1990 Michigan gubernatorial election
The 1990 Michigan gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1990, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the state of Michigan. John Engler, a member of the Republican Party and State Senate majority leader, was elected over Democratic Party nominee, incumbent governor James Blanchard, who was seeking his third term.
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County results Engler: 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% Blanchard: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Michigan |
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In what turned out to be one of the closest elections in recent Michigan history, Engler defeated Blanchard by 17,000 votes and a 0.7% margin. Engler's victory was considered a major upset and became infamous among pollsters. The final Detroit News poll showed Engler trailing by 14 points, and the final Detroit Free Press poll showed Engler behind by 4 points. A retrospective of the polling suggests the News poll may have had questions that favored Blanchard and too heavily incorporated the opinions of registered voters rather than likely voters, and thus failed to correctly gauge turnout.
The voter turnout was 38.6%. This was the first time since 1974 and the last time until 2022 that the state elected a governor of the same party as the sitting president. As of 2024, this is the last Michigan gubernatorial election in which an incumbent was defeated.