The Yazoo County native received a degree from the University of Mississippi Law School in 1973.
In 1982, he was the Republican candidate for United States Senate but lost in a landslide to incumbent Democrat John C. Stennis. Afterwards, Barbour was President Ronald Reagan's Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs for two years. During his tenure as Republican National Committee chairman from 1993 to 1997, the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress and gained a majority of governorships. Barbour went on to become an influential lobbyist and served as chairman of then-Governor George W. Bush's presidential campaign advisory committee in 2000.
In 2003, he announced his intention to run in the Mississippi governorship race. On 5 Aug 2003, he won the republican Primary as a gubernatorial candidate. During the campaign, issues were raised about Barbour's possible racist connections. One such topic arose when Barbour defiantly refused to ask the Council of Conservative Citizens to remove his photograph from its website home page. The photo showed Barbour at a CCC-sponsored barbecue with five other men, including CCC field director Bill Lord. The CCC grew out of the racist white citizens councils that fought integration during the civil rights movement. However, Barbour went on to defeat incumbent Democrat Ronnie Musgrove in the general election on 4 Nov., 53% to 46%, becoming the second Republican governor elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction. He took office in January 2004.