U.S. Governors Elected by less than 50% of Votes:
1990-2003.
Many US Governors have
been elected having won their party primary or the general election with
less than 50% of the vote, meaning that they won by a plurality
rather than a majority. In the 1990-2003 period,
there were 36 states and one territory with governors who had
won either a primary or general election with less than 50% of
the vote. Sixteen of these states had more than one such
"plurality governor" during this time, and fourteen states
had a governor elected with less than 40% in a primary or general
election.
In fact, several candidates won office with
less than 40% of votes in the general election. For instance, Governor Hickel (AK) received 39%
in 1990, Rowland (CT) won 36% and Cayetano (HI) won 37%
in 1994, and Ventura (MN) had 37% of votes when he was
elected in 1998. Most notably, Independent candidate Angus
King became governor of Maine in 1994 after having won just 35% of the votes
cast.
See a list of current governors who won either
a primary or general election by plurality.
Browse state-by-state data on
gubernatorial elections won by plurality, 1990-2003.
View a table showing instances of runoffs in
gubernatorial elections, where candidates avoided winning with less
than 50% of the vote through second round elections.
**The source for these pages is The Almanac of American
Politics, years 1992 through 2004 , by Michael Barone, Richard
E. Cowan, and Grant Ujifusa, Copyright of National Journal
Group.
Return to Plurality
Index.
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