1933 Virginia gubernatorial election

← 1929 November 7, 1933 1937 →

Nominee George C. Peery Fred W. McWane Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 122,820 40,377 Percentage 73.7% 24.2%

County and independent city results Peery:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90% McWane:     50–60%

Governor before election John Garland Pollard Democratic Elected Governor George C. Peery Democratic

The1933 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1933, to elect thegovernor of Virginia.

The 1900s had seen Virginia, like all former Confederate States, almost completelydisenfranchise its black and poor white populations through the use ofa cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.^[1] So severe was the disenfranchising effect of the new 1902 Constitution that it has been calculated that a third of those who voted were state employees and officeholders.^[1]

This limited electorate made post-disenfranchisement Virginian politics controlled by apolitical machine based inSouthside Virginia and led byThomas Staples Martin until his death in 1919. Progressive "antiorganization" factions were rendered impotent by the inability of almost all their potential electorate to vote.^[2] Unlike the Deep South, historicalfusion withthe "Readjuster" Democrats,^[3] defection of substantial proportions of theNortheast-aligned white electorate of theShenandoah Valley andSouthwest Virginia overfree 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,^[5] although in many areas – like in Tennessee during the same era – the parties avoided competition by an agreed division over local offices.^[2]

Following the final challenge to hard lily-white control of the state GOP, the small number of black voters in the state were excluded from turning to the rival Democrats by a 1924 party ruling that only qualified whites could vote in the primary.^[6] This produced a series of court cases that would see Virginia's white primary permanently invalidated in 1930 without a Supreme Court challenge.^[7]

Whilst the state's white primary was challenged in federal court,Harry Flood Byrd, first elected Democratic central committee chairman in 1922,^[8] would be elected Governor in 1925 and implement significant reforms, most importantly a "short ballot" which reduced the number of elected officials to three.^[a] Byrd's coattails would allowJohn Garland Pollard to be elected Governor despite the divisions caused by opposition toAl Smith inthe 1928 presidential election.^[9] Pollard's win confirmed Byrd's supremacy within Virginia politics,^[10] although he had a reputation for independence and was not closely identified with Byrd and his organization.^[11]

As Byrd would, except for the "Hundred Days" at the beginning ofFDR's first presidential term, always cling to his belief inlimited government or "pay-as-you-go", he would support as next GovernorGeorge C. Peery,^[12] whom he had previously helped "redeem" the "Fighting Ninth" congressional district in 1922. Peery would overwhelm his various opponents, and this election solidified a trend for the small turnout to be even less at the general election than at the Democratic primary.^[13]

• George Campbell Peery, member ofthe State Corporation Commission fromTazewell County^[14]
• Joseph T. Deal, former Representative forthe Second Congressional District fromNorfolk
• W. Worth Smith,State Senator fromLouisa^[15]

• Andrew J. Dunning (Prohibition), fromNorfolk^[17]
• Fred W. McWane, Republican Party State Secretary fromLynchburg^[18] (Republican)
• George C. Peery, member of theState Corporation Commission and former U.S. Representative fromTazewell (Democratic)
• John Moffett Robinson (Independent), fromFincastle^[19]
• W. A. Rowe (Independent) fromBlackwells^[20]
• George C. White (Socialist)

• Virginia gubernatorial elections
• 1933 United States gubernatorial elections
• 1933 Virginia elections
• November 1933 in the United States

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