In the gubernatorial election of 1851, Powell was once again the Democratic Party nominee. The Whigs nominated Powell's friend and law partner, Archibald Dixon. Powell and Dixon traveled the state together, eating at the same taverns, speaking from the same platforms, and generally showing cordiality and friendliness that was rare in Kentucky politics in those days. Powell's margin of victory in the general election was a thin 850 votes, while Whig candidate John P. Thompson defeated the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Robert Wickliffe, by several thousand votes. A third candidate for governor, abolitionist Cassius M. Clay, received 3,621 votes. Powell was the first Democrat elected to the office in almost twenty years. (John L. Helm had ascended to the governorship on Crittenden's resignation.)