Political Career
Douglas Wilder began his career in public office after winning a 1969 special election to the Senate of Virginia from a Richmond-area district. He was the first African American elected as state Senator in Virginia since Reconstruction. A 1970 redistricting gave Wilder a predominantly African-American district, and a liberal in a conservative legislature, he worked hard and gained influence through committee chairmanships when he gained seniority.
In 1985, still holding office in the state Senate, Wilder was narrowly elected the 35th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia on a Democratic ticket under then-Attorney General Gerald L. Baliles. Baliles was also from Richmond. Wilder was the first African American to win a statewide election in Virginia. Aware that he needed to reach the swath of the state's majority white electorate, Wilder had undertaken a two-month "back roads" campaign tour of the state, visiting Virginia's predominantly rural central and western regions and enhancing his name recognition across the state's demographic expanse.
Read more about this topic: Douglas Wilder
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“No wonder that, when a political career is so precarious, men of worth and capacity hesitate to embrace it. They cannot afford to be thrown out of their life’s course by a mere accident.”
—James Bryce (1838–1922)
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