Daniel Kirkwood "Kirk" Fordice Jr. (/fɔːrdaɪs/; February 10, 1934 – September 7, 2004) was an American politician and businessman who served as the 61st governor of Mississippi from 1992 to 2000.

Holding various leadership positions in the group form 1988 to 1991[3] (serving the last two years as its president[6]), he acted as a strong proponent of the construction industry and testified several times before U.S. congressional committees.

He led the organization through several involved lawsuits aimed at ending minority and small business set-aside requirements for contracting, including City of Richmond v. J.A.

Mabus aired a series of television ads which accused Fordice of planning to shut down the state's historically black schools.

[15] Having received six percent less of the total vote share than in 1987, several observers blamed Mabus' loss on perception that he was an arrogant leader.

[20] Fordice offended Jewish groups such as B'nai B'rith by referring to America as "a Christian Nation" during a Republican governors conference.

South Carolina governor Carroll Campbell quickly offered a correction, adding "Judeo-" as a prefix to Christian, but Fordice snapped back that he meant what he said.

Fordice refused to discuss any increase in public school pay rates across the state, even though Mississippi ranked 49th in the nation.

Fordice said he would have quit his position of Governor while still in office, except that he did not want to give the Democratic candidate, Musgrove, any spot-light time of running the state before the actual election.

Fordice received much scorn when he suddenly announced that he had "irreconcilable differences" with his wife in 1993; she claimed that she had no intention of getting a divorce, and they remained together.

These two scandals were soon overshadowed by Fordice's other actions, and he came to national attention for supporting the impeachment of then-president Bill Clinton on moral grounds.

[27] Outside the governor's private home in Madison, Fordice responded to WLBT reporter Bert Case asking questions in his news car by threatening to "whip your ass".

[32] Kirk and Pat Fordice, who reconciled shortly before his death, are interred with a double marker at Parkway Memorial Cemetery in Ridgeland.