United States gubernatorial elections, 1965

The 1965 gubernatorial elections in the United States involved only New Jersey and Virginia.

New Jersey

A major driver of the 1965 race was taxes, or at least that was the plan, until a university teacher made a smart remark concerning the Vietnam War. After his re-election win, Hughes tried to do an income tax, but that bill died. The tax would come into play after the state Supreme Court handed down a decision concerning property taxes for schools in 1973. Hughes would become Chief Justice in 1974, and after much battling with then-Gov. Brendan Byrne and the New Jersey Congress concerning taxes for public education, the income tax finally made it to New Jersey.

Virginia

The 1965 Virginia's Governor's Race was colorful in that not only a new governor emerged, (Mills E. Godwin, Jr.), who would go on to serve the term as a Democrat and later serve another term as a Republican in the 1970s, but that another opponent, A. Linwood Holton, Jr., would go on to serve a term as Virginia's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction. Not to mention that George Lincoln Rockwell, the 'American Hitler', ran in this race.

Chart

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
New Jersey	Richard J. Hughes	Democratic	Re-elected, 57.39%	Wayne Dumont, Jr. (Republican) 41.08% Robert Lee Schlachter (Conservative) 0.93% Christopher C. Vespucci (Veterans Choice) 0.24% Julius Levin (Socialist Labor) 0.21% Ruth F. Shiminsky (Socialist Workers) 0.14%
Virginia	Albertis S. Harrison, Jr.	Democratic	Term-limited, Democratic victory	Mills E. Godwin, Jr. (Democratic) 47.89% A. Linwood Holton, Jr. (Republican) 37.71% William J. Story Jr. (Virginia Conservative) 13.38% George Lincoln Rockwell (Independent) 1.02%