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States with both gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections in 2018
Twenty-two states held elections for both governor and U.S. Senate in 2018.
- Only one state saw a party switch of both the governor and U.S. Senator, as both offices flipped from Republican to Democratic control - Nevada. Jacky Rosen defeated incumbent Sen. Dean Heller while Steve Sisolak won the open-seat race for governor over Adam Laxalt.
- Arizona and Florida saw their U.S. Senate seats change parties while the governor remained a member of the same party that held the office previously.
- - In Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema (D) won the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Republican Jeff Flake, while Doug Ducey (R) was re-elected as the state's governor.
- - In Florida, Rick Scott (R) won the Senate seat previously held by Democrat Bill Nelson, while Ron DeSantis (R) was elected to succeed Scott as the state's governor.
- - In Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema (D) won the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Republican Jeff Flake, while Doug Ducey (R) was re-elected as the state's governor.
- Four other states saw Republican governors replaced by Democratic ones, and all four had Democratic or Democratic-caucusing Senators prior to the election:
- - Those elected governor in those states in 2018 were Janet Mills in Maine, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico, and Tony Evers in Wisconsin.
In 11 of these 22 states, the gubernatorial election was an open-seat race, primarily due to term limits. Only two of these 22 states featured open-seat races for the U.S. Senate (Arizona and Tennessee).
The incumbent governor and senator in six of these states were both Republicans, while in seven of them, both were Democrats. Nine states held gubernatorial and senate elections with incumbents from opposite parties. In all nine cases, the incumbent governor was Republican while the incumbent U.S. Senator was either a Democrat or an independent who caucuses with the Democrats (Sens. Bernie Sanders in Vermont and Angus King in Maine).
A map and table of where these elections occurred, the names of incumbents prior to and following the 2018 elections, and links to our coverage of these races appears below:
