2017 United States gubernatorial elections

2017 United States gubernatorial elections

←  2016 November 7, 2017 2018  →
←  2013 2021  →
2 governorships [a]
Majority party Minority party   Party Republican Democratic Seats before 34 [b] 15 Seats after 33 16 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 2,075,314 2,612,285 Percentage 43.58% 54.86% Seats up 1 1 Seats won 0 2
Map of the results      Democratic gain     Democratic hold      No election

United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 7, 2017, in two states: Virginia and New Jersey. These elections formed part of the 2017 United States elections. The last regular gubernatorial elections for these two states were in 2013. Both incumbents were term-limited, so both seats were open. Democrats held the governorship in Virginia and picked up the governorship of New Jersey.

As of 2025, this is the last time that a Democrat won the governorship in Virginia. For the first time since 2008, Democrats won the total popular vote of the year's gubernatorial elections.

Election predictions

Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive seats. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the incumbent (if the incumbent is running for re-election), the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state (reflected in part by the state's Cook Partisan Voting Index rating). The predictions assign ratings to each state, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that seat.

Most election predictors use:

• "tossup": no advantage
• "tilt" (used by some predictors): advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean"
• "lean": slight advantage
• "likely": significant, but surmountable, advantage
• "safe" or "solid": near-certain chance of victory

State	PVI	Incumbent [1]	Last race	Cook Aug 7, 2017 [2]	IE Oct 27, 2017 [3]	Sabato Sep 21, 2017 [4]	Result
New Jersey	D+7	Chris Christie (term-limited)	60.3% R	Likely D (flip)	Likely D (flip)	Safe D (flip)	Murphy 56.0% D (flip)
Virginia	D+1	Terry McAuliffe (term-limited)	47.8% D	Lean D	Tilt D	Lean D	Northam 53.9% D

Race summary

Results

State	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
New Jersey	Chris Christie	Republican	2009	Incumbent term-limited. New governor elected. Democratic gain.	▌Y Phil Murphy (Democratic) 56.0% [5] ▌ Kim Guadagno (Republican) 41.9% [6]
Virginia	Terry McAuliffe	Democratic	2013	Incumbent term-limited. New governor elected. Democratic hold.	▌Y Ralph Northam (Democratic) 53.9% [7] ▌ Ed Gillespie (Republican) 45.0% [8] ▌Cliff Hyra (Libertarian) 1.1%

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was less than 10%:

1. Virginia, 8.90%

Blue denotes states won by Democrats.

New Jersey

Main article: 2017 New Jersey gubernatorial election

2017 New Jersey gubernatorial election

←  2013 November 7, 2017 2021  →
Turnout	38.5% [9] (1.1%)
Nominee Phil Murphy Kim Guadagno Party Democratic Republican Running mate Sheila Oliver Carlos Rendo Popular vote 1,203,110 899,583 Percentage 56.0% 41.9%
County results Murphy:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90% Guadagno:      50–60%     60–70%
Governor before election Chris Christie Republican Elected Governor Phil Murphy Democratic

The 2017 New Jersey gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2017. There were seven candidates. ^[10] Candidates for Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey run on the same ticket and thus are elected at the same time. Incumbent Republican governor Chris Christie was term-limited and could not run for a third consecutive term.

Primary elections took place on June 6, 2017. Kim Guadagno, Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, won the Republican primary. Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo was her running mate. Phil Murphy, banker and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, won the Democratic primary. Former State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver was his running mate. Seth Kaper-Dale ran as the Green Party candidate; his running mate was Lisa Durden. Pete Rohrman ran as the Libertarian Party candidate; his running mate was Karrese Laguerre. Matt Riccardi ran as the Constitution Party candidate. There were two other independent candidates on the ballot.

Murphy was declared to be the winner when polls closed at 8 pm EST based on exit polling alone. He ultimately received 56.0% of the vote, winning with a 14.1% vote lead over his opponent. ^[11] This was similar to the results in the 2016 election with Murphy slightly outperforming Hillary Clinton by one percentage point. However, with just 38.5% of registered voters casting ballots, this would be the lowest turnout on record for a gubernatorial election in New Jersey. ^[12] This was the first gubernatorial election in New Jersey since 1989, in which the Democratic candidate won Somerset County.

Results

New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2017 ^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Phil Murphy	1,203,110	56.03%	+17.84%
	Republican	Kim Guadagno	899,583	41.89%	−18.41%
	Independent	Gina Genovese	12,294	0.57%	N/A
	Libertarian	Peter J. Rohrman	10,531	0.49%	−0.08%
	Green	Seth Kaper-Dale	10,053	0.47%	+0.08%
	Constitution	Matthew Riccardi	6,864	0.32%	N/A
	Independent	Vincent Ross	4,980	0.29%	N/A
Total votes			2,147,415	100.0%	N/A
	Democratic gain from Republican

Virginia

Main article: 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election

See also: 2017 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election

2017 Virginia gubernatorial election

←  2013 November 7, 2017 2021  →
Turnout	47.6% (of registered voters) [14]
Nominee Ralph Northam Ed Gillespie Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,409,175 1,175,731 Percentage 53.9% 45.0%
County and Independent City Results Northam:     40–50%     50-60%     60-70%     70-80%     80-90% Gillespie:     40–50%     50-60%     60-70%     70-80%     80-90%
Governor before election Terry McAuliffe Democratic Elected Governor Ralph Northam Democratic

Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe won election with 48% of the vote in 2013. ^[15] McAuliffe was not eligible to run for reelection due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution.

The Virginia gubernatorial election of 2017 was held on November 7, 2017. Primary elections took place on June 13, 2017. Virginia utilizes an open primary, in which registered voters are allowed to vote in either party's primary election. ^[16] The Democratic Party nominated Ralph Northam and the Republican Party nominated Ed Gillespie. The Libertarian Party nominated Clifford Hyra by convention on May 6, 2017. ^[17]

In the general election on November 7, 2017, Democratic nominee Ralph Northam defeated Republican nominee Ed Gillespie, winning by the largest margin for a Democrat since 1985. Northam became the 73rd governor of Virginia, and assumed office on January 13, 2018. ^[18] The election had the highest voter turnout percentage in a Virginia gubernatorial election in twenty years with over 47% of the state's constituency casting their ballot. ^[14]

Results

Virginia gubernatorial election, 2017 ^[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Ralph Northam	1,409,175	53.90%	+6.15%
	Republican	Ed Gillespie	1,175,731	44.97%	−0.26%
	Libertarian	Clifford Hyra	27,987	1.07%	−5.45%
	n/a	Write-ins	1,389	0.05%	−0.44%
Total votes			2,614,282	100.0%	N/A
	Democratic hold

See also

• New Jersey portal
• Virginia portal

• 2017 United States elections
  • 2017 New Jersey elections
  • 2017 Virginia elections

Notes

1. Alaska's governorship was held by an independent, so the number of seats held by Democrats and Republicans added up to only 49.
2. Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia changed party affiliation from Democratic to Republican in August 2017.

References

1. Parentheses around an incumbent's name indicates that the incumbent is retiring, possibly due to term limits.
2. "2018 Governors Race Ratings". Cook Political Report . Retrieved November 7, 2017.
3. "2017-18 Gubernatorial Ratings". The Rothenberg Political Report. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
4. "2017-18 Gubernatorial Ratings". The Rothenberg Political Report. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
5. "5 key things Phil Murphy says he'll do as governor of N.J." Retrieved January 9, 2017.
6. Sullivan, S.P. (January 12, 2017). "Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno entering 2017 N.J. governor race". NJ.com. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
7. "Arlington legislative delegation likely to stick with Northam" . Retrieved January 9, 2017.
8. "Gillespie leads GOP field, but trails Northam in 2017 governor's race, poll finds - Roanoke Times: Politics" . Retrieved January 9, 2017.
9. "Total Number of Registered Voters, Ballots Cast, Ballots Rejected, Percentage of Ballots Cast and the Total Number of Election Districts in New Jersey" (PDF). Secretary of State of New Jersey. November 29, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
10. "Official List Candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor For November 2017 General Election" (PDF). New Jersey Department of State. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
11. "Phil Murphy beats Kim Guadagno to succeed Christie as N.J. governor". Nj.com. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
12. Symons, Michael. "NJ's governor's race cost $79 million but had lowest turnout ever". New Jersey 101.5. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
13. "Official List, Candidates for Governor For GENERAL ELECTION 11/07/2017 Election" (PDF). Secretary of State of New Jersey. November 29, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
14. "Registration/Turnout Statistics". Virginia Department of Elections. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
15. "Election 2013". The New York Times . November 6, 2013.
16. "Virginia gubernatorial election, 2017". Ballotpedia.org. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
17. "LP nominates Cliff Hyra for Virginia governor - Libertarian Party". LP.org. May 9, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
18. Bloch, Matthew (November 7, 2017). "Live Election Results and Estimates: Virginia Governor Race". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
19. "2017 November General". Results.elections.virginia.gov. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.