A. Linwood Holton, Jr.

Abner Linwood Holton Jr. ( born September 21, 1923 in Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Virginia ) is a retired American politician. He was from 1970 to 1974 Governor of Virginia.

Early years and political rise

Linwood Holton attended until 1944, the Washington and Lee University. Then he studied until 1949 at the Law Faculty of the Harvard University law. During the Second World War he served in the U.S. Navy in submarines. Later he was a member of the Naval Reserve.

Holton was a member of the Republican Party and the party executive in Virginia. In the years 1960 and 1968 he was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions, in each of which Richard Nixon was nominated as presidential candidate of the party. Holton was not thrilled by the party crossings of some disaffected Democrats. Among them was Mills E. Godwin, who was both his predecessor and his successor as governor. Godwin had beaten in the 1965 gubernatorial election Holton.

Governor of Virginia

In 1969, Holton was elected governor of his state. He was the first Republican governor of Virginia since Gilbert Carlton Walker, who had held office 1869-1874. Holton took office on 17 January 1970. His four-year term in Virginia was relatively quiet; but it was overshadowed federal level by the events of the Watergate scandal. Holton was a member of several associations governor.

Further CV

After the end of his governorship Holton worked as an attorney at the law firm Hogan and Hartson in Washington. In 1978 he applied unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In later years he alienated himself from his party, which struck a more conservative course. For this reason, he has supported some candidates in various elections of the Democratic Party. Linwood Holton has four children with his wife Virginia Harrison Rogers.

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