The 1990 Ohio gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1990. Incumbent DemocraticGovernorDick Celeste was unable to run for a third consecutive term due to term limits. Former Mayor of ClevelandGeorge Voinovich, who also ran for the United States Senate in 1988, was uncontested for the Republican nomination, while Ohio Attorney GeneralAnthony J. Celebrezze Jr. emerged from the Democratic primary. In the end, Voinovich was able to defeat Celebrezze by a fairly wide margin, winning his first term in office.
Abortion was a key issue of the election. Celebrezze switched from his lifelong pro-life position to a pro-choice position 9 days before declaring his candidacy. Assuming that this would help him in a mostly pro-choice state, he raised the issue frequently. Because of this, the topic of abortion made the news. This allowed Voinovich to have an issue to criticize Celebrezze's integrity, contributing to Voinovich's win.[1]