At the time of the election, the sitting governor was Patricio Martínez García of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
At the close of voting, exit polls were indicating a victory for José Reyes Baeza of a PRI-led alliance with a lead of ten percentage points.
As the count progressed, Javier Corral Jurado of the PAN – representing an unusual alliance of his party and the left-leaning PRD – conceded the election at around 23h00 local time.
Preliminary results indicated the state's 67 municipalities would be divided as follows: The PAN/PRD alliance won a closely fought mayoral race in state capital Chihuahua, previously governed by the PRI.
In a give-and-take action between the state's two largest cities, borderland industrial and commercial powerhouse Ciudad Juárez fell to the PRI after 12 years of PAN rule.