2027 Elections Calendar: Governor Races in Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana, Key Dates

Election Day 2027 is Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2027, and two states already have official calendars for it: Kentucky’s State Board of Elections sets a May 18 primary and Mississippi’s Secretary of State sets an Aug. 3 primary. Both list governor among the offices on the 2027 ballot. Kentucky’s candidate filing deadline is 4:00 PM on Friday, Jan. 8, 2027. This overview puts the states side by side as of Nov. 4, 2026, and marks every cell as official, computed from state law or not yet announced. It names no candidates.

2027 election dates by state

State	Primary	Runoff	Registration deadline	Filing deadline	General election
Kentucky	Tue., May 18 (official)	None on the board’s calendar	Mon., April 19 for the primary; Mon., Oct. 4 for the general (official)	Fri., Jan. 8, 4:00 PM (official)	Tue., Nov. 2 (official)
Mississippi	Tue., Aug. 3 (official)	Tue., Aug. 31 for the primary; Tue., Nov. 30 for the general (official)	Not yet announced	Not yet announced	Tue., Nov. 2 (official)
Louisiana	Not yet confirmed	Not yet confirmed	Not yet confirmed	Not yet confirmed	Not yet confirmed
New Jersey	Tue., June 8 (computed from state law; 2027 timeline not yet posted)	Not yet announced	21 days before the election (2026 rule; 2027 not yet posted)	71st day before the election, 4 p.m. (2026 rule; 2027 not yet posted)	Tue., Nov. 2 (computed; 2027 timeline not yet posted)
Virginia	Not yet set; state-law default is Tue., June 15 (computed from state law)	Not yet announced	Records close 10 days before an election (state law)	Not yet announced	Tue., Nov. 2 (state law)

All dates are 2027. Primary and runoff dates follow each state’s own calendar; where a cell says computed, the state has not posted 2027 dates and we applied the rule in the statute.

What does Kentucky’s 2027 calendar say?

The Kentucky State Board of Elections’ “2027 Kentucky Election Calendar” lists the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2027, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and the primary on Tuesday, May 18. Candidates who must run in the primary file by 4:00 PM on Friday, Jan. 8. The earliest day to sign candidate filing forms for a 2027 office was Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. The last day to register is Monday, April 19 for the primary and Monday, Oct. 4 for the general election.

The board’s “Kentucky Election Schedule 2026-2036” marks only state officers in its 2027 column: governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, auditor of public accounts, state treasurer and commissioner of agriculture. Absentee rules, early voting days and the party-change deadline are in our Kentucky 2027 election calendar story.

What dates has Mississippi set for 2027?

The Mississippi Secretary of State’s “Election Calendar 2026-2027” lists four 2027 dates: a primary on Aug. 3, a primary runoff on Aug. 31, the general election on Nov. 2 and a general runoff on Nov. 30. All four fall on Tuesdays. The 2027 statewide offices on that calendar are governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, attorney general, treasurer, commissioner of insurance and commissioner of agriculture and commerce.

The qualifying deadline for candidates and the voter registration deadlines for 2027 are not yet posted. We do not compute them; check the Secretary of State’s Elections Division before relying on a date.

Where is the Louisiana governor’s race on the calendar?

Louisiana also elects a governor in 2027. The Secretary of State’s 2027 elections calendar was not reachable when we checked on Nov. 4, 2026, and the dates are not yet confirmed on its site. Sources we found disagree on the fall dates and the qualifying period, so we print none. Louisiana’s second-round dates for this year are in our runoff election dates for 2026 story.

What are Virginia’s and New Jersey’s 2027 dates?

Neither state has a 2027 date we can call official yet, so these come from the law.

• Virginia general election: the Code of Virginia, section 24.2-101, defines a general election as one held “on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November,” which is Nov. 2, 2027.
• Virginia primary: section 24.2-515 sets June primaries on “the third Tuesday in June,” which would be June 15, 2027. The 2027 date is not yet set.
• Virginia registration: section 24.2-416 says “The registration records shall be closed during the 10 days before a primary or general election.”
• New Jersey primary: the Division of Elections’ “2026 Primary Election Timeline,” issued Dec. 30, 2025, sets the primary on the Tuesday after the first Monday in June (New Jersey Statutes Annotated, N.J.S.A. 19:2-1 and 19:23-40). Under the same rule the 2027 primary would fall on June 8, 2027. The state has not posted a 2027 timeline.
• New Jersey deadlines in 2026: the registration deadline was 21 days before the election, and petitions were due on or before the 71st day before it, at 4 p.m. We did not apply those counts to 2027.

How to plan around the 2027 election dates

The first fixed date is Kentucky’s Jan. 8 filing deadline, 65 days from today. Mark Kentucky’s May 18 primary and Mississippi’s Aug. 3 and Aug. 31 dates, then Election Day on Nov. 2 and Mississippi’s Nov. 30 general runoff. The free one-page 2027 Election Dates sheet for Kentucky and Mississippi lists each posted date in order with the days before Nov. 2. It names Louisiana, Virginia, New Jersey and Mississippi’s missing deadlines as unconfirmed. For your own planning, use our May and November printable calendars or the printable yearly calendar. For the offices chosen this year, see when 2026 election winners take office.