Albert William Watson (August 30, 1922 - September 25, 1994) was a South Carolina politician.

Watson was born in Sumter, South Carolina. Watson served in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He graduated from the University of South Carolina law school in 1950. Watson was elected to the South Carolina state general assembly in 1954. He served from 1955 to 1958 and from 1961 to 1962.

Watson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1962 as a Democrat from South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District, defeating Floyd Spence, a Democratic state representative who turned Republican, by only five percentage points. The district, based in the state capital of Columbia, had been under growing Republican influence for some time. An open and unashamed racist, Watson supported Barry Goldwater's campaign for President in 1964 and led South Carolina's "Democrats for Goldwater" organization. Partly because of his support for Goldwater, he was reelected without opposition as Goldwater swept the state. However, the Democratic caucus stripped him of his seniority. He resigned on February 1, 1965 and ran as a Republican in a June 15 special election to fill his vacant seat. He won with 69% of the vote, becoming the first Republican to represent South Carolina in Congress since Reconstruction. He was reelected comfortably in 1966 and 1968.

In 1970, Watson ran for Governor of South Carolina. However, by this time the Republican Party was starting to deemphasize even veiled appeals to race. Watson's open racism cost him the support of many Republicans, even though Senator Strom Thurmond strongly supported Watson's campaign. He lost the election by over 29,000 votes to John C. West. Historians consider Watson's gubernatorial campaign to be the last openly racist campaign in South Carolina, and one of the last in the South. Ironically, Spence, who Watson defeated in 1962, succeeded Watson in his House seat. Spence went on to hold the seat for 30 years.