The 1881 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1881. The

Readjuster The Readjuster Party was a bi-racial state-level political party formed in Virginia across party lines in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era that sought to reduce outstanding debt owed by the state. Read ...

Party candidate William Evelyn Cameron won in a historic upset election. The Readjusters were a unique state mixture of Republicans, populist (or " New Departure") Democrats, freedmen, poor voters, and those in favor of "re-adjusting" the state debt owed to Northern banks for the various internal improvements financed before the war. Some of those internal improvements went to West Virginia, as they were physically located in there, as it counter-seceded from Virginia, who had sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. The Democratic candidate, John Warwick Daniel, was a Virginia State Delegate and

Virginia State Senator The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...

who was elected Representative in 1882 and then United States Senator in 1886, succeeding the leader of the Readjuster Party, William Mahone. Cameron's Lieutenant Governor, a position that is separately elected, was Republican

John Francis Lewis John Francis Lewis (March 1, 1818September 2, 1895) was an American planter and politician from Rockingham County, Virginia. He served two terms as the ninth and 14th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and represented Virginia as a Republican in ...

. Lewis at the time of his election was a United States Marshal, and had previously served as Lieutenant Governor before resigning to serve as Senator upon the readmission of the State of Virginia to the United States.

Results

References

{{reflist
Our Campaigns page on William Cameron

The Encyclopedia Virginia entry on the Republican Party in 19th Century Virginia
Gubernatorial

1881 Events January–March * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The C ...

Virginia November 1881 events 1881 in Virginia Government of Virginia 1880s in Virginia 1880s Virginia elections 1881 elections 1881 elections in North America 1881 elections in the United States United States gubernatorial elections in the 1880s