United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 7, 2023, in the states of Kentucky and Mississippi, with an election having occurred in Louisiana on October 14. These elections form part of the 2023 United States elections. The last regular gubernatorial elections for all three states were in 2019.
In Louisiana, term-limited incumbent John Bel Edwards was succeeded by Jeff Landry, flipping the seat from Democratic to Republican control. In Kentucky, Democrat Andy Beshear won re-election to a second term. In Mississippi, Republican Tate Reeves won re-election to a second term.
Partisan composition
Going into the election, there were 26 Republican governors and 24 Democratic governors in the United States. This class of governors was made up of 1 Republican and 2 Democrats. Democrats were defending two governorships in states Donald Trump won in 2020 (Kentucky and Louisiana).
Election predictions
Several sites and individuals published predictions of competitive seats. These predictions looked 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 assigned ratings to each seat, with the rating indicating a party's predicted advantage 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
Closest states
States where the margin of victory was between 1% and 5%:
- Mississippi, 3.24%
States where the margin of victory was between 5% and 10%:
- Kentucky, 5.07%
Red denotes states won by Republicans. Blue denotes states won by Democrats.
Kentucky
Governor Andy Beshear was elected in 2019 with 49.2% of the vote and ran for re-election to a second term. He won the Democratic nomination with little opposition & won the general election.
Attorney general Daniel Cameron, former US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft, state auditor Mike Harmon, and agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles all ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Cameron was supported by former president Donald Trump, and led every poll leading to the primary, with Craft and Quarles trailing behind him. Cameron won the Republican nomination, becoming the first African American major party gubernatorial nominee in Kentucky's history.
Louisiana
Governor John Bel Edwards was re-elected to a second term in 2019 with 51.3% of the vote. He was term-limited by the Louisiana Constitution in 2023, and could not seek reelection for a third consecutive term.
Louisiana utilizes a jungle primary system. Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry was considered the frontrunner. Other candidates included state senator Sharon Hewitt, and Treasurer John Schroder. Democratic Secretary of Transportation Shawn Wilson also ran to succeed Edwards.
Landry won with over 51% of the vote in the primary, becoming the first person to win a Louisiana gubernatorial election without a runoff since Bobby Jindal in 2011. Landry easily prevailed over several Republican opponents and the leading Democratic candidate. All the Republican candidates collectively won 65.52% of the vote, including a candidate who got 0.34% of the vote as he dropped out of the race but remained on the ballot. All the Democrats collectively won 28.53% of the vote, and all the Independents collectively won 5.95% of the vote. This was the only governorship to flip parties in the 2023 elections.
Mississippi
Governor Tate Reeves was elected in 2019 with 51.9% of the vote and ran for re-election to a second term.
Democrat Brandon Presley, Mississippi Public Service Commissioner for the Northern District, was the Democratic nominee to challenge Reeves.
Reeves won re-election.