United States gubernatorial elections, 2016

United States gubernatorial elections, 2016

2015 ← November 8, 2016 → 2017

14 governorships 12 states (including a special election in Oregon) 2 territories   Majority party Minority party   Leader Susana Martinez Dan Malloy Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat New Mexico Connecticut Last election 31 18 governorships Seats before 31 18 Seats won 3 1 Seats after 33 16 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 9,687,124 9,288,448 Percentage 49.50% 47.46%

Democratic hold   Democratic gain   Republican gain   Republican hold

United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 8, 2016 in 12 states and two territories. The last regular gubernatorial elections for nine of the 12 states took place in 2012. The last gubernatorial elections for New Hampshire, Oregon, and Vermont took place in 2014, as Oregon held a special election due to the resignation of governor John Kitzhaber, while the governors of New Hampshire and Vermont both serve two-year terms. The 2016 gubernatorial elections took place concurrently with several other federal, state, and local elections, including the presidential election, Senate, and House elections.

All totaled, the Republican Party gained 2 states' governorships, increasing its total to 33, a record high last seen in 1922. The Democrats finished with 16 governorships - losing two state houses, with one independent governor in Alaska accounting for the 50th gubernatorial seat.

Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive seats. These predictions look 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 assign ratings to each seat, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that seat. Most election predictors use "tossup" to indicate that neither party has an advantage, "lean" to indicate that one party has a slight advantage, "likely" or "favored" to indicate that one party has a significant but not insurmountable advantage, and "safe" or "solid" to indicate that one party has a near-certain chance of victory. Some predictions also include a "tilt" rating that indicates that one party has an advantage that is not quite as strong as the "lean" rating would indicate.