| Election Name: | 2013 United States gubernatorial elections |
| Country: | United States |
| Type: | legislative |
| Seats For Election: | 2 governorships |
| Election Date: | November 5, 2013 |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2012 United States gubernatorial elections |
| Previous Year: | 2012 |
| Next Election: | 2014 United States gubernatorial elections |
| Next Year: | 2014 |
| 1Blank: | Seats up |
| 2Blank: | Seats won |
| Party1: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Seats Before1: | 30 |
| Seats After1: | 29 |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| 1Data1: | 2 |
| 2Data1: | 1 |
| Popular Vote1: | 2,292,286[1] |
| Popular Vote2: | 1,879,767 |
| Percentage1: | 52.53% |
| Percentage2: | 43.08% |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Seats Before2: | 20 |
| Seats After2: | 21 |
| Seat Change2: | 1 |
| 1Data2: | 0 |
| 2Data2: | 1 |
| Map Size: | 320px |
United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 5, 2013 in New Jersey and Virginia. These elections formed part of the 2013 United States elections. Before the elections, both seats were held by Republicans. Republican incumbent Chris Christie won reelection in New Jersey, while in Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the open seat held by term-limited Republican Bob McDonnell.
This was the first time since 1985 that Virginia and New Jersey elected governors of different parties. As of, this is the last time that a Republican won the governorship in New Jersey.
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:
| New Jersey | data-sort-value="-6" | D+6 | Chris Christie | data-sort-value="48.5" | 48.5% R | data-sort-value="67.4" | Christie 60.3% R | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | data-sort-value="0" | EVEN | data-sort-value="58.6" | 58.6% R | data-sort-value="-47.8" | McAuliffe 47.8% D |
| State | Incumbent | Party | First elected | Result | Candidates | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 2009 | Incumbent re-elected. | nowrap | |||||
| Virginia | 2009 | Incumbent term-limited. New governor elected. Democratic gain. | nowrap |
States where the margin of victory was under 5%:
| Election Name: | 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election |
| Country: | New Jersey |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2009 New Jersey gubernatorial election |
| Previous Year: | 2009 |
| Next Election: | 2017 New Jersey gubernatorial election |
| Next Year: | 2017 |
| Image1: | File:Chris Christie April 2015 (cropped).jpg |
| Nominee1: | Chris Christie |
| Party1: | Republican Party (US) |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,278,932 |
| Percentage1: | 60.3% |
| Nominee2: | Barbara Buono |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (US) |
| Popular Vote2: | 809,978 |
| Percentage2: | 38.2% |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | Chris Christie |
| Before Party: | Republican Party (US) |
| After Election: | Chris Christie |
| After Party: | Republican Party (US) |
See main article: 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. Governor Chris Christie ran for a second term.[4] Christie's re-election campaign could be the prelude to a 2016 presidential campaign for him.[5]
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.[6] [7] [8]
State Senator and former State Senate Democratic Leader Barbara Buono was the Democratic nominee.[9]
The Libertarian nominee was Ken Kaplan, who also ran for U.S. Senator in 2012.[10]
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.[11]
| Election Name: | 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election |
| Country: | Virginia |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election |
| Previous Year: | 2009 |
| Next Election: | 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election |
| Next Year: | 2017 |
| Image1: | File:Virginia Governor Democrats Terry McAuliffe 095 Cropped (cropped).jpg |
| Nominee1: | Terry McAuliffe |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (US) |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,069,789 |
| Percentage1: | 47.8% |
| Nominee2: | Ken Cuccinelli |
| Party2: | Republican Party (US) |
| Popular Vote2: | 1,013,354 |
| Percentage2: | 45.2% |
| Image3: | File:Robert Sarvis (cropped).jpg |
| Nominee3: | Robert Sarvis |
| Party3: | Libertarian Party (US) |
| Popular Vote3: | 146,084 |
| Percentage3: | 6.5% |
| Map Size: | 300px |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | Bob McDonnell |
| Before Party: | Republican Party (US) |
| After Election: | Terry McAuliffe |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (US) |
See main article: 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election.
See also: 2013 Virginia lieutenant 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.[12]
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.[13]
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.[14]
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.[15]