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Abner Linwood Holton, Jr. (born September 21, 1923) was the first Republican Governor of Virginia in the 20th century. He was governor from 1970 to 1974. He was the Republican candidate for governor in 1965 but was defeated by Democrat Mills E. Godwin, Jr.. He later unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the US Senate in 1978, having finished third in a field of Richard D. Obenshain, John Warner, and Nathan H. Miller.

Holton was a creature of the mountain-valley GOP that fought the Byrd Organization and was not in favor of welcoming conservative Democrats into the Virginia Republican Party. Ironically, he was succeeded in 1974 by Godwin, a former conservative Democrat who had turned Republican.

As governor he pushed hard to field Republican candidates in all statewide races instead of endorsing conservative alternatives. This led to weak moderate GOP candidates who ran third in the Virginia US Senate election in 1970 and the special election in 1971 to choose a successor for the deceased J. Sargeant Reynolds.

As the Virginia Republican Party became more conservative, he found himself more in line with the state Democratic Party, ultimately endorsing several Democrats for statewide office, including his son-in-law, Governor Tim Kaine (although he has in the past supported moderate Republicans, including John Warner).

In November 2005, he underwent surgery to treat bladder cancer.

Gov. Holton is a 1944 graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He is a 1949 graduate of Harvard Law School. He currently practices law as a shareholder at McCandlish Holton, P.C.

His daughter, Anne Bright Holton, is married to Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. She is the first First Lady of Virginia to live in Virginia's Executive Mansion both as a child and as a First Lady. (Thomas Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph, known as "Patsy", was married to Virginia Governor Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., but never lived in the Mansion.) His son, Abner Linwood Holton, III, has published two award-winning books, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2007), a finalist for the National Book Award, and Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999).

• Born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
• Formerly an attorney in Roanoke.
• Increased employment of blacks and women in state government.
• Founded the Virginia Governor's Schools Program in 1973
• Provided the first state funds for community mental health centers, supported environmental efforts.
• Later served as President of the Center for Innovative Technology.

• Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park page on Holton

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