By Gregory L. Giroux
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 13

Delegates: 56

Chairman: Gov. James S. Gilmore III

Hotel: Wyndham Franklin Plaza (215) 448-2000

1996 Election:
Dole – 47%
Clinton – 45%
Perot – 7%

Texas Gov. George W. Bush's win in Virginia's Feb. 29 primary was a major turning point in the Republican presidential campaign.

The contest had looked winnable to Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was coming off a big victory in the Michigan primary a week earlier.

Virginia has a large military constituency that would look favorably on Navy man and heroic Vietnam prisoner of war McCain. And the pro-Bush Virginia Republican establishment could not prevent independents and Democrats - the kind of voters critical to McCain's wins in New Hampshire and Michigan - from participating in the state's "open" primary.

But Bush seized the momentum with a 53-44 percent victory in the winner-take-all primary, claiming the 56 Virginia delegates and positioning himself for the decisive victories on March 7 that eliminated McCain from the race.

McCain ran well in Northern Virginia and some military-intensive areas in the eastern Tidewater area. But his sharp primary-eve criticisms of Virginia-based religious conservative leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell probably contributed to Bush's overwhelming wins in central and western Virginia, where social conservatives are prevalent.

Despite its rigors, the Bush-McCain contest appears to have left no scars on a party that is arguably stronger than ever. Republicans last year won both chambers of the General Assembly, something they had not done in more than 100 years. Last January they successfully recruited Democratic Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. to become an independent and caucus with the GOP. And they have rallied behind former Gov. George F. Allen as their candidate this year for the high-stakes contest against two-term Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb.

Gov. James S. Gilmore III is chairman of the Republican delegation to the national convention. Virginia is the only state that bars its governors from succeeding themselves, and Gilmore will be joined in the delegation by the two men who want to run to succeed him in the November 2001 election: Lt. Gov. John Hager, a retired tobacco executive, and state Attorney General Mark Earley, a former state legislator who is close to religious conservatives.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley Jr., who is retiring after 20 years in Congress, and four-term Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte also are delegates.

The delegation is dotted with prominent social conservative activists from the state and national scene. Included are religious broadcaster Robertson, founder and chairman of the Christian Coalition and a Republican presidential candidate himself in 1988, and Michael P. Farris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association and the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in 1993.

Also coming to Philadelphia is longtime Republican National Committeeman Morton Blackwell, president of the Arlington, Va.-based Leadership Institute, which trains conservative activists. In 1964, Blackwell was the youngest delegate attending the GOP convention that nominated Barry Goldwater for president.

The delegation also has some well-known African-Americans. Kay Coles James was an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration and later served as Allen's secretary of Health and Human Resources. State Rep. Paul Harris, the first black Republican elected to the Virginia legislature in more than a century, is heading Allen's Senate campaign. Claude A. Allen is the state secretary of Health and Human Resources.

Youth also is serving in the delegation, in the form of Carlton Davis. The 18-year-old son of National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III - who represents Virginia's 11th Congressional District - Carlton Davis this fall will attend Swarthmore College, located a few miles west of Philadelphia.

Although all the delegates are pledged to Bush, at least one started in the rival camp: Charlotte Neal co-chaired McCain's campaign in Virginia. Neal is the widow of Michael Christian, a cellmate of McCain's in Hanoi who stitched together American flags while in prison.

VIRGINIA NOTABLES: Gov. James S. Gilmore III, the delegation chairman; former Gov. George F. Allen, this year's Republican Senate nominee; Lt. Gov. John Hager; state Attorney General Mark Earley; Reps. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. and Robert W. Goodlatte; Christian Coalition President Pat Robertson; state Republican Chairman Randy Forbes; African-American state Rep. Paul Harris.