Hailing from a politically active family and initially a member of the Democratic Party, he served as a circuit court clerk from 1952 to 1956 and chaired the Mississippi Public Service Commission from 1956 to 1958.

Supporting a platform of racial segregation and opposition to the presidential administration of John F. Kennedy, he lost, garnering only 38 percent of the vote.

Phillips ran as a Republican a second time during the 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election with a more racially moderate approach, losing after getting only 30 percent of the vote.

He thereafter became an executive at the Stirling Homex Corporation, but was incarcerated and disbarred after becoming involved in a scheme to inflate profit figures to investors and regulators.

He served for four years, including duty in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and retained an officer's commission in the force until he retired from the navy with the rank of commander in 1963.

[3] Hailing from a politically active family and initially a member of the Democratic Party,[4] Phillips was elected circuit court clerk for Alcorn County,[1] serving from 1952 until 1956.

[9] During his tenure the commission's regulatory authority was strengthened and it successfully litigated the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company to lower its rates for Mississippi customers.

[12] Phillips opposed the nomination of John F. Kennedy as the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1960 and voted for the slate of unpledged electors during the general election.

[19] 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.

[24] 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.

[23] 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.

[27] 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 of black economic advancement.

[4][29] Following his second failed gubernatorial bid, Phillips became an executive for the Stirling Homex Corporation, a New York-based company that built housing modules.