Election for Governor of Montana
1940 Montana gubernatorial election|
|
Turnout | 81.50%1.70[1] |
---|
|
County results Ford: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% Ayers: 40–50% 50–60% |
|
The 1940 Montana gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1940. Incumbent Governor of Montana Roy E. Ayers, who was first elected governor in 1936, ran for re-election. He narrowly won the Democratic primary by just over a thousand votes to win renomination, and advanced to the general election, where he was opposed by Sam C. Ford, a former Associate Justice of the Montana Supreme Court and the Republican nominee. Ultimately, in spite of the fact that then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt comfortably won the state in that year's presidential election, Ford narrowly defeated Ayers to win his first of two terms as governor.