Gubernatorial election in the United States in 1991
The 1991 United States gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1991. The states of Kentucky , Louisiana and Mississippi were elected . While the Democratic Party candidates won in Kentucky and Louisiana , Mississippi received a Republican governor for the first time in 115 years .
As four years earlier, the main focus was on the Louisiana election. Here Buddy Roemer had been elected governor as a Democrat, but then switched to the Republicans during the term of office. The principle of the jungle primary , the common area code , in which several representatives of one party can run for candidates, was used again. In contrast to previous years, however, this time the situation was reversed. Previously there had usually been several strong Democratic applicants who took away each other's votes, this now applied to the Republican candidate field. In addition to Roemer and Congressman Clyde C. Holloway , David Duke , a member of the House of Representatives from Louisiana and formerly Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan , competed here . In the case of the Democrats, the former governor Edwin Edwards , who four years earlier had waived the runoff election against Buddy Roemer as incumbent, did not have to fear a competitor within the party.
The result of the primary on October 19 came as a surprise: David Duke won a majority in 31 of the 64 parishes of Louisiana, Edwards in 26, and Roemer only in seven. In terms of the share of votes, Edwards (33.8) was ahead of Duke (31.7), which resulted in a runoff between the two. Incumbent Roemer was eliminated as third with 26.5 percent of the vote, as was Clyde Holloway (5.3). The possibility that former clan leader Duke might become governor attracted worldwide attention. With Buddy Roemer and David C. Treen Edwards experienced the support of his two Republican opponents of the previous years; and US President George Bush had announced that he considered Edwards for the better alternative. The non-partisan support ultimately ensured that the Democrat won with 61.2 percent of the vote and was able to take up his fourth term as governor.
There was also a change of power in Mississippi. As the first governor, Ray Mabus took the opportunity introduced into the constitution by his predecessor William Allain to run again after one term of office. However, he made history not by completing this second term, but by the first defeat of a Democrat in the gubernatorial election since 1874. With 47.6 percent of the vote, he lost to the Republican challenger Kirk Fordice , a previously politically inexperienced businessman who received 50.8 percent.
In Kentucky, Governor Wallace G. Wilkinson was constitutionally unable to run again. In its place, the Democrats nominated the previous four years as lieutenant governor acting Brereton Jones . With 64.7 percent of the vote, he won a very clear victory against Republican Larry Hopkins , a former member of the US House of Representatives.
