Introduction
Politics in may ways is much more uniform today than it was a few decades ago, when there were conservatives and liberals and moderates in both parties. This could often result in Congressional elections and results that often were more complex and confused than might appear at first glance. Congressional districts themselves also changed, of course, sometimes simply by census changes, other times by court order. Most of this political sorting into a party of mostly liberals and another party of mostly conservatives began in the 1960s, with the crumbling of Jim Crow, which in turn caused Rockefeller Republicans to lose much of their influence in a party that was now majority conservative, and caused Democrats to effectively become the liberal party, as southern conservatives retired, defected, or were defeated. I’ve decided to go through my home state, Virginia, beginning with the 1964 elections.
But first, to set the mood, a popular hit song from 1964. To set the mood. Why not?
Background
After the 1960 census, Virginia had ten congressional districts, and they changed very little from the map drawn in 1950, though the 10th district in the D.C. suburbs and the 2nd district in Norfolk became more compact as populations there increased. The map produced by the Virginia General Assembly for the 88th through 92nd Congress was as follows:
At the time, the “one person, one vote” principle did not apply, so the populations varied rather widely between the districts, with the least-populated 7th much lower in overall population than the 10th and 2nd, which were probably not small enough. Virginia, like many other states at the time, generally avoided subdividing counties or independent cities when drawing district boundaries. So with all that said, let’s delve into the presidential and congressional elections.
Virginia’s Congressional Delegation
After the 1964 elections, Virginia had eight Democrats and two Republicans representing it in Congress. But don’t get too excited about that number; all of those Democrats were segregationists, or conservatives, or both. But both of the Republicans were conservative segregationists too. Let’s just say the south wasn’t an easy place to be an actual liberal then. Nevertheless, let’s go down the list to see how the presidential and house elections went that year.
District 1
This district was entirely contained within the tidewater and river peninsulas in eastern Virginia, and also included the non-contiguous Eastern Shore counties. Though the picture above doesn’t explicitly say this, it included Virginia Beach, which wasn’t contiguous with the rest of the district at the time either, but was too populated to be fit into the neighboring 2nd district. Most of the population was concentrated in Newport News and Hampton on the district’s southern edge.
Though he was facing a Republican opponent for the first time ever, Rep. Thomas Downing (D) dispatched this Republican (Wayne Thiessen) with ease, winning 78.71% of the vote.
Downing had been first elected in 1958 as a member of the conservative Byrd Organization, but by 1964 he had already moved somewhat away from the aging and ailing Byrd, endorsing Kennedy and Johnson for president in spite of his conservative record (he had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 24th Amendment, and generally voted the conservative line on economic reforms as well), but was a strong booster of NASA, military modernization, and infrastructure spending (including the Higher Education Act of 1965), which he supported against Byrd’s wishes. It is partly due to Downing that his hometown of Newport News remains a primary shipbuilding city for the Navy.
As for the presidential election, Johnson defeated Goldwater by a comfortable margin of 56.78% to 43.12%. Most of Johnson’s vote had come from Hampton and Newport News, military communities that, while not exactly liberal at the time (due to Jim Crow) were alarmed at the nuclear rhetoric that Goldwater casually threw out. Most of the Goldwater vote had come from the sparsely populated coastal counties in the northernmost two thirds of the district, but even many of these were weaker for Goldwater than they had been for Nixon in 1960.
District 2
This compact district contained the military-heavy cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, along with the neighboring city of Chesapeake (which was then much more rural in character than it is today). This was one of the few districts in the state where the Byrd machine had essentially no influence, as its “courthouse cliques” had found little success in cities, and the district’s population was overwhelmingly urban and skeptical of the value of Byrd’s pay-as-you-go fiscal stinginess.
Republican challengers for this seat were more common than elsewhere in Virginia, with many non-natives lacking southerners then-fanatical loyalty to the Democrats, but nevertheless Rep. Porter Hardy (D) won re-election over Republican Wayne Lustig with 68.73% of the vote.
Hardy was first elected in 1946, by defeating a Byrd-backed conservative in the Democratic primary. Though a farmer by trade, Hardy (a native of Portsmouth) represented a district that was mostly urban, and his record in Congress reflected this, making him the second-most liberal member of the Virginia delegation. Like every other Virginia member, Hardy vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but Hardy had also supported public housing funds (including the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965), urban infrastructure spending, and increased federal education grants, and went on to support most of the Great Society anti-poverty bills in the next Congress. He had also voted for the 24th Amendment, which abolished Jim Crow poll taxes (despite opposing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which enforced the amendment). This drew Byrd’s ire, but his influence had begun to fade already, and Hardy was never in any danger of being unseated for his liberal heresies on spending and economic reforms.
In the presidential election, this was one of Johnson’s best districts in Virginia, as he defeated Goldwater 61.23% to 37.89%. Johnson won every locality with a majority, which may have made Hardy feel safer in voting a more liberal line on spending and economic reform bills.
District 3
This district, covering Richmond, Chesterfield County, Henrico County, and Colonial Heights, was one of the most Republican in the south, giving Nixon a supermajority in the 1960 election. Having been re-elected with only 49% of the vote in 1962, incumbent Rep. J. Vaughan Gary opted to retire rather than face the much-hyped Republican candidate, Richard Obenshain. When the Democrats immediately divided into liberal and conservative factions, ultimately resulting in the liberals breaking away and nominating an independent (Edward Haddock, an anti-segregation Richmond state delegate). One might have thought that this would be a prime pickup opportunity for the Republicans, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, David Satterfield (D) of Richmond, a former Byrd loyalist, eked out a win with 34.5% of the vote, and a margin of only 654 votes.
Satterfield also managed one other curious achievement: he won his race while losing every locality within his district. He did this by running a close second to Obenshain in Chesterfield and Henrico Counties (where Haddock did very poorly) and coming in second in Richmond (where Obenshain came in a distant third, while Haddock came in first). In his first term, Satterfield was a relatively undistinguished southern conservative, generally voting in line with the “conservative coalition” on civil rights and public spending, though he would later moderate his views somewhat as the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and the Byrd Machine faded away, and he usually voted in favor of popular environmental and consumer protection laws, despite his conservatism. In the 89th Congress, he voted in favor of the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, the National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act (which required seat belts, among other changes, to make cars safer), and even voted in favor of the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act in spite of strong lobbying from Philip Morris in his district to oppose it, but he usually voted to the right of most Democrats, opposing the Higher Education Act of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In the presidential election, this district supported Barry Goldwater by a strong majority, 56.81%, to Lyndon Johnson’s 43.15%. Most of Johnson’s vote had come from Richmond, while the Goldwater vote was mainly from the conservative suburb and exurb counties surrounding the city.
District 4
This district mainly covered southeastern Virginia. It was the district with the highest African-American population, but most of them could not yet vote. Voting drives by civil rights advocates, often at great risk for themselves and the new voters, had greatly increased their numbers since 1960, but intimidation and a lack of federal enforcement mechanisms meant that the district was still under the control of the Byrd machine, and it’s elected member Rep. Watkins Abbitt (D), was a Byrd loyalist and conservative.
Abbitt, who hailed from the western edge of his district in Appomattox, was first elected in a special election in 1948, when his predecessor died in office. Abbitt was a strong conservative on segregation (though he would later call this support an expedient mistake), defending Byrd’s “massive resistance” program (which advocated abolishing public schools entirely if need be to prevent their integration) even as Hardy and Downing backed away from this extreme stance. Needless to say, he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but must have stunned supporters and critics alike by become one of just two Virginia Congressmen to vote for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. God only knows why Abbitt, who had voted against the 24th Amendment, threw his support behind the bill that provided federal enforcement for the amendment. Like Satterfield, Abbitt usually voted the conservative line on most matters, but joined Satterfield in supporting the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act and the National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He actually voted in favor of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which Satterfield and William Tuck (see below) voted against.
In the presidential election, this district narrowly supported Barry Goldwater with 50.94% of the vote, with Johnson getting 48.91%. This district had been Kennedy and Stevenson’s best district in the state in the previous three elections, and the difference mainly had to do with segregationist Democrats backing Goldwater in southside Virginia, even as the eastern edge of the district stayed Democratic.
District 5
The “southside district” had long been in the hands of Byrd Democrats, and was more southwestern in its orientation at the time than now. These were the most pro-segregation areas of the state (though Franklin, Patrick, and Henry Counties had continued voting Democratic even after Truman), and had not voted Republican, even for president, for over a century. It stretched along the North Carolina border, including textile mill towns and the piedmont towns of Danville, South Boston, Martinsville, and Galax. The seat was so reliably Democratic that it was essentially a gift from the Byrd machine to any southside Democrats who could pass muster with the senior Senator, so it was no surprise that Rep. William Tuck (D) was re-elected with 63.41% of the vote, defeating Republican Robert Gilliam.
A native of Halifax County, Tuck had enjoyed a long political career before entering congress, serving in the General Assembly, State Senate, as Lieutenant Governor, and Governor. Byrd effectively gave Tuck his congressional seat in 1952 as a reward for his faithful service when his predecessor, Thomas Stanley, was tapped by Byrd to run for governor. Tuck was among the most enthusiastic segregationists in the Virginia delegation, not only voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but also enthusiastically backing the “massive resistance” strategy. In addition, Tuck was also strongly conservative on labor, backing right-to-work laws in defiance of the national Democratic platform. Unlike Abbitt, Tuck voted against the Higher Education Act of 1965, but voted in favor of the Cigarette Labeling Act despite strong tobacco farming interests in his district. His refusal to support Democrats for president after 1944 and his intransigence on any social reforms that might, even unintentionally, break down racial barriers may have been a factor in his decision to retire in 1968 rather than run again, as it was clear he would never be given any committee or subcommittee responsibilities.
The district split almost evenly in the presidential race, with the eastern half mostly supporting Goldwater, and the western half mainly backing Johnson. Ultimately, Goldwater prevailed, with 52.18%, against Johnson’s 47.14%. Goldwater’s victory was mainly due to the fact that the more population-rich areas in the district, especially Danville, voted for him in large margins. Johnson’s support came mainly in the poorer western parts of the district, such as Martinsville, which had continued supporting Democrats even after Truman.
District 6
This district, mainly covering the southern Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia, stretched from Lynchburg to Roanoke and was one of the most traditionally Republican in the state (it contained the only counties that had voted Republican in 1932 and 1936). The incumbent, Rep. Richard Poff (R), almost always drew a strong and credible challenger, but as he had since 1952, Poff was victorious, defeating Democrat William Hopkins with 55.70% of the vote to Hopkins’ 44.3%.
Born in Radford, Virginia, and growing up in Roanoke, Poff had been swept into office on the coattails of Eisenhower in 1952, becoming the first Republican member from the district since Reconstruction. On most matters, Poff was a rather unremarkable moderately-conservative Republican. But he had been one of only two Republicans to sign the Southern Manifesto in defense of segregation, and like every other Virginia representative had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like most Republicans generally, Poff voted for the 24th Amendment, but like Hardy, then voted against the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which would have enforced it. Like most of the Virginia delegation, Poff supported the Cigarette Labeling Act despite tobacco lobbying in his district, but was among only three fellow Virginians to vote against the Higher Education Act of 1965. Like Satterfield and Downing, he voted for the Pollution Control Act and the National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act, but usually voted as a typical Republican against economic reforms and most of the Great Society spending bills. Poff was one of the few southerners to vote in favor of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which repealed the racist immigration quotas the nation had been using since the 1920s. In a stark contrast with contemporary positions, at the time the Republican Party was strongly pro-immigration, and Poff may have felt pressure from his party to vote the pro-reform line in that case.
In the presidential election, this district narrowly supported Barry Goldwater, with 51.66%, against Lyndon Johnson’s 48.2%. The vote for Johnson and for Poff’s Democratic challenger nearly matches by county and city, suggesting that ticket splitting in this district was much lower than elsewhere in the state. Goldwater was strongest in the rural center and east of the district and the city of Lynchburg, while Johnson was strongest in the western edge of the district and the city of Roanoke.
District 7
Covering all of the upper Shenandoah Valley, this district had been on of Richard Nixon’s best in 1960, and along with the aforementioned 6th district, was one of the few with any history of supporting Republicans after Reconstruction. This district was also home to Harry Byrd himself, who resided in Winchester, and the machine’s influence was strong here. Nevertheless, Republican strength in presidential elections here seemed to give Republicans an opening, especially considering that Rep. John O. Marsh (D) had been elected in 1962 by a razor-thin margin of 50.6% to 49.4% over Republican James Robinson. But Marsh romped to re-election when Robinson chose not to fight a rematch, defeating Republican sacrificial lamb Roy Erickson 69.6% to 30.4%
Marsh, the second-newest Virginia representative after freshman David Satterfield, did not have a susbstantial political record prior to winning his seat. Growing up in Harrisonburg, he had served as an attorney in Strasburg, Virginia (a very lovely mountain town, if you ever visit), but his record in hist first two terms shows a rather run-of-the-mill conservative southern Democrat in many respects. Like Downing and Abbitt, he mostly voted the conservative line, especially on civil rights (he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965), but generally voted in favor of infrastructure improvements (like Downing and Abbitt, he voted for the Higher Education Act of 1965). Like most of the Virginia delegation, he also voted for the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act and the National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
In the presidential election, this was one of the few districts in Virginia that trended strongly toward the Democrats compared to 1960. Nixon had won this district by 20 points, but Lyndon Johnson edged out Barry Goldwater in this election, 50.81% to 49%. Most of Johnson’s support came from the extreme northern and southern edges of the district, while Goldwater’s support came mainly from the central part of the district.
District 8
In contrast to the modern district, at this time the 8th district sprawled from the rural areas of northern Virginia all the way to Charlottesville, and all the way east to the Northern Neck in the tidewater area, and as far south as Hanover County north of Richmond. It functioned essentially as a catch-all district for any areas not encompassed by the districts it bounded. Despite a split in the local Democrats between conservatives in the rural areas and liberals in Charlottesville and Fredericksburg, nobody doubted that Rep. Howard W. Smith (D), a Byrd conservative, would be re-elected easily, and he was, defeating a liberal Democrat who had run as an independent, Floyd Bagley, 69.4% to 30.6%.
A native of Fauquier County, Smith was the dean of the Virginia delegation, first elected in 1930, and by now serving as the chairman of the Rules Committee. This essentially allowed him to schedule when bills would be debated and voted upon, and he invariably used this power to delay and halt liberal social reforms, especially integration, even going so far as to say "The Southern people have never accepted the colored race as a race of people who had equal intelligence... as the white people of the South." Speaker Sam Rayburn, a strong Kennedy ally, tried at various points to have Smith either replaced as a chairman, or to reduce his power, but never completely succeeded.
Smith had supported some New Deal measures early in his career, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, rural electrification, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, but he had also opposed both Roosevelt and Truman on labor questions. He voted against the 24th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but in favor of the Higher Education Act of 1965. He also voted in favor of the Cigarette Labeling Act and the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act.
One notable curiosity of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was that Smith, despite opposing it, managed to add sexual discrimination among the types of discrimination banned by the act. Some historians speculated that Smith was trying to embarrass pro-union Democrats, since labor unions at the time were often opposed to equal rights for women, or was perhaps hoping that sexism among his fellow members of Congress (who were overwhelmingly men) might cause the bill to fail, but Smith to his dying day insisted that he earnestly believed in equal women’s civil rights. He noted that if the bill was going to pass anyway, he wanted to at least get something he wanted out of it. This would turn out to be Smith’s last term in the House, but more on that in the next installment.
Despite Smith’s segregationist stance, his district supported Lyndon Johnson by a convincing margin, 53.86% to Barry Goldwater’s 45.92%, slightly more Democratic than Virginia’s statewide results that year. Johnson was strongest in the northern and central parts of the district, while the southern, western and eastern edges backed Goldwater.
District 9
This district was more compact in this period than today, and was almost entirely contained within the western panhandle of Virginia. It had by far the most labor union members (mainly coal miners) and also the fewest non-whites in the entire state. Due to Jim Crow laws, this meant that it also provided far more voters in comparison to its population than the much more African-American 5th and 4th districts, where the black vote was still being vigorously suppressed by the local authorities. This district had occasionally voted Republican in the past, but the local Democratic parties were often much more liberal here than elsewhere in the state, as labor influence prevented the Byrd machine from making much headway here. In any case, a Republican challenge to Rep. W. Pat Jennings (D) ended in failure, as Jennings defeated Glen Williams 58.2% to 41.8%.
Jennings’ Wikipedia article links to a story by Drew Pearson noting that the far-right, anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby apparently gave Jennings an award for “right-wing activities.” I’m at a total loss to explain why they did so because, in fact, Jennings was the closest thing to a liberal in the Virginia delegation in 1964. An automobile dealer from Smyth County, Jennings had defeated incumbent Republican Rep. William Wampler in 1954, promising to be more responsive to the district’s coal mining and farming interests. He voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but consistently voted the liberal line on infrastructure, education, labor, and regulations. Such votes meant that Jennings had, far and away, the highest liberal rating of any Virginia representative according to Americans for Democratic Action’s scores. He voted in favor of the 24th Amendment, and even voted for the Housing and Urban Development Act despite the very rural character of his district. Jennings also voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and was the only Democrat in the state delegation to vote in favor of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Indeed, his strong loyalty to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations may have led to his defeat in a rematch with Wampler in 1966.
Lyndon Johnson carried every locality in the district, and defeated Barry Goldwater by a strong margin of 59.63% to 40.03%. Johnson did best in the coal-mining counties on the West Virginia and Kentucky border, while Goldwater’s vote came mainly from the interior parts of the district and along the North Carolina border.
District 10
Created after the 1950 census, this district encompassed the Washington DC suburbs and exurbs. This included the independent cities of Falls Church, Alexandria, and Fairfax, as well as Fairfax and Arlington Counties. Like the 2nd and 9th district, this was another area where the Byrd machine had very little influence, and the local Democrats were mainly conventional liberals. Local and national Democrats targeted Rep. Joel Broyhill (R) for defeat, noting his strong conservatism in a district that was fairly moderate, and noting that his membership in the minority party put the government workers who lived in his district at a disadvantage. Broyhill seemed more vulnerable than most because he had always drawn credible challengers, and had never won over 59% of the vote even in strong Republican years. But the incumbent skated by on a razor-thin margin of 50.7%, defeating Fairfax County Democratic chairman Augustus Johnson who received 49.3% of the vote.
Born in Hopewell, Virginia, but growing up in Arlington, Broyhill had been president of the Arlington County Chamber of Commerce before being elected to the newly-created 10th district on the coattails of Eisenhower in 1952. His victory that year had also been by a razor-thin margin over a liberal Democrat, and local Democrats never failed to recruit strong challengers against him, but he had survived by strong constituent services and attention to issues useful to his district. He often voted in favor of infrastructure spending when it suited his district, including the Higher Education Act of 1965, and like most other Republicans he supported the Immigration and Nationality Act. Otherwise, however, he was generally a conservative “Goldwater Republican” on other issues. Broyhill voted against both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and like Poff had signed the Southern Manifesto, but had supported the 24th Amendment. His strong opposition to home rule for the District of Columbia earned him the ire of the African-American community, and he even once suggested that DC should re-segregate their now-integrated schools. Oddly he voted in favor of the 23rd Amendment, which gave Washington DC electors for presidential races.
The failure to defeat Broyhill was made all the more heartbreaking by the fact that this was Lyndon Johnson’s best district in Virginia, supporting him by 62.06%, compared to 37.68% for Barry Goldwater. Johnson won all the localities by strong margins, but his best was Alexandria City, while Goldwater’s best showing was in Fairfax City, though even here Goldwater lost to Johnson by an 18-point margin.
Presidential Results
Lyndon Johnson won Virginia with 53.54% of the vote, with Barry Goldwater receiving 46.18%. A fairly convincing win, though given the strong Democratic landslide nationwide, this actually made Virginia Goldwater’s tenth best state. Most of Goldwater’s strength was due to defecting segregationists in southern Virginia, but these were more than counterbalanced by moderate Republicans defecting to Johnson in western and northern Virginia. This would be the last time Virginia voted Democratic for president until 2008.