The 2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2016, to elect the governor of West Virginia, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on May 10.
Incumbent Democratic governor Earl Ray Tomblin was barred from running for a second full term. He had ascended to the governorship upon Joe Manchin's resignation in 2010, won a 2011 special election to complete the term, and won a full term in 2012. Under the West Virginia Constitution, a partial term counts toward the limit of two consecutive terms.
Democratic nominee Jim Justice, a hotelier and coal baron, won the open seat with a plurality of the vote, defeating Republican state senator Bill Cole and former state senator Charlotte Pritt, who ran as a member of the Mountain Party. As of 2024, this is the last time a Democrat was elected governor of West Virginia, and the last West Virginia gubernatorial race where the winner won less than 61% of votes. Having switched parties in August 2017, Justice was re-elected as a Republican in 2020; his party switch gave Republicans the governorship for the first time since 2001 and a trifecta in the state for the first time since 1931.
In November 2010, Democratic governor Joe Manchin resigned after being elected to the U.S. Senate. Earl Ray Tomblin, the president of the West Virginia Senate (with the honorary title of lieutenant governor), became acting governor, won an October 2011 special election to complete the term, and won a full term in the regularly scheduled 2012 election. Tomblin was ineligible to run for re-election in 2016, as the Constitution of West Virginia limits governors to two consecutive terms regardless of whether they are full or partial terms. However, governors are re-eligible after four years out of office.
After publicly speculating he would run for his former office, Manchin was considered a heavy favorite in the 2016 race, but he announced on April 19, 2015, that he would remain in the Senate instead.