West Virginia

WEST VIRGINIA WAS a part of the state of Virginia until June 20, 1863, supported the Union in the American Civil War. With much of the industry in the state from logging and coal mining, it had a long labor tradition, although 14 of its 32 governors have been Republican.

The first elected governor of West Virginia was Arthur I. Boreman. Born in Pennsylvania, he had moved to the region when he was 4-years-old, and was active in the Whig Party before becoming a supporter of the Constitutional Union Party that fielded John Bell in the 1860 U.S. presidential election. After serving for six years, Boreman, in the tradition set by so many other first state governors, sought election to the U.S. Senate. His successor, Daniel D.T Farnsworth, held the office of governor for seven days, then William E. Stevenson, a former member of the state senate, and a partner in the Parkersburg State Journal, was elected.

In 1870, John I. Jacob was elected governor of West Virginia, and served three two-year terms, the second after being elected as an Independent. Democrat Henry M. Matthews succeeded him, and West Virginia elected Democratic governors until 1897. In 1884, Emanuel Willis Wilson was elected as governor, and then there was a dispute over the 1888 gubernatorial election. Both Nathan Goff Jr. and Artesas Brooks Fleming claim to have won the election, and Wilson remained governor throughout the crisis, despite state Senate President Robert S. Carr wanting to hold office until the problem was resolved. On March 4, 1889, both Goff and Fleming were sworn in as governor. It was finally agreed that Fleming had won and Goff withdrew. When Fleming left office in 1893, William A. MacCorkle became the new governor, after his election in 1892. He had campaigned for improvements in transportation in the state.

The next five governors were all Republicans, each serving one term, with George W Atkinson elected governor in 1897. In 1900, Albert B. White defeated Democrat John H. Holt, by 19,156 votes. Henry D. Hatfield campaigning for continued support of the trade union movement, and was elected in 1912. The Republican ascendancy in the the U.S. presidential elections in the 1920s saw three Republican governors of West Virginia 1921–33.

During the 1932 U.S. presidential election, the state supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, and elected Democrat Herman G. Kump as governor. He served two terms, during the height of the Great Depression. Kump's successor, Homer Adams Holt, elected in 1936, remained in office until 1940. The next governor elected was Matthew M. Neely, who had held a seat in the U.S. Senate from 1930. Neely never liked the governorship, and after only two years as governor, he tried to leave and seek re-election to the U.S. Senate.

Throughout the period beginning in the early 1930s, the Democrats held both the state's seats in the U.S. Senate, two of the three state seats in the House of Representatives, and he also dominated the state legislature and most elected state offices. The state capital of Charleston traditionally supported the Democrats, as did the area encompassing the coalfields of southern West Virginia, namely Boone, Logan, McDowell, Mingo, and Wyoming counties, with the Republicans drawing the core of their support from the counties in the Allegheny Valley, along [Page 868]with the mid-Ohio Valley, in particular Jackson, Mason, and Wood counties.

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