324,518 287,870 Start date November 5, 1996 | 51.6% 45.8% | |
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Winner Cecil H Underwood | ||
The 1996 West Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1996 for the post of Governor of West Virginia. Republican Cecil Underwood, who had previously been the Governor of West Virginia from 1957-1961, defeated Democratic State Senator Charlotte Pritt. Concurrently, the state voted the opposite way federally, choosing Democratic U.S. Presidential nominee, incumbent Bill Clinton over Republican nominee Bob Dole in the Presidential election that year.
Due to Joe Manchin, whom Pritt had defeated for the Democratic nomination, founding a group called "Democrats for Underwood," Pritt lost narrowly in the general election, but made history as the first woman to secure the West Virginia gubernatorial nomination of either of the two major political parties. As of 2016, this is the most recent election in which a Republican was elected Governor of West Virginia.