1978 Illinois gubernatorial election

Illinois gubernatorial election, 1978

November, 1978

Nominee James R. Thompson Michael Bakalis Party Republican Democratic Running mate David C. O'Neal Dick Durbin Popular vote 1,859,684 1,263,134 Percentage 59.04 40.10

Governor before election James R. Thompson Republican Elected Governor James R. Thompson Republican

Gubernatorial elections were held in Illinois in November 1978. Republican candidate James R. Thompson easily won a second term in office, defeating Democrat Michael Bakalis by nearly 600,000 votes. This was the first election where which coincided with Congressional midterm elections. Thus, the previous election had been in 1976.

Results

1978 gubernatorial election, Illinois

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	James R. Thompson (incumbent)	1,859,684	59.04
	Democratic	Michael Bakalis	1,263,134	40.10
	Libertarian	Georgia Shields	11,420	0.36
	Socialist Workers	Cecil Lampkin	11,026	0.35
	U.S. Labor	Melvin Klenetsky	4,737	0.15
	N/A	write-ins	106	0.00	n−a
Majority			596,550	18.94
Turnout			3,150,107
	Republican hold		Swing