United States gubernatorial elections, 2009

← 2008

November 3 and 7, 2009

2010 →

3 governorships
2 states; 1 territory

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Joe Manchin	Haley Barbour
Party	Democratic	Republican
Last election	32 governorships	24 governorships
Seats before	32	24
Seats after	30	26
Seat change	2	2
Popular vote	1,906,640	2,350,818
Percentage	44.78%	55.22%

Results:

Republican pickup

United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 3, 2009 in the states of New Jersey and Virginia as well as in the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on November 7, 2009. Both state governorships were previously held by Democrats elected in 2005 and as a result of the 2009 elections both are presently held by Republicans; the local Covenant Party maintained control of the governorship of the Marianas. These elections formed part of the 2009 United States elections.

Due to the passage of Senate Legislative Initiative 16-11, this will be the last year in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in which a gubernatorial election will occur on a pre-midterm off-year election year. The next CNMI gubernatorial election will be in 2014.

The Democrats held 28 governorships, while the Republicans held 22. In this election, both U.S. governorships up for election were held by Democrats, while the governorship of the Northern Mariana Islands was held by the Covenant Party.

Virginia's term-limits law allows governors to run for more than one term; however, the terms cannot be consecutive. Thus, incumbent Governor Tim Kaine could not stand for re-election.

Candidates for the Democratic nomination included Terry McAuliffe, former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager; State Senator Creigh Deeds; and State Delegate Brian Moran. Deeds won the Democratic primary on June 9, 2009 with approximately 49% of the vote; beating out Terry McAliffe with 26% and Brian Moran with 23%.

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