Richard D. Obenshain
| Richard Dudley Obenshain (Virginia attorney and | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | October 31, 1936 Abingdon, Virginia | ||
| Died | August 2, 1978 (aged 41) Chesterfield County, Virginia Death cause: Plane crash | ||
| Political Party | Republican | ||
| Spouse | Helen Nottingham Wilkins Obenshain (married 1961-1978, his death) Children: | ||
Richard Dudley Obenshain (October 31, 1935 – August 2, 1978) was a conservative attorney and a major figure in the Republican Party in his native Virginia during the 1960s and 1970s. He has been called "The Ronald Reagan of Virginia," having been a firm Reagan supporter at the 1976 party convention when Gerald Ford won the presidential party nomination at the convention in Kansas City, Missouri.
Obenshain was an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general in 1969 and then became the state party chairman. As the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 1978, he died prematurely in an airplane crash in Chesterfield County. His primary opponent, John Warner, was nominated to fill the seat[2] and served in the Senate for thirty years, originally a conservative but later the epitome of Moderate Republicanism.
Background
Obenshain was the son of Samuel S. Obenshain (1904-2000), a soil science professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and the former Josephine Mathews Dudley (1906-1992). The elder Obenshain was active in Virginia's Republican Party during the era of the Democratic "organization" of Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd. [2]
Reared in Blacksburg, Obenshain graduated from the private liberal arts school Bridgewater College in Bridgewater in Rockingham County, Virginia, and was admitted to the state bar.
Political career
Obenshain was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964 and ran almost successfully for the United States House of Representatives for Virginia's 3rd congressional district based about the capital city of Richmond. He lost to the Democrat David Edward Satterfield, III (1920-1988), by only 654 votes.[3] Presidential nominee U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona carried the 3rd district except for Richmond.[4] However, Republicans had been making inroads among Byrd Democrats. As early as the 1930s, several Byrd Democrats had begun splitting their tickets for national elections because of the galloping liberalism of the national party.[2]
Obenshain was the Republican nominee for state attorney general in 1969, when A. Linwood Holton, Jr., a Moderate Republican, became the first Virginia Republican governor since Reconstruction. Obenshain became the state party chairman in 1972 in the last year of Holton's governorship.
In 1966, two longtime Byrd stalwarts, U.S. Senator Absalom Willis Robertson (1887-1971), father of the tele-evangelist Pat Robertson and U.S. Representative Howard W. Smith, were ousted by more liberal primary challengers. Byrd's son, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., barely survived a primary challenge for the right to finish out his father's sixth term. Nevertheless, Conservative Democrats remained entrenched in most local offices and the General Assembly. Under Obenshain's leadership, however, a record number of Republicans were elected to the legislature.[2]
In the summer of 1978, Obenshain won his party's nomination at the state convention to run for the U.S. Senate to succeed the retiring one-term conservative Republican Senator William L. Scott. On the night of August 2, the small twin-engine airplane carrying Obenshain home from a campaign appearance crashed in trees while attempting a night-time landing at the Chesterfield County Airport, a general aviation facility near Richmond at which the runway lights were out of order. Killed along with Obenshain was the pilot, Richard Franklin Neal, Sr. (1936-1978), and a flight instructor Ronald Allen Edelen of Prince George's County.[5][6] Former Governor Holton was a Senate candidate too. In second place in the convention balloting was John Warner, the former United States Secretary of the Navy in the Richard Nixon administration. Warner was chosen to replace Obenshain as the party's nominee for the U.S. Senate race. Warner won in November over the Democrat Andrew Pickens Miller (1932-2021).
Personal life
In 1961, Obenshain married his wife, the former Helen Nottingham Wilkins (born c. 1934). The couple had three children, two of whom were also active in state Republican politics. Their daughter, Kate Obenshain, formerly Kate Griffin of Winchester, following in the path of her father became the first woman in 2004 to head the Virginia Republican Party. Coincidentally, her opponent for the chairmanship was state Republican party treasurer Richard Neel, Jr., an Alexandria attorney whose father was the pilot in the crash that killed Obenshain. Then, in November 2003, Obenshain's son, Mark D. Obenshain (born 1962), an attorney based in Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley, was elected to the state Senate for the 26th district. A decade later he was the 2013 Republican nominee for attorney general, forty-four years after his father's candidacy for the same office.
Mrs. Obenshain sued the estate of Richard Neel for the wrongful death of her husband but obtained no settlement.[7]
Legacy
According to an article in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, Obenshain was successful at "birthing an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, his prescient support of Ronald Reagan and bold tax cuts, and his tireless crusade to curb Democratic dominance in the state."[8]
In Richmond, the state headquarters of the Republican Party of Virginia is named "The Richard D. Obenshain Center" in his honor.
Obenshain said that "the most important goal in my life is to have some significant impact in preserving personal freedom in the life of this country."[9] State Senator Mark Obenshain later said that the actual quote should have read: "The most important goal in my life is to have some significant impact in preserving and expanding the realm of personal freedom in the life of this country."
Obenshain, who was a Presbyterian, is interred, along with his parents, at Mill Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Troutville in Botetourt County, Virginia.[2]
References
- ↑ The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-Party Competition in Virginia, 1945-1980: Frank B. Atkinson : 9780742552081: Amazon.com: Books.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Richard Dudley “Dick” Obenshain (1935-1978) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed November 8, 2021.
- ↑ The Political Graveyard: Obenshain family of Richmond, Virginia, accessed November 8, 2021.
- ↑ U.S. Election Atlas, 1964 returns.
- ↑ Ken Ringle (August 4, 1978). Crash Kills Obenshain. Washington Post. Retrieved on November 9, 2021.
- ↑ Pilot of Obenshain Plane Called 'Very Cautious' - The Washington Post, accessed November 7, 2021.
- ↑ Obenshain v. Halliday, 504 F. Supp. 946 (E.D. Va. 1980) :: Justia, accessed November 8, 2021.
- ↑ Margaret Edds (September 14, 2003). A new generation of Obenshains storms Virginia GOP. The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved on November 7, 2021.
- ↑ Remembering Richard Obenshain, The Virginia Conservative (wordpress.com), accessed November 8, 2021.
