[2] Historical fusion with the “Readjuster” Democrats,[3] defection of substantial proportions of the Northeast-aligned white electorate of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia over free silver,[4] and an early move towards a “lily white” Jim Crow party[3] meant Republicans retained a small but permanent number of legislative seats and local offices in the western part of the state.

Opposition to the black civil rights legislation of Harry S. Truman meant that the Byrd Organization did not support Adlai Stevenson II or John F.

[8] Although the Organization viewed the national Republican party as no better on civil rights—it opposed the “massive resistance” orchestrated by Senator Byrd after Brown v. Board of Education—Byrd's silence helped Eisenhower and Nixon win the state three consecutive times between 1952 and 1960.

[19] At the same time, the Shenandoah Valley, where pietistic Protestant sects supportive of civil rights were influential,[9] alongside the heavily unionized southwestern coalfields and Northeastern-aligned Northern Virginia, would see a strong swing towards Johnson, aided by growth in poor white voter registration from the Twenty-Fourth Amendment.

[10] Despite this, a majority of white Virginians undoubtedly backed Goldwater,[21] and a doubling of a black presidential vote that almost unanimously supported Johnson was critical for his win.