Incumbent Democratic governor Price Daniel was running for reelection to a fourth term, but was defeated in the primary by John Connally.

John Connally announced two weeks before Christmas of 1961 that he was leaving the position of Secretary of the Navy to seek the Democratic nomination.

Former state Attorney General Will Wilson also entered the campaign, accusing Lyndon B. Johnson of engineering Connally's candidacy.

Other primary candidates were highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview, another party conservative, and General Edwin A. Walker, who made anti-communism the centerpiece of his campaign.

[1] Democratic incumbent Marion Price Daniel, Sr. was running for a fourth consecutive two-year term, but was in political trouble following the enactment of a two-cent state sales tax in 1961, which had soured many voters on his administration.