For over sixty years Virginia had had the most restricted electorate in the United States due to a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.[1] Virginia would be almost entirely controlled by the conservative Democratic Byrd Organization for four of those decades,[2] although during the Organization's last twenty years of controlling the state it would direct many Virginia voters away from the national Democratic Party due to opposition to black civil rights and to the fiscal liberalism of the New Deal.[3] After the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections the state's electorate would substantially expand as the burden of poll taxes on the lower classes was removed. Contemporaneously the postwar Republican trend of the Northeast-aligned Washington D.C. suburbs, which had begun as early as 1944, would accelerate[4] and become intensified by the mobilisation of working-class Piedmont whites against a national Democratic Party strongly associated with black interests.[5]
After 1966 the statewide Democratic party was severely divided into conservative, moderate and liberal factions,[6] so that in addition to voting Republican in four of five presidential elections, Virginia's Congressional delegation would gain a Republican majority as early as the 91st Congress, and Linwood Holton would become the first Republican governor since the 1880s Readjusterfusion. However, it was 1970 before significant GOP gains occurred in the state legislature, and it was generally acknowledged that President Nixon offered no support to down-ballot Republican candidates.[7]
However, Nixon did not win all of the electoral votes in Virginia because one of his pledged electors, Roger MacBride, instead cast his vote for Libertarian candidate John Hospers and his running mate, Tonie Nathan. Although Hospers was not on the ballot in Virginia, MacBride's vote was the first electoral vote ever cast for a female candidate (Nathan); MacBride was subsequently nominated as the Libertarian candidate for President in the next election.
Results
1972 United States presidential election in Virginia[17]
Nixon won all 10 congressional districts, including three held by Democrats.[19]
District
Nixon
McGovern
1st
67.4%
30.4%
2nd
65.8%
31.3%
3rd
71.5%
27.1%
4th
63.5%
33.6%
5th
70.7%
29.3%
6th
72.7%
24.6%
7th
71%
27.1%
8th
66.3%
32.3%
9th
66.9%
31.3%
10th
63%
35.5%
Notes
↑ A faithless Republican elector voted for the Libertarian ticket: Hospers–Nathan
References
↑ Kousser, J. Morgan (1974). The Shaping of Southern Politics Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910. Yale University Press. pp.178–181. ISBN0-300-01696-4.
↑ Key, Valdimer Orlando (1949). Southern Politics in State and Nation. pp.20–25.
↑ Ely, James W. (1976). The crisis of conservative Virginia: the Byrd organization and the politics of massive resistance. University of Tennessee Press. p.16. ISBN0870491881.
↑ Atkinson, Frank B. (2006). The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-party Competition in Virginia, 1945-1980. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN9780742552098.
↑ Phillips, Kevin P. (1969). The Emerging Republican Majority. Arlington House. pp.260–266. ISBN0870000586.
↑ Bass, Jack; De Vries, Walter (1995). The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945. pp.347–353.
1 2 Evans, Rowland; Novak, Robert (October 16, 1972). "Consider Virginia: McGovern, Nixon Creating a No-Party System in South". The Miami Herald. pp.7–A.
↑ Apple (jr), R.W. (October 8, 1972). "All the Signs Point to Nixon: Great Election Sweep Almost Within Grasp". Greensboro Daily News. Greensboro, North Carolina. p.1.
↑ Broder, David S (October 22, 1972). "Politics from Maine to Hawaii: State-by-State Rundown of 1972 Election Scene". Boston Sunday Globe. pp.A-5, A-8.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
