FROM THE ARCHIVE: Gov. Holton's Campaign Commercials

In just a few days, the Sorensen Institute will celebrate its 2009 Gala in Arlington. From the Newsroom Archive comes this historic video from our 2007 Gala in Richmond, at which we were very proud to honor Governor Linwood Holton.

As part of the evening's program, we shared Governor Holton's 1969 campaign commercials. These commercials had been preserved on 16mm film and were brought to our attention shortly before the Gala (many thanks to Michael Belefski). We had just enough time to get them digitized and edited together for the special event. These now historic commercials were shown publicly at Sorensen's 2007 Gala for the first time in almost 40 years.

Holton won the election that year, beating Democratic candidate William C. Battle. Governor Holton served from 1970 to 74, the first Republican in Virginia in the 20th century to hold that high office. You can also click here to watch a video of Holton's remarks from that memorable evening.