Richard Poff

Richard Poff of Radford was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952, representing the Sixth District. Poff, a former Air Force pilot and a law partner of Republican National Committeeman Ted Dalton, benefited from Eisenhower's dramatic victory in Virginia, the first time the state went Republican since 1928. A year later in 1953, Republican candidate for Governor, Ted Dalton, polled 45 percent of the vote. Poff and Dalton led the resurgence of the Republican Party in Virginia from their base in Roanoke and the Shenandoah Valley. These men and their followers in the Valley distrusted the conservative Democratic Byrd organization and tied their party's renaissance to the national ticket headed by Eisenhower. Poff, at 30, was one of the youngest Republican Congressman in 1952 and over the next decade he and Dalton energized a conservative resurgence within Virginia for the Republican Party.