ENTRY

John N. Dalton (1931–1986)

SUMMARY

John N. Dalton, a successful lawyer, businessman, and farmer, was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1966–1972) and the Senate of Virginia (1972–1973), and served as lieutenant governor (1974–1978) and as governor (1978–1982). He was the first Republican lieutenant governor of the twentieth century. His term as governor came during a period of dramatic realignment in which the Republican Party, long overshadowed by the Democratic Byrd Organization, became competitive in state elections for the first time in nearly a century. In fact, Dalton’s rapid climb from state legislator to governor paralleled Virginia’s transition from a one-party, Democratic state, typical of the “Solid South,” to a competitive, two-party system. The third in a trio of Republican governors of Virginia during the 1970s, Dalton stressed economic development, conservative fiscal management, and Republican party-building.

John Nichols Dalton was born in Emporia, Virginia, on July 11, 1931. The adopted son of Theodore Roosevelt “Ted” Dalton, a Republican Party leader, state senator, and gubernatorial nominee, the younger Dalton became immersed in party politics at an early age. In 1953 he graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and, in 1957, received his law degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He then returned to his hometown of Radford to practice law and pursue a political career.

He served as the state Republican Party counsel and treasurer, as well as in other leadership posts, before seeking public office for the first time in 1965. He was elected to the House of Delegates and served there until 1972, when he won a special election for the Virginia Senate. In 1973, he was elected lieutenant governor. He became governor in 1978 after handily defeating his Democratic opponent, former lieutenant governor Henry E. Howell Jr., in an often-bitter contest. Federal judge Ted Dalton, whom the governorship had twice eluded, administered the oath to his son, the sixty-third Virginia chief executive, on January 14, 1978.

Although the Daltons hailed from the western “Mountain and Valley” region, where Republicans tended to be centrist in their political outlook, John Dalton became a leading advocate in the 1970s for a party-building strategy that stressed recruiting conservative converts from the ranks of former Democrats. In this, he was allied closely with Richard D. Obenshain, the Republican state chairman, and with Byrd-Organization Democrats such as former governor Mills Godwin. Godwin exited the Democratic Party as its more liberal faction gained control early in the 1970s, and ran for governor again as a Republican in 1973. Dalton joined the Godwin ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor, and the pairing helped to cement an alliance between the Republican moderates from the west and the conservative former Democrats in the eastern two-thirds of the state. Dalton simultaneously cultivated ties to the state’s moderate-conservative business establishment and projected a youthful, energetic appeal to the state’s fast-growing suburban areas.

Dalton assumed the state’s top office in 1978 and later that year helped John W. Warner gain a razor-thin win in his first bid for the U.S. Senate. With those victories, the once-moribund Virginia Republican Party capped a decade-long statewide winning streak that made it the most successful state party organization—Republican or Democratic—in the country at the time. Along with Obenshain and Godwin, Dalton was widely credited for the success.

Dalton’s gubernatorial tenure was characterized by bipartisan consensus and few crises or major policy initiatives. He emphasized transportation and education improvements consistent with the state’s fiscally conservative traditions and restrained the growth of the state government workforce. He devoted much of this time and energy as governor to diversifying and accelerating Virginia’s economic development. He also stressed greater inclusiveness in state government, and his appointment of Dr. Jean Harris as secretary of human resources in 1978 brought the first woman and the first African American to a Virginia governor’s cabinet.

After leaving office, Dalton joined McGuireWoods, a law firm based in Richmond, and remained influential in political affairs. He actively considered a bid for governor again in the 1980s, but died of lung cancer on July 30, 1986. His widow, Edwina Panzer “Eddy” Dalton, was elected to the Virginia Senate in 1987 and ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1989.

MAP
TIMELINE
July 11, 1931
John N. Dalton is born in Emporia.
1953
John N. Dalton graduates from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and assists with the first gubernatorial campaign of his father, state senator Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" Dalton.
1957
John N. Dalton completes his legal studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, returns to his hometown of Radford to practice law, and participates in his father's second gubernatorial campaign.
1965
John N. Dalton wins his first bid for public office, the first of four consecutive elections to the Virginia House of Delegates.
1972
John N. Dalton wins a seat in the Senate of Virginia in a special election.
November 6, 1973
John N. Dalton is elected lieutenant governor of Virginia, the first Republican to hold the post in the twentieth century.
November 8, 1977
John N. Dalton is elected governor of Virginia, defeating former lieutenant governor Henry E. Howell Jr. by more than 150,000 votes.
1978—1982
John N. Dalton serves as governor and appoints Dr. Jean Harris as secretary of human resources, making her the first African American and the first woman to serve in a Virginia governor's cabinet.
1982
John N. Dalton joins the McGuireWoods law firm (then McGuire, Woods, Battle and Boothe) in Richmond and begins service on corporate boards of directors.
July 30, 1986
John N. Dalton, a nonsmoker, dies of lung cancer at age fifty-five and is interred at the family cemetery near Radford.
FURTHER READING
  • Atkinson, Frank B. The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-Party Competition in Virginia, 1945–1980 (revised second edition). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., and the University of Virginia Center for Politics, 2006.
  • Morris, Thomas R., and Larry J. Sabato. Virginia Government and Politics. Charlottesville: Virginia Chamber of Commerce and University of Virginia Center for Public Service, 1990.
  • Sabato, Larry J. The Democratic Party Primary in Virginia: Tantamount to Election No Longer. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977.
  • Sabato, Larry J. Virginia Votes 1975–1978. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Institute of Government, 1979.
  • Tarter, Brent. “Dalton, John Nichols.” In The Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 3, edited by Sara B. Bearss et al., 666–669. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006.
  • Wilkinson, J. Harvie, III. Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics 1945–1966. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1968.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Atkinson, Frank. John N. Dalton (1931–1986). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/dalton-john-n-1931-1986.
MLA Citation:
Atkinson, Frank. "John N. Dalton (1931–1986)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 27 Sep. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
Feedback
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.