| Election Name: | 1965 United States gubernatorial elections |
| Country: | United States |
| Type: | legislative |
| Ongoing: | No |
| Previous Election: | 1964 United States gubernatorial elections |
| Previous Year: | 1964 |
| Next Election: | 1966 United States gubernatorial elections |
| Next Year: | 1966 |
| 1Blank: | Seats up |
| 2Blank: | Seats won |
| Seats For Election: | 2 governorships |
| Election Date: | November 2, 1965 |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Seats Before1: | 33 |
| Seats After1: | 33 |
| 1Data1: | 2 |
| 2Data1: | 2 |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Seats Before2: | 17 |
| Seats After2: | 17 |
| 1Data2: | 0 |
| 2Data2: | 0 |
| Map Size: | 324px |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,576,094 |
| Percentage1: | 56.44% |
| Popular Vote2: | 1,128,203 |
| Percentage2: | 40.40% |
United States gubernatorial elections were held in November 1965, in two states.
After his re-election win, Richard J. Hughes tried to introduce an income tax, but that bill died. The tax would come into play after the state Supreme Court handed down a decision concerning property taxes for schools in 1973. Hughes became Chief Justice in 1974, and after much battling with then-Gov. Brendan Byrne and the New Jersey Legislature concerning taxes for public education, the income tax finally made it to New Jersey.[1]
The 1965 Virginia's Governor's Race was colorful in that not only a new governor emerged, (Mills E. Godwin, Jr.), who would go on to serve the term as a Democrat and later serve another term as a Republican in the 1970s,[2] but that another opponent, A. Linwood Holton, Jr., would go on to serve a term as Virginia's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction.[3] Not to mention that George Lincoln Rockwell, the American Nazi Party leader, ran in this race under a so called "White constitutional party".[4] [5]
| State | Incumbent | Party | Status | Opposing candidates | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | Richard J. Hughes | Democratic | Re-elected, 57.39% | Wayne Dumont (Republican) 41.08% Robert Lee Schlachter (Conservative) 0.93% Christopher C. Vespucci (Veterans Choice) 0.24% Julius Levin (Socialist Labor) 0.21% Ruth F. Shiminsky (Socialist Workers) 0.14%[6] | |
| Virginia | Democratic | Term-limited, Democratic victory | Mills Godwin (Democratic) 47.89% Linwood Holton (Republican) 37.71% William J. Story Jr. (Virginia Conservative) 13.38% George Lincoln Rockwell (Independent) 1.02%[7] |