Incumbent Republican Governor Arthur C. Mellette declined to seek re-election to a third term.

Former territorial legislator Charles H. Sheldon was nominated by the Republican Party as Mellette's replacement, and he faced former legislator Abraham Lincoln Van Osdel, a leader in the South Dakota Farmers' Alliance and the nominee of the Independent Party, along with Democratic nominee Peter Couchman, in the general election.

[2] At the Republican convention in July 1892, Governor Mellette declined to be a candidate for another term.

At their September 1890 convention, the delegates overwhelmingly voted, 376–36, against forming a coalition and to instead nominate their own candidates for state offices.

[9] The convention nominated Peter Couchman, a former member of the New York State Assembly who moved to South Dakota in 1872 and ran as the 1890 Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor,[10] by acclamation.