With Primary Season Over, Democrats Poised to Gain 3 to 7 Governors' Seats
As the primary season came to a close, more gubernatorial races became competitive, and the Democrats remain in a better position than Republicans to gain ground this fall.
In our latest handicapping of the nation's 36 races for governor, we're shifting the ratings for 10 of them: six in the Democrats' direction and four in the Republicans'.
The six seats moving in Democrats' favor are in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. And the four seats shift toward the GOP are in Alaska, Maine, Oregon and Rhode Island.
Currently, we rate 19 races -- more than half -- as being competitive, meaning that they are either tossups or leaning to one party or the other. That's up from 16 competitive races in our July analysis. Our rating categories are safe Republican, likely Republican, lean Republican, tossup, lean Democratic, likely Democratic and safe Democratic.
The Republicans have more seats at risk. The GOP currently holds 13 of these 19 competitive seats, compared to just five for the Democrats and one by independent Alaska Gov. Bill Walker.
Of those 19 competitive seats, nine are tossups, which is one more than in July. The tossup category is dominated by states with Republican governors; they hold six of those seats (Florida, Iowa, Maine, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin) compared to just three by the Democrats (Colorado, Connecticut and Rhode Island).
Three GOP-held seats currently lean Democratic -- Illinois, Michigan and New Mexico. By contrast, no Democratic-held seat leans Republican.
http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-2018-governors-races-handicapping-september.html
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