United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 8, 2022, in 36 states and three territories. As most governors serve four-year terms, the last regular gubernatorial elections for all but two of the seats took place in 2018. The gubernatorial elections took place concurrently with several other federal, state, and local elections, as part of the 2022 midterm elections.
Democrats performed better than expected, including in closely-watched races in Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and the party picked up the governorships of Arizona, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Republicans picked up the governorship of Nevada, making incumbent Democrat Steve Sisolak the only incumbent to lose his seat, the first Democrat since the 2014 Illinois gubernatorial election, and the first of any party since the 2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election.
This is the first midterm cycle since 1998 in which the non-incumbent party suffered net losses, the first since 1986 in which the incumbent party gained seats overall, and the first since 1934 in which Democrats did so. Democrats won the popular vote in this gubernatorial election cycle by 0.24 points, making this the closest midterm gubernatorial election cycle since 2010. However, the 2019 off-year elections were won by Democrats with a smaller margin of 0.01 points.
Notably, this midterm cycle included the first gubernatorial elections since 1978 in Arizona, Kansas, Maine, and New Mexico in which a Democratic governor won election during a Democratic presidency.
Partisan composition
Going into the election, there were 28 Republican governors and 22 Democratic governors in the United States. This class of governors is made up of 20 Republicans and 16 Democrats. In contrast to 2018, where Republicans were defending eight seats in states won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Republicans held six seats in states won by Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election (Vermont, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Maryland). Meanwhile, Democrats were defending four governorships in states Trump had previously won (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin in 2016, and Kansas in 2016 and 2020).
Election predictions
Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive seats. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the incumbent (if the incumbent is running for re-election), the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state (reflected in part by the state's Cook Partisan Voting Index rating). The predictions assign ratings to each state, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that seat.
Most election predictors use:
- "tossup": no advantage
- "tilt" (used by some predictors): advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean"
- "lean": slight advantage
- "likely": significant, but surmountable, advantage
- "safe" or "solid": near-certain chance of victory
Closest races
States where the margin of victory was under 1%:
- Arizona, 0.66%
States where the margin of victory was under 5%:
- Nevada, 1.51%
- Kansas, 2.21%
- Wisconsin, 3.40%
- Oregon, 3.42%
States where the margin of victory was under 10%:
- New Mexico, 6.38%
- New York, 6.40%
- Georgia, 7.54%
- Minnesota, 7.67%
- Northern Mariana Islands, 8.28%
Blue denotes races won by Democrats. Red denotes races won by Republicans. Grey denotes races won by Independents.
Alabama
Incumbent Republican governor Kay Ivey took office on April 10, 2017, upon the resignation of former governor Robert J. Bentley, and was elected to a full term in 2018. She ran for re-election to a second full term and won in a landslide.
Primary elections in Alabama were held on May 24. Runoff elections for instances where no candidate received 50% plus one vote were scheduled for June 21. A runoff was avoided in the Republican primary, with Ivey winning outright. The Democratic primary advanced to a runoff between Malika Sanders-Fortier and Yolanda Flowers, with Flowers winning the Democratic nomination.
This was the first gubernatorial election in Alabama history in which both major party nominees were women. Flowers was also the first Black female gubernatorial nominee in Alabama. Governor Ivey was re-elected and sworn in for her second full term on January 16, 2023.
This is the only gubernatorial election in the 2020s to be won by a member of the Silent Generation.
Alaska
Incumbent Republican governor Mike Dunleavy won re-election to a second term, becoming the first Republican governor to be re-elected to a second term since Jay Hammond in 1978 and the first governor, regardless of political affiliation, to be re-elected to a second term since Tony Knowles in 1998.
Arizona
Incumbent Republican governor Doug Ducey was term-limited and ineligible to run for a third consecutive term. Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs won the election against Republican former television anchor Kari Lake.
Primaries were held on August 2 for both parties, with Lake winning the Republican nomination and Hobbs winning the Democratic nomination, making this the first gubernatorial election in Arizona history in which both major party candidates for governor were women. Hobbs became the fifth female governor of Arizona, with Arizona setting a record for the most female governors in American history. With the concurrent passage of Proposition 131, this will be the last gubernatorial election in Arizona without a lieutenant governor on the ticket.
Going into the election, most polling had Lake leading and analysts generally considered the race to either be a tossup or leaning towards the Republican. Nonetheless, Hobbs ultimately defeated Lake with 50.32% of the vote, becoming the first Democrat elected governor of Arizona since Janet Napolitano in 2006. Lake refused to concede and filed a post-election lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the results, with all her claims either being dismissed or ruled against for lack of evidence.
This race was one of six Republican-held governorships up for election in 2022 taking place in a state that was carried by Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. With a margin of 0.67%, it was the closest election of the 2022 gubernatorial election cycle.
Arkansas
Incumbent Republican governor Asa Hutchinson was term-limited and could not seek a third term. Arkansas is one of the nine states and one territory of the United States that limit governors to two terms for life in their constitutions, along with California, Delaware, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Oklahoma. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was sworn in on January 10, 2023.
Primary elections in Arkansas were held on May 24. Runoff elections for instances where no candidate receives over 50% of the vote were scheduled for June 21. Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders won the Republican nomination, while Chris Jones won the Democratic nomination.
Leading up to the Republican primary, Sanders received many endorsements from key Republican figures, including Donald Trump, Mike Pence, incumbent Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas' entire U.S. Congressional delegation, and dozens of GOP representatives from the State House and State Senate. She cruised to a landslide victory in the primary, and as Arkansas is a GOP stronghold, her victory virtually guaranteed she would win the general election, in which she defeated Jones by 28 points. Jones became the first Democrat to win Washington County since 2010, and Sanders became the first Republican to win majority-Black Crittenden County since her father in 1998. This is the first time ever that a Republican won three straight gubernatorial elections in the state's history.
Sanders became the first female governor of Arkansas, as well as the first daughter of a former governor to take office in United States history. In addition, with the election of Leslie Rutledge as lieutenant governor, Arkansas, along with Massachusetts, became the first two U.S. states to have both a female governor and female lieutenant governor serving at the same time.
California
Incumbent Democratic Party Governor Gavin Newsom ran and won re-election to a second term after surviving a recall election in 2021, during his first term.
The elections featured universal mail-in ballots; in-person voting was also available. All statewide elected offices are currently held by Democrats. Newsom won 61.9% of the vote in both the 2018 gubernatorial election and the 2021 recall election. He received 55.9% of the top-two primary vote and faced Republican Party state senator Brian Dahle, who received 17.7% of the primary vote, in the general election. Newsom easily won re-election with 59.2% of the vote to Dahle's 40.8%, but with a smaller margin of victory than in 2018. Dahle flipped five counties that Newsom carried in 2018, namely Lake, Merced (although Merced voted to recall Newsom), Orange, San Bernardino, and San Joaquin. Dahle received 32% of the vote in Los Angeles County, a respectable performance for a Republican in the Democratic stronghold.
Colorado
Incumbent Democratic governor Jared Polis won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican University of Colorado regent Heidi Ganahl. The primary election was held on June 28.
Polis's 2022 victory marked the first time in American history that an openly gay politician was re-elected governor of a state. Polis had the best performance for a re-elected Colorado governor since Bill Owens in 2002, the best for a Democrat since Roy Romer in 1990, and the highest raw vote total ever in a Colorado gubernatorial race.
Connecticut
Governor Ned Lamont was elected in 2018 with 49.4% of the vote and ran for re-election for a second term. The race simultaneously took place with the election to the state's Class III Senate seat. This election featured a rematch of the previous 2018 gubernatorial election, pitting Lamont against Republican Bob Stefanowski, who he previously defeated by 3.2% of the vote. This time Lamont won re-election by a wider margin, becoming the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial election by more than 5 points in the state since 1986. This is the first time since 1994 that Tolland County voted Democratic in a gubernatorial election.
Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis was elected in 2018 with 49.6% of the vote and ran for reelection to a second term. Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee and Democratic nominee for governor in 2018, did not run against DeSantis again.
U.S. representative and former Republican governor of Florida Charlie Crist was the Democratic nominee. Also seeking the Democratic nomination was Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
DeSantis won re-election by a sizable margin due to the state as a whole swinging further Republican than it voted in the 2020 United States presidential election and continuing the state's rightward shift since the 2008 United States presidential election. County flips by DeSantis were Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, and Osceola counties, all of which were previous Democratic Party strongholds; these counties, notably, have relatively high Latino populations, for which their growth in support for the Republican Party was further cemented. This election was seen by many to more firmly assert Florida's status as a red state and not a swing state.
Georgia
Incumbent Republican governor Brian Kemp won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams in a rematch. Abrams conceded on election night. The primary occurred on May 24, 2022. Kemp was sworn in for a second term on January 12, 2023.
Kemp was endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence. He faced a primary challenge from former U.S. Senator David Perdue, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump after Kemp refused to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and founder of Fair Fight Action who was narrowly defeated by Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial election, was once again the Democratic nominee for the governorship. This was Georgia's first gubernatorial rematch since 1950.
Libertarian Shane T. Hazel, the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate in 2020, also declared he would run. This race was one of six Republican-held governorships up for election in 2022 in a state carried by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Despite Kemp's narrow 55,000-vote victory in 2018, which was Georgia's closest gubernatorial election since 1966, he went on to win by 300,000 votes (7.5%) – the largest raw vote victory for a Georgia governor since 2006. The race was seen as a potential benefit to Herschel Walker, who ran in the concurrent Senate race, as it was speculated Kemp's strong performance could help Walker avoid a runoff. He vastly underperformed compared to Kemp, however, and lost to incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock in the December 6 runoff election.
Hawaii
Incumbent Democratic governor David Ige was term-limited and ineligible to run for a third consecutive term. Incumbent lieutenant governor Josh Green was the Democratic nominee, and faced former lieutenant governor Duke Aiona, the Republican nominee. This marked the third time Aiona had been the Republican gubernatorial nominee, having previously run unsuccessfully in 2010 and 2014. Green won the election with 63.2% of the vote with Aiona receiving 36.8% of the vote.