United States gubernatorial election 1983
The 1983 United States gubernatorial election took place on October 23, 1983. The states of Kentucky , Louisiana and Mississippi were elected . In all three cases, the Democratic Party candidates prevailed.
The only of the three previous incumbents who could run again was Republican David C. Treen of Louisiana. He had been elected governor of his state four years earlier as the first Republican since the Reconstruction , which was also due to the Jungle Primary principle applied in Louisiana . Several representatives of one party can run for this area code ; if no one receives an absolute majority, there is a runoff election. While Treen was the only Republican to take first place, the Democratic vote had been split among five candidates. Disappointed that second place went to the outsider Louis Lambert , the other Democratic candidates supported Treen in the runoff election, who then narrowly won.
Such a case did not occur this time. Edwin Edwards , governor from 1972 to 1980, clearly stood out from the field of four Democratic applicants and returned to office with 62.3 percent of the vote without having to go through the runoff election. Treen was beaten second with 36.4 percent.
In Mississippi, the Democratic governor William Winter was constitutionally unable to run again after four years. The Democrats nominated William Allain , Attorney General of the state, who then won the election with 55.1 percent of the vote. His Republican opponent Leon Bramlett had a share of 38.9 percent. Charles Evers , brother of the murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers and mayor of Fayette , came third as an independent candidate with 4.1 percent of the vote.
In Kentucky, too, the Democratic incumbent John Brown had to forego re-election after four years as governor. His party put in lieutenant governor Martha Layne Collins for the first time a woman as a candidate, who then won the election and became the first governor of Kentucky. She received 54.5 percent of the vote, beating former top baseball player Jim Bunning , then a member of the Kentucky Senate and later two terms Republican Senator . He accounted for 44.1 percent. The independent candidate Nicholas McCubbin (1.4 percent) had no chance.
