Chapter 5: Meanwhile in Virginia
Sergeant Foley
Well-known member
Wilder
11:56 AM EST, Thursday, November 30, 1978
Richmond, Virginia
11:56 AM EST, Thursday, November 30, 1978
Richmond, Virginia
United States Senator Lawrence Douglas Wilder (D-VA), whose upset landslide victory over then-United States Senator Harry F. Byrd (I-VA) in the 1976 Virginia US Senate election in what observers considered a huge political upset considering that President Rockefeller easily carried the Old Dominion by double digits of 20+ percentage points.
Since coming to the United States Senate on December 3, 1976, Wilder had been busy working on major pieces of legislation: lobbying hard to making Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 1977; filing legislation on Ethics Reform in light of the Watergate Scandal; co-sponsoring the Americans for Prosperity Act of 1977; using his oratory skills and bipartisan approaches with Senate Republicans when it comes to foreign affairs, national defense, etc.,
Wilder also faced some hostility from others such as United States Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) ,who tried to make things difficult for Wilder on the Senate floor with racially-charged epithets launched at the Junior United States Senator from Virginia. Attempts at pushing legislation on antipoverty programs were blocked by Helms.
Inside the Old Dominion, there was outright hostility towards Wilder by several key figures of the fading controversial Byrd Organization: whom they consider Wilder as a threat to the status quo. They tried to do everything to undermine the Senator 24/7: from wiretapping Wilder's US Senate campaign headquarters during the 1976 campaign; mailing racially-charged campaign paraphernalia in Southwestern Virginia; leaking embarrassing details on Wilder's personal life including documents on Wilder's divorce from his wife of 20 years.
The hostility also lead to death threats which forced Wilder to hire extra security guards including those from the US Capitol Police.
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