Douglas Wilder

Douglas Wilder, 2003

Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931 in Richmond , Virginia ) is an American politician . He was Governor of Virginia (1990-1994) and as such the first African-American governor of a federal State since 1,872th

As a Democratic candidate , Wilder was elected governor of Virginia on November 8, 1989 , narrowly defeating Republican candidate Marshall Coleman . The surprising result given the latest opinion polls , which predicted a comfortable victory for Wilder, was explained both by stronger voter mobilization of the Republicans and by the hypothetical Wilder effect . Wilder took office on January 13, 1990. In 1994 he left office because Virginia does not allow re-election of the governor.

Wilder was the second African American governor of a state in the United States . Previously, only Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback had been Governor of Louisiana in 1872 . However, Pinchback was only appointed governor after his impeachment and only held this post for a month, which is why Wilder is also known as the "first elected African-American governor".

His feud with his predecessor and fellow party member Chuck Robb , one of the two Senators for Virginia, and his support for Republican politician Mark Earley , alienated him from the Democratic Party . In 1992, Wilder ran for the Democratic candidacy for the US presidency, but withdrew before the end of the primaries . In 1994 he ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for a Senate seat.

Wilder was Mayor of Richmond from 2005 to 2009.

literature

• Douglas L. Wilder , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 38/1995 of September 11, 1995, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Bernd Herrmann: Richmond, Virginia: Something new in the south. Article with information on Douglas Wilder's political career on the Heinrich Böll Foundation's homepage from February 23, 2009
• Douglas Wilder in the National Governors Association (English)