Byrd Organization - Demise

Demise

Harry F. Byrd Sr. retired from the U.S. Senate in 1965, and his eldest son, Harry, Jr., a State Senator, was appointed to succeed him.

Harry, Sr. died in 1966. A short time before his death, the Byrd Organization showed its first cracks when two of Harry, Sr.'s longtime allies were ousted in the Democratic primary by more liberal challengers. Senator Robertson was defeated by State Senator William B. Spong, Jr., whom President Lyndon Johnson had personally recruited. Also, Congressman Smith was defeated by State Delegate George Rawlings. While Spong went on to victory in November, Rawlings was defeated by conservative Republican William L. Scott, who gained the support of many conservative Democrats.

The Byrd Organization finally broke down in 1969, when a split in the Democratic Party allowed A. Linwood Holton Jr. to become the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction. A year later, Republicans won six of the state's 10 congressional districts—the first time Republicans had held a majority of the state's congressional delegation since Reconstruction. Ironically, one of the districts that turned Republican was the 7th District, the Byrds' home district. Holton was succeeded in 1974 by Mills Godwin, a former Byrd Organization Democrat who had turned Republican. Meanwhile, despite the end of the Organization, Harry Byrd, Jr. remained in the US Senate until his retirement in 1983.