Mills E. Godwin, Jr.

Who was Mills E. Godwin, Jr.?

Mills Edwin Godwin, Jr. of Chuckatuck, Virginia, was an American politician who was the 60th and 62nd Governor of Virginia for two non-consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978.

For his first term, he was the last Governor elected who was a part of the Byrd Organization, the conservative Democratic establishment that dominated Virginia politics for over three decades. Although Godwin spent his first term as governor as a member of the Democratic Party, he was succeeded by the election of A. Linwood Holton, Jr., the first non-Democrat in over 80 years. By 1974, Godwin had switched to the Republican Party, as the dominance of the Democrats in Virginia politics and the Byrd political machine had clearly ended. He was the first governor in the history of the United States to be elected as both a Republican and Democrat.