Incumbent Democrat James P. Coleman was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term.

[1] After the Brown ruling about school desegregation and the 1957 Little Rock Crisis, the defense of segregation and white supremacy across the South became a paramount concern, and all candidates ran as segregationists.

Sullivan was relatively more moderate on the race subject; he also ran on a promise to end prohibition.

He said he saved money so that, every two or three years, he could either travel or run for governor, adding that he did so on the suggestion of his wife.

The runoff election was won by trial lawyer Ross Barnett, who defeated Lieutenant Governor Carroll Gartin; both ran as rabid segregationists to the dismay of the relatively more moderate incumbent Coleman, each one trying to tar the other side with association with pro-integration forces.