2000 West Virginia gubernatorial election

Summary

The 2000 West Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 2000. Incumbent Republican Governor Cecil Underwood ran for re-election to a second consecutive term in office, but was defeated by Democratic U.S. Representative Bob Wise. Concurrently, the state voted for the opposite party federally, choosing Republican nominee, George W. Bush over Democratic nominee Al Gore in the presidential election that year. To date, this was the last time in which an incumbent West Virginia Governor lost re-election.

2000 West Virginia gubernatorial election

← 1996 November 7, 2000 2004 →
 
Nominee Bob Wise Cecil Underwood
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 324,822 305,926
Percentage 50.1% 47.2%

County results
Wise:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%
Underwood:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%

Governor before election

Cecil Underwood
Republican

Elected Governor

Bob Wise
Democratic

Democratic primary edit

Candidates edit

Results edit

Democratic primary results[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Bob Wise 174,292 63.1
Democratic Jim Lees 101,774 36.9
Total votes 275,976 100.0

Republican primary edit

Governor Cecil Underwood was easily re-nominated in the Republican primary, defeating three other candidates by a wide margin.

Results edit

Republican primary results[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Cecil Underwood (incumbent) 87,190 80.9
Republican Joseph Oliverio 11,590 10.8
Republican Donna H. McCase 5,902 4.5
Republican Larry Eugene Butcher 3,117 2.9
Total votes 107,799 100.0

General election edit

Debates edit

  • Complete video of debate, October 18, 2000

Results edit

West Virginia gubernatorial election, 2000[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Bob Wise 324,822 50.12% +4.32%
Republican Cecil Underwood (incumbent) 305,926 47.21% -4.42%
Mountain Denise Giardina 10,416 1.61% +1.61%
Libertarian Bob Myers 5,548 0.86% -1.71%
Natural Law Randall Ashelman 1,301 0.20% +0.20%
Write-in 34 0.01% N/A
Total votes 648,047 100.00% N/A
Democratic gain from Republican

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "2000 Primary Election: Governor" (PDF). West Virginia Secretary of State. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.
  2. ^ "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections".

See also edit