 Despite death threats, violent attacks on campaign supporters and cross burnings, Dr. Wensel received widespread support and more than 23 percent of the official vote count in an election governed by the Jim Crow policies that characterized Virginia elections prior to the Voting Rights Act.Despite her loss, Wensel's campaign energized Virginia moderates who continued working on the still-unresolved public school crisis.Fifteen "open-schools" committees joined together in the winter of 1958, with backing from the state teachers' association and the PTA to form the statewide Virginia Committee for Public Schools, which ultimately attracted 25,000 residents to its membership.