2013 United States 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

In many cases, the incumbent has yet to say their intention of running for another term. If an incumbent intends to retire then place " (retiring)" after the incumbent's name.

See Template: USRaceRating for how to apply a rating.

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Race summary

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

1. Virginia, 2.6%

Blue denotes states won by Democrats.

New Jersey

Main article: 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election

Governor Chris Christie ran for a second term. Christie's re-election campaign could be the prelude to a 2016 presidential campaign for him.

Christie's approval ratings have hovered at or above 50% consistently throughout 2012, and broke records as the highest approval rating of any New Jersey governor in a recent Fairleigh Dickinson poll.

State Senator and former State Senate Democratic Leader Barbara Buono was the Democratic nominee.

The Libertarian nominee was Ken Kaplan, who also ran for U.S. Senator in 2012.

Chris Christie cruised to victory on November 5, 2013 when he won in a landslide victory against his adversary, Barbara Buono. Christie won 60.4% of the vote compared to 38.1% of the vote Buono earned. Exit polls also showed that Christie appealed to ethnic minorities, an increasing priority for Republicans.

Virginia

Main article: 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election

Governor Bob McDonnell was term-limited in 2013, as Governors of Virginia cannot serve consecutive terms.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was the Republican nominee for Governor, after winning the nomination at Virginia's 2013 Republican Party convention.

Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was the Democratic nominee for Governor, after being the only candidate to file for the race.

Robert Sarvis, an entrepreneur and lawyer, was the Libertarian Party nominee. On June 26, 2013, the Virginia State Board of Elections confirmed to Sarvis's campaign that he would be listed on the ballot statewide during the elections this November.

On November 5, 2013, Terry McAuliffe narrowly beat Ken Cuccinelli by a margin of 48% to 45.5% with Robert Sarvis accounting for the other 6.6% of the vote.

References

References

1. "2013 Gubernatorial Election Results".
2. Parentheses around an incumbent's name indicates that the incumbent is retiring, possibly due to term limits.
3. "Gubernatorial Ratings {{!}} Inside Elections".
4. "Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball » RATINGS CHANGE: A DEMOCRATIC TIDE IN VIRGINIA".
5. Steinhauser, Paul. (November 26, 2012). "Chris Christie files for re-election bid". CNN.
6. Rubin, Jennifer. (1 May 2013). "Christie will cruise to reelection. Then what?". The Washington Post.
7. Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger. (8 May 2012). "Gov. Christie's approval rate highest ever among N.J. residents". NJ.com.
8. (2012-04-11). "Christie's Approval Rating Rises to Record in Voter Poll". Businessweek.
9. "Monmouth Poll: Christie approval rating at 51%". Politicker NJ.
10. (May 2016). "U.S. News | National News – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com.
11. Lesiak, Krzysztof. (2013-05-04). "Libertarian Kenneth Kaplan to Run for Governor of New Jersey in 2013". Independent Political Report.
12. "New Jersey Governor – 2013 Election Results". The New York Times.
13. "Archived copy".
14. Associated, The. (2013-05-18). "Ken Cuccinelli nominated for governor by Virginia GOP". Wjla.com.
15. Walker, Julian. (April 2, 2013). "McAuliffe named Dem governor nominee, 4 others make ballot". The Virginian-Pilot.
16. (2013-06-26). "Libertarian Candidate Robert Sarvis Makes the Ballot in Virginia Governor's Race". [[Charlottesville Newsplex]].
17. "Virginia Governor – 2013 Election Results". The New York Times.
18. "Virginia Elections Database » Search Elections".