Mills Godwin

Mills Edwin Godwin Jr. (November 19, 1914 – January 30, 1999) was an American politician who was the 60th and 62nd governor of Virginia for two non-consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978. Godwin was the first person to be elected governor of any state as a Democrat and a Republican. He is to date the last Virginia governor to serve two terms.

He was the last Virginia governor elected as a part of the Byrd Machine, the conservative Democratic establishment that dominated the state's politics for over three decades. He was succeeded by Linwood Holton, the first non-Democratic governor in over 80 years. By 1973, when he ran for a second term, Godwin had become a Republican, as the dominance of the Democrats in Virginia politics receded and the Byrd political machine had disintegrated.