Eric Ostermeier has posted this interesting article on Smart Politics, which calculates the percentage of gubernatorial elections in which the winner polled less than a majority of the vote cast. In the 2010’s decade, so far, 26.7% of all gubernatorial elections have produced winners who didn’t receive a majority.

2014 matched 2010; in both years, 10 of the 36 gubernatorial elections were won with just a plurality. As Ostermeier says, the 2010’s decade has a higher percentage of plurality winners than any decade since the 1910’s, and this shows that the current decade is notable for the rise of strong independent and minor party candidates. The reason the 1910’s had so many plurality winners was that in the 1910’s, the nation had three very strong minor parties. The Progressive Party elected the Governor of California in 1914 and the Prohibition Party elected the Governor of Florida in 1916. The Socialist Party didn’t elect any Governors, but sometimes polled over 10% of the vote. Its best showing in gubernatorial races were in 1914, when it got 15.7% in Nevada and 20.8% in Oklahoma.