1945 Virginia gubernatorial election


In the 1945 Virginia gubernatorial election, incumbent Governor Colgate Darden, a Democrat, was unable to seek re-election due to term limits. Lieutenant Governor William M. Tuck was nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Republican state senator S. Floyd Landreth.

Background

For the previous four decades Virginia had almost completely disenfranchised its black and poor white populations through the use of a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests. So restricted was suffrage that it has been calculated that a third of Virginia's electorate during the first half of the twentieth century comprised state employees and officeholders. This limited electorate allowed Virginian politics to be controlled for four decades by the Byrd Organization, as progressive "antiorganization" factions were rendered impotent by the inability of almost all their potential electorate to vote. Historical fusion with the “Readjuster” Democrats, defection of substantial proportions of the Northeast-aligned white electorate of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia over free silver, and an early move towards a "lily white" Jim Crow party meant Republicans retained a small but permanent number of legislative seats and local offices in the western part of the state. Nevertheless, in gubernatorial elections during this period the Republican vote was mostly in the nature of a protest, and in most elections between 1925 and 1949 turnout was higher in the Democratic primary than the general election.
William M. Tuck had lost out to Darden as the 1941 organization nominee for Governor, but became Lieutenant Governor against perennial anti-organization leader Moss Plunkett. Tuck had beaten Plunkett by four-to-one in the 1941 lieutenant gubernatorial primary with a turnout even lower than usual due to the war, and he would repeat his win in the rematch by a five-to-two majority and carrying all but four counties and three independent cities, although Plunkett campaigned extensive on the failings of the Byrd machine in issues like suffrage, education and health. In the general election, Tuck would also win easily despite the fact that — unlike past GOP nominees — Landreth did significant campaigning.

Democratic primary

Candidates

General election

Candidates