Virgil Goode

His father served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1940 to 1948 and as commonwealth's attorney of Franklin County from 1948 to 1972; between them, father and son represented Franklin County at either the local, state or federal level with only one year's interruption from 1940 to 2009.

Goode graduated with a B.A. from the University of Richmond (Phi Beta Kappa) and with a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Virgil Hamlin Goode Jr. (born October 17, 1946) is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 5th congressional district of Virginia from 1997 to 2009.

He also is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and served in the Army National Guard from 1969 to 1975.

Goode grew up as a Democrat.

He entered politics soon after graduating from law school.

At the age of 27, he won a special election to the state Senate from a Southside district as an independent after the death of the multi-term Democratic incumbent, William F. Stone.

One of Goode's major campaign focuses was advocacy for the Equal Rights Amendment.

Soon after being elected, he joined the Democrats.

Goode was very conservative even by Virginia Democratic standards of the time.

As such, he wore his party ties very loosely.

He supported the tobacco industry, worrying that "his elderly mother would be denied 'the one last pleasure' of smoking a cigarette on her hospital deathbed."

Goode ardently defended gun rights while also enthusiastically supporting L. Douglas Wilder, who later became the first elected black governor of Virginia.

At the Democratic Party's state political convention in 1985, Goode nominated Wilder for lieutenant governor.

However, while governor, Wilder cracked down on gun sales in the state.

He decided to run for the U.S. Senate again in 1994, to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Chuck Robb in the Democratic primary.

He angered much of the leadership of the Virginia Democratic Party during his second run.

On June 14, Robb defeated Goode 58%–34%.

After the 1995 elections resulted in a 20–20 split between Democrats and Republicans in the State Senate, Goode seriously considered voting with the Republicans on organizing the chamber.

When incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Lewis Payne decided to retire in 1996, Goode won the Democratic nomination to succeed him.

His state senate district was virtually co-extensive with the southern portion of the congressional district.

He defeated Republican nominee George Landrith, an attorney, 61%–36%.

Goode won re-election to a second term unopposed.

Prior to the election, Goode switched from a Democrat to an independent.

He portrayed himself as a congressman who was "as independent as the people he serves."

He won re-election to a third term with 67% of the vote.

Had he done so, the State Senate would have been under Republican control for the first time since Reconstruction (Republicans ultimately won control outright in 1999).

Goode's actions at the time "forced his party to share power with Republican lawmakers in the state legislature," which further upset the Democratic Party.

Independent incumbent U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. decided to retire.

Goode ran for the seat, but lost the nomination, getting just 8% of the vote.

Lieutenant Governor Richard Joseph Davis won the convention with 64% of the vote.

Davis lost the general election by a two-point margin.

He was initially a Democrat, but became an independent in 2000 and switched to the Republican Party in 2002.

For the 2001 congressional redistricting, Goode allied with Republican Bob Goodlatte and Democrat Rick Boucher to ensure that none of them would be put in the same district.

Goode's home in Franklin County is only about 20 mi south of Goodlatte's home in Roanoke, the heart of the Virginia's 6th congressional district.

The counties to the west of Franklin County were in Boucher's Virginia's 9th congressional district, which had to expand due to lack of population growth.

Having become a Republican in August 2002, Goode won the Republican nomination and won re-election to a fourth term with 63% of the vote.

He was narrowly defeated in 2008 by Democrat Tom Perriello.

In 2012, he was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party, receiving 122,388 votes or 0.09% of the total.

Goode was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Alice Clara (born Besecker) and Virgil Hamlin Goode Sr. However, he has spent most of his life in Rocky Mount, south of Roanoke.