WV did also have some similarities to neighboring Maryland. During the Civil War and just after, MD had a strong Unionist contingent — although only one officially became a Republican in the House with the 1866 elections and the rest were Democrat-aligned. With the exception of the Western 6th district, which has mostly been GOP-friendly since the 1872 elections to date, the rest of the state dovetailed somewhat with WV, beginning around 1894/96 when the Republicans took a majority (half the House seats in 1894, and all 6 in 1896, along with enough seats in the legislature to elect a GOP Senator in 1897 and in the other seat in 1899). They didn’t elect their first GOP Governor until 1895.
Unfortunately, this latter period in the 1890s would tend to be a high-water mark for the GOP across the board. It was about the last time they held offices such as Attorney General. Although the state was semi-GOP leaning from about 1894 onwards, the Dems reclaimed the legislature and Governorship after only a term for each of those offices, though the GOP maintained control of half of the House delegation until 1910. Oddly, against the national tide, the GOP won back the Governorship in 1911, but gave up the entire House delegation in 1912 (though a death in the Senate allowed the GOP Governor to appoint a Senator, though the seat was lost soon after).
With the advent of the 17th, it allowed the GOP to take back that same seat in the 1916 elections, even though they took just 2 House seats (out of 6). Also oddly, against the national tide, the Dems maintained control of the Governorship thoughout the GOP heavy period between 1916-1935 (and just as oddly, won it in the awful year of 1934, whose occupant, Harry Nice, was considered a strong contender for the GOP for President solely because he had won the job). The GOP also reclaimed the House majority in the state in 1920, getting the other Senate seat and 4 of 6 seats (and oddly losing the Eastern Shore 1st district with a GOP incumbent, one of the very few, perhaps 2(?) seats they lost in that banner year — similar to 1980 when we lost that district with incumbent Bob Bauman, who got embroiled in a gay sex scandal).
Where the state started to part company with WV was probably in the 1920s, as it swung hard to the Dems. By 1924, the MD GOP had lost its House majority, and even in 1928, elected just 2 members out of 6 (though it did win a Senate seat). In the 1930 elections, it was wiped out across the board. No federal Republican would be elected again until 1942 (and only Harry Nice was the lone Republican from 1935-39, but in the Governorship).
The GOP had a brief resurgence in the 1950s (winning the Governorship in 1950 with liberal Ted McKeldin, along with a Senate seat by Conservative John Marshall Butler, thanks in part to Joe McCarthy’s help and a heavy Black vote defeating the left-wing segregationist Millard Tydings) with the party in 1952 also getting 4 of the 7 House seats for the first time since 1920 along with the other Senate seat.
The GOP strength dwindled from after the late ‘50s onward, and as we know have only elected 2 Governors since after 1958 (Agnew in 1966 and Ehrlich in 2002), 2 Senators since after 1968 (the moderate Glenn Beall, Jr. for a single term in 1970, and the ultraliberal Chuck Mathias, who was poised to switch parties had he remained after 1987). Curiously, we had the favorable district lines during the ‘90s with half of the 8-member delegation from 1992-2002 (and for a very brief period, a majority of the House delegation in between Kweisi Mfume’s resignation and the execrable Elijah Cummings’ replacement election). Now, of course, via highly unfair gerrymandering (which punishes both Republicans and Black Democrats), we have that single House seat today and the rest of the party statewide remains exceptionally weak (and whether that equation changes in November, especially with the Governorship, we shall see).
I love looking up those outliers during landslides that switch sides to the losing party. It saddened me that 2006 had NONE for the GOP, close misses in Georgia.
ME-2 is one of the them from ‘94, I’d love to get it back.
Looks there were more GOP House loses in 1920 than I thought.
Besides MD-1 there was the other one I was already familiar with, KY-8, Republican King Swope (cool name) had won the formerly rat seat in a 1919 special, didn’t hang on.
There were also 2 open seat loses, NY-28 and OK-5 (who’s GOP incumbent John Harreld was elected to the Senate).
<<<<<<<<<<BTW, there were pockets of Black population: in the Southernmost county of McDowell, it had enough influence to send a husband and wife, Black Republicans, to the State House of Delegates in the ‘20s. It was a populous mining county back then.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Neat, what were their names?