2020 West Virginia gubernatorial election


The 2020 West Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the governor of West Virginia, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as [United States Senate United States Senate elections, 2020|elections, 2020|elections] to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Incumbent Governor Jim Justice announced his 2020 re-election campaign on January 7, 2019. Justice was elected in 2016 as a Democrat, but later switched back to the Republican Party at a campaign rally with Donald Trump. Justice won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic Kanawha County commissioner Ben Salango. Justice's re-election made him the first Republican to be elected governor of West Virginia since Cecil Underwood in 1996. Additionally, Justice became the first incumbent Republican governor to win re-election since Arch A. Moore Jr. in 1972, as well as the first Republican to carry all counties in West Virginia. However, Justice performed worse than Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who outperformed Justice by 5.13 percentage points. Additionally, Salango slightly outperformed Biden by 0.53 percentage points. Justice's 33% margin is the largest margin for a Republican in West Virginia history

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Declined

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Declined

Other candidates

Mountain Party

The Mountain Party received over 5% of the vote in 2016 with former State Senator and Delegate Charlotte Pritt as the party's gubernatorial nominee. The party nominates its candidate for governor by convention per its bylaws.

Nominee

Libertarian Party

Nominee

Write-ins

The following candidates were certified write-in candidates.

Declared

General election

Polling

Jim Justice vs. Joe Manchin

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Jim
Justice 		Joe
Manchin 		Other /
Undecided
Research America/MetroNewsAugust 14–22, 2019501 ± 4.4%39%49%12%

Results

By county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

By congressional district

Justice won all three congressional districts.
DistrictJusticeSalangoRepresentative
64%30%David McKinley
59%33%Alex Mooney
68%27%Carol Miller