1962 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

1962 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

←  1960 November 6, 1962 1964  →

Nominee John W. Reynolds Philip Kuehn Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 637,491 625,536 Percentage 50.36% 49.41%

County results Reynolds:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70% Kuehn:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70%

Governor before election Gaylord A. Nelson Democratic Elected Governor John W. Reynolds Democratic

The 1962 Wisconsin gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1962. Democrat John W. Reynolds won the election with 50.36% of the vote, narrowly defeating Republican Philip Kuehn in the state's closest gubernatorial election since 1940. To date, this is the only time Menominee County has voted for the Republican candidate in a gubernatorial election.

Primary election

The primary election was held on September 11, 1962.

Democratic party

Candidates

• John W. Reynolds, Attorney General of Wisconsin

Results

Democratic primary results ^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	John W. Reynolds	199,940	100.00%
Total votes			199,940	100.00%

Republican party

Candidates

• Philip G. Kuehn, former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party (1955-1958) and nominee for governor in 1960
• Wilbur N. Renk
• Robert L. Sucher, grandson of Robert M. La Follette and Democratic nominee for Attorney General in 1956

Results

Republican primary results ^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Philip G. Kuehn	250,539	53.87%
	Republican	Wilbur N. Renk	199,616	42.92%
	Republican	Robert L. Sucher	14,952	3.21%
Total votes			465,107	100.00%

General election

Candidates

• John W. Reynolds, Democrat
• Philip G. Kuehn, Republican
• Adolf Wiggert, Independent

Results

1962 Wisconsin gubernatorial election ^{[2] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	John W. Reynolds	637,491	50.36%	−1.20%
	Republican	Philip G. Kuehn	625,536	49.41%	+0.97%
	Independent	Adolf Wiggert	2,477	0.20%
		Scattering [a]	396	0.03%
Majority			11,955	0.94%
Total votes			1,265,900	100.00%
	Democratic hold		Swing	-2.17%

Results by county

After this election, Rock County would not vote for the losing candidate again until 2010 and Brown County would not vote for the losing candidate again until 2002.

County [2] [3]	John W. Reynolds Democratic		Philip G. Kuehn Republican		Adolf Wiggert Independent		Scattering Write-in		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	1,453	52.25%	1,320	47.46%	7	0.25%	1	0.04%	133	4.78%	2,781
Ashland	3,846	59.90%	2,574	40.09%	1	0.02%	0	0.00%	1,272	19.81%	6,421
Barron	4,172	44.85%	5,118	55.02%	12	0.13%	0	0.00%	-946	-10.17%	9,302
Bayfield	2,468	55.70%	1,955	44.12%	8	0.18%	0	0.00%	513	11.58%	4,431
Brown	19,178	49.11%	19,790	50.67%	86	0.22%	0	0.00%	-612	-1.57%	39,054
Buffalo	1,861	46.63%	2,130	53.37%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	-269	-6.74%	3,991
Burnett	1,755	53.34%	1,530	46.50%	5	0.15%	0	0.00%	225	6.84%	3,290
Calumet	2,926	43.04%	3,871	56.93%	2	0.03%	0	0.00%	-945	-13.90%	6,799
Chippewa	6,937	52.61%	6,235	47.29%	13	0.10%	0	0.00%	702	5.32%	13,185
Clark	4,604	49.80%	4,634	50.12%	7	0.18%	0	0.00%	-30	-0.32%	9,245
Columbia	5,121	43.56%	6,622	56.32%	9	0.08%	5	0.04%	-1,501	-12.77%	11,757
Crawford	2,536	48.69%	2,671	51.29%	0	0.00%	1	0.02%	-135	-2.59%	5,208
Dane	39,321	55.56%	31,144	44.00%	224	0.32%	85	0.12%	8,177	11.55%	70,774
Dodge	8,068	42.72%	10,799	57.18%	7	0.04%	11	0.06%	-2,731	-14.46%	18,885
Door	2,591	34.07%	4,987	65.58%	3	0.04%	23	0.30%	-2,396	-31.51%	7,604
Douglas	10,514	65.16%	5,603	34.72%	19	0.12%	0	0.00%	4,911	30.44%	16,136
Dunn	3,031	42.84%	4,039	57.09%	4	0.06%	1	0.01%	-1,008	-14.25%	7,075
Eau Claire	9,349	49.84%	9,378	49.99%	31	0.17%	1	0.01%	-29	-0.15%	18,759
Florence	753	51.58%	706	48.36%	0	0.00%	1	0.07%	47	3.22%	1,460
Fond du Lac	9,855	43.31%	12,864	56.54%	27	0.12%	6	0.03%	-3,009	-13.23%	22,752
Forest	1,724	57.18%	1,286	42.65%	5	0.17%	0	0.00%	438	14.53%	3,015
Grant	3,910	35.02%	7,242	64.86%	11	0.10%	3	0.03%	-3,332	-29.84%	11,166
Green	2,552	35.12%	4,706	64.76%	7	0.10%	2	0.03%	-2,154	-29.64%	7,267
Green Lake	1,715	32.98%	3,484	67.00%	1	0.02%	0	0.00%	-1,769	-34.02%	5,200
Iowa	2,499	41.02%	3,583	58.81%	4	0.07%	6	0.10%	-1,084	-17.79%	6,092
Iron	1,741	60.85%	1,112	38.87%	8	0.28%	0	0.00%	629	21.99%	2,861
Jackson	2,187	44.80%	2,689	55.08%	6	0.12%	0	0.00%	-502	-10.28%	4,882
Jefferson	7,004	42.99%	9,259	56.84%	15	0.09%	13	0.08%	-2,255	-13.84%	16,291
Juneau	2,498	43.78%	3,204	56.15%	2	0.04%	2	0.04%	-706	-12.37%	5,706
Kenosha	18,812	57.77%	13,710	42.10%	41	0.13%	0	0.00%	5,102	15.67%	32,563
Kewaunee	3,277	52.14%	3,006	47.83%	2	0.03%	0	0.00%	271	4.31%	6,285
La Crosse	10,410	43.81%	13,251	55.76%	102	0.43%	0	0.00%	-2,841	-11.96%	23,763
Lafayette	2,085	41.65%	2,913	58.19%	3	0.06%	5	0.10%	-828	-16.54%	5,006
Langlade	3,384	51.56%	3,172	48.33%	7	0.11%	0	0.00%	212	3.23%	6,563
Lincoln	3,269	43.48%	4,238	56.36%	11	0.15%	1	0.01%	-969	-12.89%	7,519
Manitowoc	14,860	58.01%	10,697	41.76%	61	0.24%	0	0.00%	4,163	16.25%	25,618
Marathon	14,895	50.99%	14,253	48.80%	55	0.19%	6	0.02%	642	2.20%	29,209
Marinette	5,560	47.92%	6,028	51.95%	12	0.10%	3	0.03%	-468	-4.03%	11,603
Marquette	1,013	35.73%	1,805	63.67%	2	0.07%	15	0.53%	-792	-27.94%	2,835
Menominee	283	49.05%	292	50.61%	2	0.35%	0	0.00%	-9	-1.56%	577
Milwaukee	192,446	57.98%	138,371	41.69%	998	0.30%	110	0.03%	54,075	16.29%	331,925
Monroe	4,006	44.20%	5,051	55.73%	6	0.07%	0	0.00%	-1,045	-11.53%	9,063
Oconto	3,856	46.54%	4,421	53.36%	9	0.11%	0	0.00%	-565	-6.82%	8,286
Oneida	4,079	48.66%	4,299	51.29%	3	0.04%	1	0.01%	-220	-2.62%	8,382
Outagamie	12,689	42.46%	17,100	57.22%	95	0.32%	0	0.00%	-4,411	-14.76%	29,884
Ozaukee	5,654	41.26%	8,037	58.66%	11	0.08%	0	0.00%	-2,383	-17.39%	13,702
Pepin	1,215	51.42%	1,147	48.54%	1	0.04%	0	0.00%	68	2.88%	2,363
Pierce	2,849	44.38%	3,562	55.48%	7	0.11%	2	0.03%	-713	-11.11%	6,420
Polk	3,501	50.29%	3,454	49.62%	6	0.09%	0	0.00%	47	0.68%	6,961
Portage	7,706	61.76%	4,766	38.20%	0	0.00%	6	0.05%	2,940	23.56%	12,478
Price	2,546	50.65%	2,473	49.19%	8	0.16%	0	0.00%	73	1.45%	5,027
Racine	25,130	53.31%	21,966	46.60%	38	0.08%	1	0.00%	3,164	6.71%	47,135
Richland	2,070	38.02%	3,367	61.84%	6	0.11%	2	0.04%	-1,297	-23.82%	5,445
Rock	13,807	41.90%	19,098	57.96%	39	0.12%	7	0.02%	-5,291	-16.06%	32,951
Rusk	2,892	55.33%	2,323	44.44%	10	0.19%	2	0.04%	569	10.89%	5,227
Sauk	4,414	40.16%	6,552	59.62%	12	0.11%	12	0.11%	-2,138	-19.45%	10,990
Sawyer	1,334	41.19%	1,896	58.54%	9	0.28%	0	0.00%	-562	-17.35%	3,239
Shawano	4,055	39.77%	6,127	60.09%	15	0.15%	0	0.00%	-2,072	-20.32%	10,197
Sheboygan	17,136	53.65%	14,720	46.08%	71	0.22%	15	0.05%	2,416	7.56%	31,942
St. Croix	4,531	49.88%	4,478	49.30%	74	0.81%	0	0.00%	53	0.58%	9,083
Taylor	2,907	54.52%	2,414	45.27%	11	0.21%	0	0.00%	493	9.25%	5,332
Trempealeau	3,351	50.21%	3,317	49.70%	5	0.07%	1	0.01%	34	0.51%	6,674
Vernon	3,665	45.34%	4,416	54.63%	2	0.02%	1	0.01%	-751	-9.29%	8,084
Vilas	1,724	38.65%	2,724	61.08%	11	0.25%	1	0.02%	-1,000	-22.42%	4,460
Walworth	5,489	34.33%	10,484	65.57%	14	0.09%	2	0.01%	-4,995	-31.24%	15,989
Washburn	1,711	46.58%	1,955	53.23%	7	0.19%	0	0.00%	-244	-6.64%	3,673
Washington	6,226	42.82%	8,299	57.07%	8	0.06%	8	0.06%	-2,073	-14.26%	14,541
Waukesha	23,574	43.31%	30,734	56.46%	99	0.18%	24	0.04%	-7,160	-13.15%	54,431
Waupaca	3,976	34.57%	7,520	65.39%	5	0.04%	0	0.00%	-3,544	-30.81%	11,501
Waushara	1,771	31.43%	3,861	68.52%	3	0.05%	0	0.00%	-2,090	-37.09%	5,635
Winnebago	14,129	41.97%	19,483	57.87%	49	0.15%	4	0.01%	-5,354	-15.90%	33,665
Wood	9,035	49.41%	9,221	50.43%	23	0.13%	6	0.03%	-186	-1.02%	18,285
Total	637,491	50.36%	625,536	49.41%	2,477	0.20%	396	0.03%	11,955	0.94%	1,265,900

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Adams
• Marathon
• Price
• Sheboygan

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Brown
• Buffalo
• Crawford
• Eau Claire
• Oneida
• Pierce
• Vernon
• Washburn

Note

1. These are not listed in the Blue Book but are listed in the Board of Canvassers report.

References

1. Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1964). "Vote For State Officers By County, Wisconsin Primary Election, September 11, 1962". The Wisconsin Blue Book 1964. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 709.
2. Wisconsin Historical Society, Statement of Board of State Canvassers for State Officers - General Election - 1962
3. Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1964). "Vote For State Officers By County, Wisconsin General Election, November 6, 1962". The Wisconsin Blue Book 1964. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 863.