The North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 1990 took place on 13 May 1990 to elect the 239 members of the Landtag (state legislature). It resulted in clearly confirming the state government led by Johannes Rau, providing the SPD with an absolute majority of seats for the third time after 1980 and 1985. Rau, who received the opportunity to challenge chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1987 federal election also because of his strong performance as head of government in Germany's most populous state, was defeated by Kohl so that he stayed in North Rhine-Westphalia and remained vice chairman of the federal SPD.
The CDU chose Norbert Blüm, federal minister for labour and social affairs, as their candidate for the office of Minister-President because due to an absence of 24 years from power at that time, the party lacked charismatic leaders on the state level.
The FDP could maintain its share of votes whereas the Greens, who failed to pass above the 5%-threshold in the 1985 state election, returned to the Landtag.
