In 1964 , Walker was a delegate to the Republican National Convention , which met in San Francisco , California , and he ran as a Republican in , in the central eastern part of the state . He unseated 11-term incumbent W. Arthur Winstead by some 7000 votes , an 11 % margin , the first Republican breakthrough in Mississippi since Elza Jeffords served a term in Congress from 1883 to 1885 . Walker 's victory is considered to have been strongly influenced by the campaign of Barry Goldwater , who carried Mississippi in the 1964 presidential election with 87 % of the vote . Goldwater won many of the counties in the district with greater than 90 % of the vote ; two , Holmes and Noxubee counties , gave him a staggering 96.6 % , tied for his best showing in the nation
Republican National Convention
1964 Republican National Convention
Prentiss Walker