While none of these results are final yet, it looks like this class of GOP governors, most of whom were elected in 2010, is standing strong in the tough races Ryan Lovelace detailed in an NRO piece this morning. The surprising and encouraging ones, for now: Rick Scott, who was expected to struggle against the (admittedly less than incredible) Charlie Crist, is projected to hold onto his seat in Florida; Scott Walker is going to hold onto his office against Mary Burke, in what was expected to be closer than his recall in 2012; Rick Snyder looks like he’s going to hold the Michigan governor’s mansion by a good margin; Paul LePage looks like he’s going to win reelection in Maine.
All of them have survived challenges after having passed some controversial conservative policies — Walker’s collective-bargaining reforms, Snyder’s right-to-work law, and Scott’s changes to education funding and food stamps, and LePage’s tough welfare reforms.
And there’s more good news: NBC has projected that Republican Bruce Rauner will unseat highly unpopular Pat Quinn in azure Illinois, Charlie Baker has a slim lead over Democrat Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, and Bob Beauprez looks likely to unseat Democratic incumbent John Hickenlooper in Colorado. John Kasich won a landslide in Ohio, too, although his opponent was almost literally a joke. Even Sam Brownback of Kansas, who looked almost finished, won reelection, though very narrowly. He dragged Kansas tax policy so far to Grover Norquist’s corner that he actually probably did some damage to the state’s fiscal status, and he certainly angered a large number of his own party members (Kansas is home to a liberal-Republican tradition). And yet he won.
None of these races are really shocking (and the GOP’s outside shots in N.H. and R.I. didn’t pan out, and the party lost badly in Pennsylvania), but the fact that gubernatorial races are turning out as well as the Senate is nice news — they didn’t get to run against President Obama, and a lot of them had policies to defend personally.
Now, the networks have called the Maryland governor’s race for Republican Larry Hogan, a huge upset over lieutenant governor Anthony Brown. Maryland, a deep-blue state, did have a Republican governor as recently as 2007, when Bob Ehrlich lost reelection despite relatively high approval ratings. Yet Hogan had only led one poll, so far as Real Clear Politics gathers them, the entire campaign — one conducted by a GOP polling firm for the campaign.
Another notable state-level issue, not unlike the governors’ races: All the policies pushed by Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis as North Carolina state-house speaker — it was said the race often focused so much on his record that it felt like Tillis, not the senator he was challenging, Kay Hagan, was the incumbent. Not really the grounds on which anyone wants to contest a Senate challenge, and yet Tillis won tonight, too.
Liberals have excitedly noted that four minimum-wage-increase referenda passed in various states tonight. That is a sign that voters do directly approve of one liberal policy. The reelection of all these governors’ is a sign that they are willing to support conservative governance, though, too.