the Readjuster Party, aligning with former Confederate General William Mahone who was consolidating railroads in Virginia and Tennessee.] His older brother Henry C. Slemp had been elected to the Virginia Senate in 1875, and served one term in the part-time position. In 1879, Lee County voters elected Campbell Slemp to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served (part-time) and was re-elected once. He unsuccessfully ran for the state senate in 1883. Although a Democrat up to that time, Slemp like Malone became a Virginia State Republican party leader. Slemp made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor on Mahone's ticket in 1889, which lost badly. However, he was a Presidential elector for Harrison, and later President McKinley. In 1903 voters of Virginia's 9th congressional district (nicknamed the "Fighting Ninth" in part for its close elections and many party changes) elected Slemp to the United States House of Representatives. Slemp defeated 2-term Democrat William F. Rhea (a generation younger than the Major Rhea who had testified against him), who had defeated 2-term Republican James A. Walker (last commander of the Stonewall Brigade) in 1898. President Theodore Roosevelt, a fellow Republican, let Slemp control federal patronage in the Commonwealth, Slemp won re-election twice (over J. C. Wysor in 1904 and then Robert P. Bruce in 1906). The Norfolk and Western Railway and textile mills expanded into his district. Death and legacy Slemp died unexpectedly at his home at Big Stone Gap in Wise County, Virginia on Sunday, October 13, 1907. Following his interment in the family cemetery in Lee County, Virginia, his son C. Bascom Slemp was selected to fill his Congressional seat, and won re-election several times until he refused to seek re-election. The younger Slemp served as the United States representative for the 9th district of Virginia from 1907 to 1922, and established the Slemp Foundation as well as the Southwest Virginia Museum. See also List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49) References 1839 births 1907 deaths American people of German descent People from Lee County, Virginia Republican Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates Confederate States Army officers People of Virginia in the American Civil War Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American politicians Readjuster Party politicians