The 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 1998. Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura, the former mayor of Brooklyn Park and a former professional wrestler, won office, defeating Republican St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman and DFL state attorney general Skip Humphrey. He succeeded Republican incumbent Arne Carlson. Ventura's victory as a third-party candidate was considered a historic major upset.
As of , the election marks the only time a Reform Party candidate won a major government office. It also remains the last time a third-party candidate won any statewide election in Minnesota. Ventura's vote share of 36.99% is the lowest for a Minnesota gubernatorial election winner since 1890.
Coleman won the Republican nomination by winning the primary with token opposition.
Ventura ran unopposed in his party's primary.
Humphrey was seen as the initial favorite, having scored a $6 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in May of that year. The DFL primary saw candidates mostly focusing on issues, rather than attacking Humphrey. Humphrey had nearly lost the party's endorsement to Mike Freeman. The Convention deadlock was broken when the labor caucus led by MAPE delegate David Schmidt, endorsed Skip Humphrey pushing him over the top. The primary was nicknamed the "My Three Sons" campaign, owing to the political pedigree of three of the candidates, Freeman, Mondale and Humphrey. and Mark Dayton, heir to the Dayton fortune. Humphrey was endorsed by the Star Tribune in the run up to November.
Coleman started as a strong challenger to Humphrey. Coleman received the Republican endorsement over more conservative candidates Allen Quist and Joanne Benson. Coleman ran as a social conservative, opposing abortion and gay marriage. He also campaigned on using the state's budget surplus to cut taxes, as well as expanding the state's school choice program to include school vouchers.
Ventura spent around $300,000 and combined it with an aggressive grassroots campaign that featured a statewide bus tour, pioneered use of the Internet for political purposes, and aired quirky TV ads designed by Bill Hillsman, who forged the phrase "Don't vote for politics as usual." Unable to afford many television ads, Ventura mainly focused on televised debates and public appearances, preaching his brand of libertarian politics. His speech at a parade in rural Minnesota during the summer attracted what organizers of the annual event described as one of its largest audiences. He ran on cutting taxes, reducing state government, and reducing public school classroom sizes to a 17 to 1 ratio. He also supported a public debate on the viability of legalized prostitution.
A poll taken in June showed that Coleman would defeat any other Democratic candidate than Humphrey; Humphrey would defeat Coleman 44% to 34%. However, Ventura polled in the double digits. No other candidate in the Reform Party's brief history in Minnesota has received more than 5 percent of the votes in a statewide election. Following the primary election in September, a poll on October 20 showed Humphrey leading 35% to Coleman (34%) and Ventura (21%). But the Star Tribune poll suggested that Ventura's surge with the voters had come mostly at Humphrey's expense. Since the primary, Humphrey's support among likely voters had dropped by 14 percentage points, while Coleman's had increased by 5 percentage points.
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Counties that flipped from Republican to Reform
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
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