African-American major party nominee for Governor in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. DuPree won the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State of Mississippi in the August 2019 primary, but lost in the November 2019 general election. DuPree was the Democrat candidate in Mississippi's 4th congressional district for the 2022 midterm elections. Early life and education Johnny DuPree was born in Fort Benning, Georgia. As a small boy, he moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with his mother, brother, and sister. DuPree has bachelors and Master's degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a PhD from Jackson State University. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Career DuPree entered public service in 1987 when he was appointed to the Hattiesburg Public School Board. A year later, he and his wife established a small real estate business. In 1991, he was elected to the Forrest County Board of Supervisors, where he served for 10 years before running for mayor of Hattiesburg in 2001. Mayor of Hattiesburg In 2001, DuPree became the first African-American mayor of Hattiesburg, after winning 53% of the vote. He was re-elected in 2005 and 2009. During his first campaign for mayor, DuPree ran on a platform of shoring up education and protecting small business. At the time, Robert Ingram, the executive director of economic development at the University of Southern Mississippi, predicted that DuPree would support locally owned small business while also being active in industrial recruitment. Despite damage to the city resulting from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and a global recession in 2008, the health of Hattiesburg's small businesses remained steady during DuPree's tenure as mayor. Ingram's predictions for Hattiesburg under the DuPree administration were largely accurate. In 2010, employment statistics showed Hattiesburg registering only 8.6 percent unemployment at a time when the rate in the state was 11.2 and the national rate was 11.1. Also during DuPree's tenure as mayor, annual crime statistics released by the Hattiesburg Police Department showed a 10 percent overall decrease in reported crime since 2008. Response to Katrina On the Sunday before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, DuPree was invited to address the congregation of