"undermine the Negro" as "Negroes are all Democrats." Johnson characterized Phillips as a covert racial moderate who had switched parties because he had little chance of winning a large Democratic primary, and his campaign publicized a memo Phillips had written as a public service commissioner in 1956 calling for a moderate approach to racial issues. He and major state newspapers decried the threat posed by a two-party system to the political unity of white conservatives, warning that it would create an opening for black voters to gain influence. Phillips also backed education reform, civil service reform, and right-to-work legislation. He opposed sales tax increases. He lost the election, garnering only 38 percent of the vote. Despite concluding that Republicans had "lost a battle," he argued that "we have not lost the war. We now know that we have a strong two-party system." 1967 gubernatorial campaign Eager to continue to build up the Republican Party in Mississippi, state Republican chairman Clarke Reed and finance director Billy Mounger convinced Phillips to run again in the 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election. Encouraged by the good performance of moderate Republicans in the South during the 1966 United States elections, Phillips decided to run as a moderate against segregationist Democrat John Bell Williams. He opened his campaign on October 3 with a television broadcast, calling for a "two-way street in human relations" and advising that "The white cannot keep the Negro down without paying the awesome penalty of restricting his own advancement." The declaration marked a break from previous Republican messaging in the state and garnered skepticism from political observers. When asked whether his comments had doomed his chances, Phillips stated, "I think the people of Mississippi are ready to face this issue. I think it is a timely subject." He also alleged that the state was controlled by an "old guard establishment" who were interested in perpetuating their own power at the expense of the state's economy. Phillips backed the reinstatement of compulsory school attendance legislation, the disbanding of the Mississippi Milk Commission and the repeal of the two-year residency requirement for prospective voters in the state. He also supported a freeze on state government hiring, which Williams rejected, arguing it would deny employment opportunities to young people. Phillips was endorsed by the black-dominated and civil rights-oriented Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which praised his call to improve the state's race relations and reduce the restriction