1897 Virginia gubernatorial election

Edward Tiffin was an American politician who served as the first governor of Ohio and later as a United States Senator from Ohio as a member of the Democratic-Republican party.

Colgate Whitehead Darden Jr. was an American lawyer and Democratic politician aligned with the Byrd Organization who served as U.S. Representative from Virginia, the 54th Governor of Virginia (1942–46), Chancellor of the College of William and Mary (1946–47), and the third President of the University of Virginia (1947–59). The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of Virginia is named for him.

George Campbell Peery was an American Democratic politician, and was the 52nd governor of Virginia from 1934 to 1938. He became the second governor to be selected, at least partially, by the soon to be very powerful Byrd Organization, led by Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr.

John Jacob Cornwell was a Democratic politician from Romney in Hampshire County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Cornwell served as the 15th Governor of West Virginia, from 1917-1921. He also served in the West Virginia Senate from 1899-1905.

Thomas Staples Martin was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Albemarle County, Virginia, who founded a political organization that held power in Virginia for decades and who personally became a U.S. Senator who served for nearly a quarter century and rose to become the Majority Leader before dying in office.

Events from the year 1831 in the United States.

William Mercer Owens Dawson was the 12th Governor of West Virginia, serving from 1905 until 1909. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as Secretary of State of West Virginia from 1897 until 1905.

Albert Blakeslee White was the 11th governor of West Virginia from 1901 to 1905.

George Wesley Atkinson, a cavalryman, lawyer, politician, judge and scholar, became the 10th Governor of West Virginia after running as the candidate of the Republican Party. He also served in the West Virginia House of Delegates, as well as in the U.S. Congress from West Virginia and ended his career of public service as a United States federal judge of the Court of Claims.

Dannite Hill Mays was an American farmer and politician who served two terms as a U.S. Representative from Florida from 1909 to 1913. He also served in the state legislature and was a candidate for governor.

The 1894–95 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1894 and 1895, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 2.

Richard Von Albade Gammon was a University of Georgia football fullback who died after injuries sustained in a collegiate football game.

Howard Hille Johnson was a blind American educator and writer in the states of Virginia and West Virginia. Johnson was instrumental in the establishment of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in 1870, after which he taught blind students at the institution's School for the Blind for 43 years.

United States gubernatorial elections were held in 1897, in five states.

The 1896 Illinois gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1896.