United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 8, 2005, in the states of New Jersey and Virginia as well as in the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This was the first election since 1987 that no seats switched parties in a gubernatorial election and the first election since 1991 where no net gains were made either.

National effect

Shortly before election day, U.S. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

returned from a trip to Latin America to provide last-minute campaigning for Virginian gubernatorial candidate

Jerry W. Kilgore Jerry Walter Kilgore (born August 23, 1961) is an American attorney, politician and member of the Republican Party. He served as the Attorney General of Virginia from 2002 to 2005 and was the Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia in 2005, ...

. After the defeat of Kilgore and

Doug Forrester Douglas Robert Forrester (born January 24, 1953) is an American businessman and politician from New Jersey. He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from New Jersey in 2002, and the Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 2005. F ...

in New Jersey, Democrats ascribed these victories to the President's decreasing popularity. Republicans then tried to downplay these Democratic triumphs as victories exclusive to those states and their candidates. Some speculate that these two elections were harbingers of the positive momentum around the Democratic Party, and it could be said that they had some positive effect on the landmark victories in the

2006 midterm elections The 2006 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006, in the middle of Republican President George W. Bush's second term. Democrats won control of both houses of Congress, which was the first and only time either party did so ...

and the 2008 presidential election for the party. Republicans, however, maintain that the Democrats' advantage in 2005 was due simply to the fact that they were the incumbent party.

Race summary

States

Territory

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was under 1%: # Northern Mariana Islands, 0.6% States where the margin of victory was under 10%: # Virginia, 5.7%

Notes

External links

Official NJ general election results