Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
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Harry Flood Byrd, Jr. (born December 20, 1914) is a U.S. political figure. He represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1965 to 1983. He is most notable for leaving the United States Democratic Party in 1970 and becoming an independent. He is the son of Harry F. Byrd, Sr..
Byrd was born in Winchester, Virginia. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia. He became a newspaper editor and fruit grower. He served in the United States Naval Reserves during World War II.
Byrd's father served in the Virginia State Senate from 1948 to November 1965. In November 1965, Byrd's father resigned from the Senate for health reasons. Byrd, Jr. was appointed to succeed him by Governor Albertis S. Harrison, Jr. and won a special election to serve the remainder of his father's term in 1966. Like his father, he was a member of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party. He was a supporter of racial segregation. Largely because of the abolition of poll taxes and the passage of the Voting Rights Act during Byrd's first term, African Americans, with the help of white liberals, began to have more influence in the Virginia Democratic Party. Byrd believed that he could not win the Democratic primary when he came up for reelection in 1970. Byrd was widely popular in the state, however, so he let a liberal win the Democratic primary and ran as an independent. He won reelection, receiving 54% of the vote compared to 31% for Democrat George C. Rawlings, Jr. and 15% for Republican Ray Garland. Garland's poor showing was largely because Richard Nixon and other Republicans tacitly supported Byrd, believing that Garland did not have a chance to win and that Byrd would join the Republican Party or at least support them in their attempts to take over the Senate.
Byrd continued to have a conservative voting record. But though he usually voted with the Republicans, he refused to stand with either party for the purposes of determining the composition of the Senate, remaining completely alone in the Senate as someone who did not associate with the Democrats or Republicans.
Byrd won reelection in 1976, defeating Democrat Elmo Zumwalt. The Republicans did not run a candidate, fearing that they would split the conservative vote and cause a Democrat to win. Byrd did not run for reelection in 1982 and moved back to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia.