Word: wildering
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...with a Virginia political trailblazer named Douglas Wilder. Back in 1975, when Wilder was the only black in the state senate (and the first since 1890), he gave voice to his overarching aspirations, a notion of empowerment far beyond what seemed plausible amid the genteel conservatism of the Old Dominion. "If people will elect you Lieutenant Governor," Wilder predicted with startling prescience, "they'll elect you Governor. I would think it would be an interesting test somewhere along the line for a black to run for one of those positions so as to put prejudice right on the line...
Fourteen years later, election night 1989, Wilder himself provided Virginia voters -- and, by implication, the nation as a whole -- with the most ambitious referendum on black political progress since Jesse Jackson first dabbled in presidential primaries. With Wilder, the grandson of slaves, battling to become the nation's first elected black Governor, it seemed almost commonplace that black mayoral candidates from Seattle to New York City were winning their own landmark races...
Even as Bush dismissed the abortion rights debate as unimportant, Virginians were proving him wrong. A CBS news exit poll found that one-third of the Virginia voters considered abortion rights the foremost issue of the campaign. They proved it by electing as governor Democrat L. Douglas Wilder, a pro- choice advocate. They proved it by electing as lieutenant-governor the underdog Donald S. Beyer, Jr., an automobile salesman who ran on a pro-choice platform...
With the votes counted in all but nine ofVirginia's 1967 precincts, Wilder, the grandson ofslaves, held a lead of just over 5500 votes in along count. The totals included absentee ballots...
With 99 percent of the Virginia precinctscounted, Lt. Gov. Wilder had 880,955 votes or 50percent. His Republican rival, Coleman, had876,439 votes or 50 percent...