The 1961 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1961, to elect the governor of Virginia. Democratic former attorney general Albertis Harrison defeated Republican former state delegate H. Clyde Pearson.
Incumbent Democratic governor J. Lindsay Almond was ineligible to seek re-election to a second term due to the state's prohibition on consecutive gubernatorial terms.
Background
1961 would become the last Virginia gubernatorial election under the control of the conservative Byrd Organization before the Twenty-fourth Amendment and Voting Rights Act served to greatly expand the state's electorate – previously exceedingly small due to a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.
Allie Edward Stakes Stephens had served as Lieutenant Governor for over two terms since a 1952 special election. However, when the state went for losing GOP nominee Richard Nixon in 1960 despite Stephens supporting national Democrat Kennedy, it was clear that the long-serving lieutenant had broken with the Organization. With patriarch Byrd senior considering it inappropriate for his son to run for any state office, Attorney General Albertis S. Harrison Jr. gained the Organization support in January.
Campaign
By May Stephens had become strongly opposed to its longstanding policies and was campaigning vigorously against Organization nominee Harrison, aided by financial support from former councillor and current State Highway Commission member Walter Chinn. Harrison would consistently criticize Stephens for "intemperate" criticism of the Byrd Organization.
Although "Massive Resistance" had been ended by outgoing Governor Almond in 1959, education remained the major issue for all campaigns from the first primaries in June. Stephens would lose the July 11 primary by thirteen percentage points – significantly smaller than previous antiorganization candidates.
Campaigning was described by the press as "mild", and predictions – ultimately fulfilled – expected turnout to be less than forty percent of the state's approximately one million registered voters.
Democratic primary
Candidates
Nominee
- Albertis Harrison, former attorney general of Virginia (1958–1961)
Eliminated in primary
- Allie Edward Stakes Stephens, lieutenant governor of Virginia (1952–1962)
General election results
Results by county or independent city
Counties and independent cities that flipped from Republican to Democratic
- Arlington
- Bland
- Buchanan
- Pulaski
- Montgomery
- Wythe
- Falls Church (independent city)
- Galax (independent city)
- Radford (independent city)
Counties and independent cities that flipped from Democratic to Republican
- Roanoke
- Rockingham
- Shenandoah
- Roanoke (independent city)
Analysis
Harrison almost exactly matched Almond's performance from 1957, improving the Democratic margin by one percentage point. Nevertheless, the ensuing collapse of the Byrd machine means this remains the last occasion a Democratic gubernatorial nominee has won sixty percent of the vote, and only Gerald Baliles in 1985 has subsequently won every congressional district in a gubernatorial election for either party. This would be the last occasion until 2017 that Chesterfield County voted Democratic for Governor, and remains the last occasion when Augusta County or Greene County voted for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. The collapse of the Byrd machine, however, meant that this is the last election when Charles City County voted for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, as the black electorate, which had become a majority of voters in that county continued to oppose Byrd candidates, but would soon shift to Democrats as it had earlier done at other levels.