2025 United States gubernatorial elections

For related races, see 2025 United States elections.

United States gubernatorial elections are scheduled to be held on November 4, 2025, in two states, New Jersey and Virginia. These elections will be held as part of the 2025 United States elections. The last gubernatorial elections for New Jersey and Virginia were in 2021. Both incumbents are ineligible to run for re-election due to term limits. More states may hold elections due to a gubernatorial vacancy (depending on a state's constitution) or recall of a governor.^[1][2]

2025 United States gubernatorial elections

← 2024 November 4, 2025 2026 →
← 2021 2029 →
2 governorships
Majority party Minority party   Party Republican Democratic Seats before 27 23 Seats up 1 1
Term-limited Republican      Term-limited Democrat

Partisan composition

Going into the election, there are 27 Republican governors and 23 Democratic governors in the United States. This class of governors is made up of 1 Republican and 1 Democrat. Republicans are defending one governorship in a state that Kamala Harris won in 2024 (Virginia). Democrats are defending one governorship in a state that Harris won (New Jersey).

Election predictions

Several sites and individuals publish 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

State	PVI[3]	Incumbent	Last race	Cook May. 1, 2025[4]	IE Feb. 6, 2025[5]	Sabato Apr. 30, 2025[6]
New Jersey	D+4	Phil Murphy (term-limited)	51.2% D	Lean D	Lean D	Lean D
Virginia	D+3	Glenn Youngkin (term-limited)	50.6% R	Lean D (flip)	Tilt D (flip)	Lean D (flip)

Race summary

State	Governor	Party	First elected	Last race	Status	Candidates
New Jersey	Phil Murphy	Democratic	2017	51.2% D	Term-limited	▌Ras Baraka (Democratic)[7] ▌Justin Barbera (Republican)[8] ▌Jon Bramnick (Republican)[9] ▌Gerardo Cedrone (Independent)[10] ▌Jack Ciattarelli (Republican)[11] ▌Steven Fulop (Democratic)[12] ▌Josh Gottheimer (Democratic)[13] ▌Mario Kranjac (Republican)[14] ▌Mikie Sherrill (Democratic)[15] ▌Bill Spadea (Republican)[16] ▌Sean Spiller (Democratic)[17] ▌Stephen Sweeney (Democratic)[18] ▌Stephen Zielinksi (Green)[19]
Virginia	Glenn Youngkin	Republican	2021	50.6% R	Term-limited	▌Winsome Earle-Sears (Republican)[20] ▌Abigail Spanberger (Democratic)[21] ▌Andrew White (Independent)[22]

New Jersey

Main article: 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial election

Governor Phil Murphy was re-elected to a second term in 2021 with 51.2% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the New Jersey Constitution and cannot seek re-election for a third consecutive term. Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop, former New Jersey Senate president Stephen Sweeney, U.S. Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, and Newark mayor Ras Baraka are running for the Democratic nomination.^{[12][18][7][13][15]} Former state assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who was the 2021 Republican gubernatorial nominee, state senator Jon Bramnick, and former radio host Bill Spadea are seeking the Republican nomination.^[11][9][16]

Virginia

Main article: 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election

Virginia gubernatorial election

← 2021 2029 →

Nominee Winsome Earle-Sears Abigail Spanberger Party Republican Democratic

Incumbent Governor Glenn Youngkin Republican

Governor Glenn Youngkin was elected in 2021 with 50.6% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the Virginia Constitution and cannot seek re-election for a second consecutive term. Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is the Republican nominee.^[23] Former U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district Abigail Spanberger is the Democratic nominee.^[24] The winner of this election will become the first female governor in Virginia's history.