United States gubernatorial elections, 2018 (A New American Century)

United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 6, 2018 in 36 states and three territories. These elections formed part of the 2018 United States elections. Other coinciding elections were the 2018 United States Senate elections and the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections. The last regular gubernatorial elections for all but three of the states took place in 2014. Governors in New Hampshire and Vermont serve two-year terms, meaning that their most recent gubernatorial elections took place in 2016. Meanwhile, Oregon held a special election in 2016 to fill an unexpired term.

Many of the states holding gubernatorial elections have term limits which made some multi-term governors ineligible for re-election. Two Democratic governors were term-limited while six incumbent Democratic governors were eligible for re-election. Among Republican governors, twelve were term-limited while eleven could seek re-election. One independent governor was eligible for re-election.

Elections were held in 26 of the 33 states with Republican governors, 9 of the 16 states with Democratic governors, 1 state (Alaska) with an independent governor, 2 territories (Guam and Northern Mariana Islands) with Republican governors, 1 territory (U.S. Virgin Islands) with an independent governor and the District of Columbia with a Democratic mayor. Incumbent state governors running to be reelected included 14 Republicans, 5 Democrats and 1 independent. Territorial incumbents running included one Republican and one independent. The incumbent Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C. also ran for re-election.

Republicans were able to pick up a net gain of six governorships nationwide, while Democrats were able to grab Illinois and Maine, whose incumbents were deeply unpopular.

This election cycle saw many incumbent Democratic governors and establishment Democrats challenged by more progressive outsiders. Democratic governors Gina Raimondo (D-RI) was primaried by Matt Brown. Cynthia Nixon failed to primary incumbent Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, but ran an independent campaign that drew enough votes away from him to contribute to his loss. Gwen Graham of Florida, an establishment favorite, lost to progressive Mayor of Tampa Andrew Gillum. Gretchen Whitmer, Minority Leader of the Michigan State Senate, lost to Abdul El-Sayed, who went on to lose to Bill Schuette.