The 1997 New Jersey gubernatorial election was a race for Governor of New Jersey. It was held on November 4, 1997. In the Democratic primary state senator and Woodbridge Township mayor James McGreevey defeated pre-primary front-runner Rep. Rob Andrews by 9,993 votes. Although incumbent Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman had a comfortable lead in polls in the run up to the vote, on election night she prevailed over McGreevey by a narrow margin of 26,953 votes (1.05%), a similarly narrow margin to her previous election. Whitman won 46.87% of the vote, with Democratic nominee James McGreevey receiving 45.82% and Libertarian Murray Sabrin receiving 4.7%.