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made history in November, becoming the first black man elected as a governor in the United States. His victory, by a margin of less than 7,000 votes out of 1.7 million cast, surprised skeptics who pointed to Virginia as the heart of the Old South.
Republican J. Marshall Coleman enjoyed a comfortable lead of more than 10 points in opinion polls as the fall campaign season began, after
Wilders campaign lurched through the stlmmer seemingly without direction.
Coleman, however, saw his campaign flounder on the issue of abortion, where the staunch pro-life stance which had helped him win the Republican primary came back to haunt him.
Although Coleman’s allegations of personal financial problems plagued Wilder, the Democrat attacked Coleman’s position on abortion in a series of campaign ads which the Republican never successfully rebutted.
Even more surprising than Wilder’s victory, however, was Democrat Donald S. Beyer’s victory over State Sen. Edwina “Eddy” Dalton in the Lt. Governor’s race. A political newcomer running a long-shot campaign, Beyer saw Dalton’s lead in the polls steadily shrinking, and quipped the day before the election that if the votes were cast on Thanksgiving, he’d win for sure.
Probably not even Beyer thought he would be victorious on Nov. 7, but Mrs. Dalton, the widow of former Governor John Dalton, was the first to concede defeat on election night. Beyer won by eight percentage points, 54-46 percent.
Though Rappahannock County defied the statewide result and went for Coleman and Dalton, and Coleman called for a recount of the ballots, by Christmas Wilder had been certified as the winner, and Coleman dropped all further plans to contest the election. Wilder will be inaugurated on Saturday, Jan. 13 in Richmond.
See TOP TEN, p. 12
94.7%