United States gubernatorial elections, 1989

The gubernatorial elections in the United States in 1989 took place on 7 November 1989. Was elected to the states of New Jersey and Virginia. In both cases, the Office of the Governor due to the respective period of office was vacant.

In New Jersey, Republican Governor Thomas Kean enjoyed great popularity, but could stand after eight years, no more time. His party nominated Jim Courter, a member of the House of Representatives of the United States since 1979. His opponent was James Florio, who had very nearly lost to Kean eight years earlier. This time, the Democrat won a very clear victory with 61.2 percent of the vote; Courter was only 37.2 percent. Among the four other candidates of smaller parties scored Dan Karlan of the Libertarian Party with 0.53 percent the best result.

In Virginia, where is considered a term limit of four years for the governors, the Democratic incumbent Gerald L. Baliles could not stand back accordingly. The Democrats are now presented on the previous Lieutenant Governor Douglas Wilder, the first African American in the history of Virginia, who had been elected in a state-wide office. He met with Republican Marshall Coleman, 1978-1982 Attorney General of Virginia and 1981 inferior to Chuck Robb as a gubernatorial candidate. Wilder won the election with 50.19 percent and an extremely narrow lead before Marshall, who reached 49.81 percent. The Republicans sought a recount, but did not change the outcome, so Douglas Wilder became the first elected African-American governor of a U.S. state. The first African-American governor ever, PBS Pinchback of Louisiana was automatically moved up as President of the State Senate after the death of his predecessor in office.