NORFOLK, Va. — Editor's note: This story is part of our 13News Now Vault series.
We are looking back at two more elections in Virginia ahead of this November’s midterm election.
Back in 1985, flooding in parts of the state caused concern over voter turnout.
In the race for governor, Virginia Attorney General Jerry Baliles, a Democrat, defeated Republican Wyatt Durrette.
“Tonight, the people of Virginia voted for the future,” said Baliles on election day in 1985.
But it was the lieutenant governor race that featured a history-making underdog.
Then-State Sen. Douglas Wilder defeated Republican State Sen. John Chichester to become the first African American to win statewide office in Virginia.
Then, just four years later, the 1989 gubernatorial election would be another history-making November.
For starters, it was one of the closest races in Virginia history.
In Suffolk, controversy surrounded a prank on certain voters. Someone was calling Black voters in the city and telling them they’d been purged from the registrar’s database, meaning they shouldn’t show up to vote.
But the prank wouldn’t get in the way of history.
By just one-half of one percent of the vote, Douglas Wilder defeated Republican Marshall Coleman to become the first elected African American governor in United States history.