Douglas Wilder

Lawrence Douglas Wilder ( born January 17, 1931 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American politician. He was governor of Virginia (1990-1994) and as such is the first African-American governor of any state since 1872.

As the Democratic candidate Wilder was elected on November 8, 1989 Governor of Virginia, where he just the Republican candidate Marshall Coleman defeated. That in view of the recent opinion polls, which predicted a comfortable victory for Wilder, the surprising result was explained both with greater voter mobilization of the Republicans than with the hypothetical Wilder effect. Wilder took office on 13 January 1990. In 1994, he left office because Virginia does not allow re-election of the governor.

Wilder was the second African-American governor of any state of the United States. Prior to 1872 Governor of Louisiana had only been Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback in years. However, Pinchback had been appointed only after the impeachment of Governor and exerted only a month why Wilder is also referred to as " the first elected African-American governor ."

His feud with his predecessor and party colleague, Chuck Robb, one of the two senators for Virginia, and his support of the Republican politician Mark Earley, alienated him the Democratic Party. In 1992, Wilder was running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency, but pulled back before the end of the primaries. In 1994, he ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for a Senate seat.

From 2005 to 2009 Wilder was mayor of Richmond.