A dark horse candidate swept the Democratic primary for governor in Tuesday’s primary, leaving party leaders thinking sexism played a role in the victory for the political unknown who reported spending no campaign money and admitted to not casting a ballot in the primary.

Truck driver Robert Gray never made a campaign appearance in Warren County or most anywhere else in the state, yet he soundly toppled two women candidates, including the projected frontrunner who is one of the state’s most prominent attorneys.

“Evidently Mississippi doesn’t want a woman governor. That’s my opinion,” Warren County Democratic Party Chairman John Shorter said

Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr., a longtime Democratic state legislator, said he had never heard of Gray before the election and declined to comment.

“Nobody knows him,” Shorter said. “I don’t even know what he looks like.”

Gray had no campaign signs in Warren County, yet he won 1,081 votes, beating Dr. Valerie Adream Smartt Short, an obstetrician and Vicki Slater, an attorney who had the backing of most statewide party leaders. Statewide, Gray won 51 percent of the vote.

“Gray didn’t even do signage, so it had to be the fact they didn’t want a woman governor,” Shorter said.

Democratic Party organizer Gertrude Young, who was Vicksburg’s first female elected official when she served on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, also felt sexism played a role in the election’s outcome.

“It’s just sad to say, but I think it’s just a male thing. I think it’s simply because he’s a male,” she said of Gray’s nomination. “It still appears like people really aren’t ready for a female to be the head of government.”

Young said Short visited Vicksburg during Memorial Day weekend though she did not do any major campaigning. Slater spoke in July at a forum sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta.

“She had a good showing. You could tell she was very knowledgeable,” Young said of Slater. “That’s who I thought they would have went with. Her being a woman is the only reason I can see they didn’t go with her.”

Slater campaigned on expanding Medicaid and fully funding an education budget formula that has been largely ignored since it was put into law in 1997.

Gray never launched much of a platform. On Tuesday, he told the Associated Press that he was busy on primary day and did not cast a ballot.

Slater finished second in Warren County with 779 votes. Statewide she drew 30 percent of the vote. Short garnered 573 votes here and finished with 19 percent across the state.

Gray will face first-term Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and the Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara in the Nov. 3 general election. In Tuesday’s primary, Bryant easily defeated challenger Mitch Young of Sumrall.