Gaston Caperton Democratic Cecil Underwood Republican The 1996 West Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1996 to elect the Governor of West Virginia.

Republican Cecil Underwood, who had previously been the Governor of West Virginia from 1957 to 1961, defeated Democratic State Senator Charlotte Pritt.

Concurrently, the state voted the opposite way federally, choosing Democratic U.S. Presidential nominee, incumbent Bill Clinton over Republican nominee Bob Dole in the Presidential election that year.

Pritt was the first woman to secure the West Virginia gubernatorial nomination of either of the two major political parties.

Former Republican Jim Justice was elected in the 2016 election as a Democrat and later switched back to the Republican Party seven months into his term, making him the first Republican governor since 2001 when Underwood left office.