Although the Republican Party has never elected a governor of Virginia, G.O.P. leaders thought they might be able to do it this year. They were wrong. Republican Candidate Theodore Roosevelt Dalton got almost 45% of the votes, more than any Republican candidate for governor in Virginia history (the 50-year average: 29%), but it was not enough. Furniture Manufacturer Thomas B. Stanley, backed by every unit of Harry Byrd's Democratic machine, was elected by a margin of more than 44,000 votes. In their own Virginia way, the Byrdmen pitched their campaign against Dalton on the argument that he was a big-spending, high-debt,...
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