Incumbent Republican Governor Charles N. Herreid declined to run for re-election to a third term.

Clark County State's Attorney Samuel H. Elrod won the Republican nomination to run as Herreid's successor, and he faced Democratic nominee Louis N. Crill, the former president of the state Senate, and former U.S.

For the first time since 1894, the Democratic and Populist Parties nominated separate candidates.

Ultimately, the split in the two parties did not prove dispositive; Elrod defeated Crill and the other candidates in a landslide.

[3] At the convention, however, Elrod emerged as the consensus pick and the other candidates ceased their campaigns.