United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 4, 2014, in 36 states and three territories, concurrent with other elections during the 2014 United States elections.
The Republicans defended 22 seats, compared to the Democrats' 14. The Republicans held open seats in Arizona, Nebraska, and Texas; and gained open Democratic-held seats in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Arkansas. Republican Bruce Rauner also defeated Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn in Illinois. The only Republican losses were incumbents Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, who lost to Democrat Tom Wolf; and Sean Parnell of Alaska, who lost to independent Bill Walker. Democrats held their open seat in Rhode Island, as well as Hawaii, where incumbent governor Neil Abercrombie was defeated in the primary.
All totaled, the Republicans had a net gain of two seats (giving them 31 total), the Democrats had a net loss of three seats (leaving them with 18 total), and an independent picked up one seat (giving them 1 total). As a result of these races, Republican Terry Branstad was re-elected to his sixth full four-year term as governor of Iowa, and thus became the longest-serving governor in U.S. history.
As of , this is the last time that Republicans have won gubernatorial races in Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Guam; that Democrats won races in New Hampshire and Vermont; that a candidate outside of the two major parties won the governorship of Alaska or any state; and that Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin did not vote for gubernatorial candidates of the same party.
Election predictions Several sites and individuals published predictions of competitive seats. These predictions looked 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 assigned ratings to each seat, 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
+StatePVI IncumbentParentheses around an incumbent's name indicates that the incumbent is retiring, possibly due to term limits.LastraceCook IE Sabato RCP Result Alabama R+14 Robert J. Bentley 57.9% R
| Bentley63.6% R Alaska R+12 Sean Parnell 59.1% R
|style="background:" | Lean I | Walker48.1% I Arizona R+7 Jan Brewer 54.3% R
| Ducey53.4% R Arkansas R+14 Mike Beebe 64.4% D
| Hutchinson55.4% R California D+9 Jerry Brown 53.8% D
| Brown60.0% D Colorado D+1 John Hickenlooper 51.1% D
| Hickenlooper49.3% D Connecticut D+7 Dan Malloy 49.5% D
| Malloy50.7% D Florida R+2 Rick Scott 48.9% R
| Scott48.1% R Georgia R+6 Nathan Deal 53.0% R
| Deal52.1% R Hawaii D+20 Neil Abercrombie 57.8% D
| Ige49.5% D Idaho R+18 Butch Otter 59.1% R
| Otter53.5% R Illinois D+8 Pat Quinn 46.8% D
| Rauner50.3% R Iowa D+1Terry Branstad 52.9% R
| Branstad59.0% R Kansas R+12 Sam Brownback 63.3% R
| Brownback49.8% R Maine D+6 Paul LePage 37.6% R
| LePage48.2% R Maryland D+10 Martin O'Malley 56.2% D
| Hogan51.0% R Massachusetts D+10 Deval Patrick 48.4% D
| Baker48.4% R Michigan D+4 Rick Snyder 58.1% R
| Snyder50.9% R Minnesota D+2 Mark Dayton 43.6% D
| Dayton50.1% D Nebraska R+12Dave Heineman 74.3% R
| Ricketts57.2% R Nevada D+2 Brian Sandoval 53.4% R
| Sandoval70.6% R New Hampshire D+1Maggie Hassan 54.6% D
| Hassan52.4% D New Mexico D+4Susana Martinez 53.3% R
| Martinez57.2% R New York D+11Andrew Cuomo 54.3% D
| Cuomo54.3% D Ohio R+1John Kasich 49.0% R
| Kasich63.6% R Oklahoma R+19Mary Fallin 60.4% R
| Fallin55.8% R Oregon D+5John Kitzhaber 49.3% D
| Kitzhaber49.9% D Pennsylvania D+1Tom Corbett 54.5% R
| Wolf54.9% D Rhode Island D+11Lincoln Chafee 36.1% I
| Raimondo40.7% D South Carolina R+8Nikki Haley 51.4% R
| Haley55.9% R South Dakota R+10Dennis Daugaard 61.5% R
| Daugaard70.5% R Tennessee R+12Bill Haslam 65.0% R
| Haslam70.3% R Texas R+10Rick Perry 55.0% R
| Abbott59.3% R Vermont D+16Peter Shumlin 57.8% D
| Shumlin46.4% D Wisconsin D+2 Scott Walker 53.1% R
| Walker52.3% R Wyoming R+22Matt Mead 65.7% R
| Mead59.4% R
Race summary
States Data from The New York Times
State Incumbent Party Firstelected Result Candidates Alabama 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Alaska 2009 Incumbent lost re-election.New governor elected.Independent gain. Arizona 2009 Incumbent term-limited.New governor elected.Republican hold. Arkansas 2006 Incumbent term-limited.New governor elected.Republican gain. California 19741982 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Colorado 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Connecticut 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Florida 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Georgia 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Hawaii 2010 Incumbent lost renomination.New governor elected.Democratic hold. Idaho 2006 Incumbent re-elected. Illinois 2009 Incumbent lost re-election.New governor elected.Republican gain. Iowa 19821998 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Kansas 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Maine 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Maryland 2006 Incumbent term-limited.New governor elected.Republican gain. Massachusetts 2006 Incumbent retired.New governor elected.Republican gain. Michigan 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Minnesota DFL 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Nebraska 2005 Incumbent term-limited.New governor elected.Republican hold. Nevada 2010 Incumbent re-elected. New Hampshire 2012 Incumbent re-elected. New Mexico 2010 Incumbent re-elected. New York 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Ohio 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Oklahoma 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Oregon 19942002 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Pennsylvania 2010 Incumbent lost re-election.New governor elected.Democratic gain. Rhode Island 2010 Incumbent retired.New governor elected.Democratic hold. South Carolina 2010 Incumbent re-elected. South Dakota 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Tennessee 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Texas 2000 Incumbent retired.New governor elected.Republican hold. Vermont 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Wisconsin 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Wyoming 2010 Incumbent re-elected.
Territories and federal district Territory Incumbent Party Firstelected Result Candidates District of Columbia 2010 Incumbent lost renomination.New mayor elected.Democratic hold. Guam 2010 Incumbent re-elected. Northern Mariana Islands 2013 Incumbent re-elected. U.S. Virgin Islands 2006 Incumbent term-limited.New governor elected.Independent gain.
Closest races States where the margin of victory was under 5%:
Florida, 1.0% Vermont, 1.3% Massachusetts, 1.9% Alaska, 2.2% Connecticut, 2.5% Colorado, 3.3% Kansas, 3.7% Maryland, 3.8% Illinois, 3.9% Michigan, 4.0% Rhode Island, 4.5% Maine, 4.8%
States where the margin of victory was under 10%:
New Hampshire, 5.0% Minnesota, 5.6% Wisconsin, 5.7% Oregon, 5.8% Georgia, 7.8% Pennsylvania, 9.8%
Red denotes states won by Republicans. Blue denotes states won by Democrats. Grey denotes states won by Independents.
Alabama
Governor Robert J. Bentley ran for re-election. Bentley was elected with 57.9% of the vote in 2010.
Former Morgan County commissioner Stacy Lee George challenged Bentley in the Republican primary, as did Bob Starkey, a retired software company executive.
Former baseball player and businessman Kevin Bass and former U.S. representative Parker Griffith pursued the Democratic nomination, which Griffith won.
Bentley won re-election to a second term.
Alaska
Governor Sean Parnell ran for another term. Attorney and 2010 Republican primary candidate Bill Walker at first ran in the Republican primary, but withdrew and instead ran as an independent. Governor Parnell was defeated by Independent Bill Walker.
Former Mayor of Juneau Byron Mallott won the Democratic gubernatorial primary on August 19 with 80% of the vote. On September 2, Walker and Mallott merged their campaigns, with Walker, who ran for governor and Mallott, who ran for lieutenant governor.
Arizona
Governor Jan Brewer was term-limited in 2014 despite only serving one full term, as Arizona state law limits office holders to two consecutive terms, regardless of whether they are full or partial terms. In November 2012, Brewer declared she was looking into what she called "ambiguity" in Arizona's term-limit law to seek a second full four-year term.
On March 12, 2014, Brewer announced she would not seek re-election to another four-year term, which would have required a "longshot court challenge" to the Arizona Constitution.
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, State Treasurer of Arizona Doug Ducey, State Senator Al Melvin, former Go Daddy executive vice president Christine Jones, and former county attorney of Maricopa County Andrew Thomas sought the Republican nomination. Ducey won.
Fred DuVal, former chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents won the Democratic nomination.
Ducey won the election.
Arkansas
Governor Mike Beebe was term-limited in 2014. Former representative Mike Ross was the Democratic nominee, while former representative Asa Hutchinson was the Republican nominee.
Hutchinson won the election.
California
Governor Jerry Brown sought re-election. He was elected to a third non-consecutive term with 53.1% of the vote in 2010, having previously served as governor from 1975 to 1983.
State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly and former U.S. Treasury Department Official Neel Kashkari were running for the Republican nomination. Former lieutenant governor Abel Maldonado launched a campaign but then withdrew. With 19 percent of the vote Kashkari came in second after Governor Jerry Brown (54 percent) under California's new Nonpartisan blanket primary.
Colorado
Governor John Hickenlooper sought re-election. Hickenlooper was elected with 50.7% of the vote in 2010.
State Senator Greg Brophy, former congressman Tom Tancredo, Colorado secretary of state Scott Gessler, and former congressman Bob Beauprez all ran for the Republican nomination. Beauprez was the Republican nominee.
Hickenlooper won re-election to a second term.
Connecticut
Governor Dan Malloy sought re-election. Malloy was elected with 49.51% of the vote in 2010.
Former U.S. ambassador to Ireland and 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Thomas C. Foley challenged Malloy again after losing by less than 1% of the vote in 2010.
Malloy won re-election to a second term.
Florida
Governor Rick Scott was elected with 48.9% of the vote in 2010, defeating then-Chief Financial Officer of Florida Alex Sink by a margin of just over 1 percent. He announced his bid for a second term and faced former Republican governor turned Democrat Charlie Crist and Libertarian Adrian Wyllie.
Democratic state senator Nan Rich lost to Charlie Crist in the primary.
Economist and 2010 Independent nominee for governor Farid Khavari also ran.
Scott won re-election to a second term.
Georgia
Governor Nathan Deal sought re-election. Deal was elected with 53% of the vote in 2010.
State School Superintendent John Barge and Mayor of Dalton David Pennington also ran for the Republican nomination.
State Senator Jason Carter, the grandson of former president and Governor Jimmy Carter, ran for the Democratic nomination. Connie Stokes, a former Georgia state senator and DeKalb County commissioner, was running for governor, but decided to run for lieutenant governor instead. Carter won the gubernatorial nomination.
Deal won re-election to a second term.
Hawaii