The 1900s had seen Virginia, like all former Confederate States, almost completely
disenfranchise its black and poor white populations through the use of
a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests. 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. Unlike the Deep South, historical
fusion with
the “Readjuster” Democrats, defection of substantial proportions of the
Northeast-aligned white electorate of the
Shenandoah Valley and
Southwest Virginia over
free silver, and an early move towards a
"lily white" Jim Crow party However, in many areas – like in Tennessee during the same era – the parties avoided competition by an agreed division over local offices,
New Deal challenge In the first term after
FDR's landslide
1932 election triumph, the now-established Byrd Organization had maintained firm control under Governor Peery, Governor Peery would aim to combat the Depression using the traditional method of cutting spending, and opposed Roosevelt's
Federal Emergency Relief Administration. As early as June 1935, Lieutenant Governor Price announced he would be seeking the governorship in 1937. During most of 1936, Price would travel throughout the state seeking support, and by the time of
the 1936 presidential election, it was clear that the Byrd Organization, who had supported FDR for re-election despite opposing the policies and philosophy of the New Deal, would not oppose Price, who was seen as "anti-organization" despite saying he supported Byrd's conservative economic policies. Until Vivian L. Page withdrew from the lieutenant gubernatorial primary late in April, Price had no opponent in the primary. Page would campaign against Price on the basis that the latter was trying to "buy" votes, and to mislead the voters at a time when internal polling predicted a landslide for Price. As it turned out, the primary was a landslide for Price, who defeated Page by a margin of more than six-to-one, and in the general election Price defeated Republican
J. Powell Royall by nearly so large a margin in a rematch of
the 1933 lieutenant gubernatorial contest. Royall's performance is the worst by a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, losing all but two counties or cites, and this is the last time
Floyd County has backed a Democrat for Governor. ==Democratic primary==