Nine states have not seen seats for the U.S. Senate and governor simultaneously open up during the direct election era

The announcement late last month that Michigan Democratic U.S. Senator Gary Peters would not seek a third term combined with Governor Gretchen Whitmer being term-limited means the Wolverine State will have open gubernatorial and U.S. Senate seats on the November 2026 ballot for the first time in the same cycle during the direct election era.

[Thanks to The Downballot’s David Nir for alerting Smart Politics to this fun fact posted by Zach Gorchow of the Gongwer News Service].

Through 2024, Michigan was one of nine states to hold this distinction, although several of these states come as little surprise because their elections for governor and U.S. Senator rarely align in the same cycle.

The gubernatorial election cycles in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Virginia have been exclusively held in odd-numbered years during the entirety of this span along with Louisiana since 1959 (and during early months of even-numbered years before then) as well as New Jersey since moving to four-year gubernatorial cycles in 1949 (and in odd-numbered years during every other three-year cycle prior to that).

The remaining three states yet to simultaneously hold open gubernatorial and U.S. Senatorial elections are Nevada, New York, and Texas.

[Note: Georgia last had open seat races for governor and a U.S. Senate special election in 1932, although its general election race for the U.S. Senate involved an incumbent, Democrat Walter George].

Ten states have had seats open up for both high profile offices this century including three states during the 2024 cycle:

  • Delaware: Electing Democrats Matthew Meyer governor and Lisa Blunt Rochester to the U.S. Senate
  • Indiana: Republicans Mike Braun and Jim Banks
  • West Virginia: Patrick Morrisey and Jim Justice

The other seven states to do so since 2000 are:

  • Minnesota (2002): Electing Republicans Tim Pawlenty governor and Norm Coleman U.S. Senator (following the late-in-the-cycle death of Senator Paul Wellstone)
  • Connecticut (2010): Democrats Dan Malloy and Richard Blumenthal
  • Florida (2010): Republicans Rick Scott and Marco Rubio
  • Kansas (2010): Republicans Sam Brownback and Jerry Moran
  • Nebraska (2014): Republicans Pete Ricketts and Ben Sasse
  • Tennessee (2018): Republicans Bill Lee and Marsha Blackburn
  • Pennsylvania (2022): Democrats Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman

In addition to Georgia mentioned above, seven other states have not seen seats for governor and U.S. Senator open up during the same cycle since the first half of the 20th Century:

  • Wisconsin (1914): Electing Republican Emanuel Philipp to the governorship and Democrat Paul Husting to the U.S. Senate
  • New Mexico (1916): Democrats Ezequiel De Baca and Andrieus Jones
  • Illinois (1920): Republicans Len Small and William McKinley
  • Missouri (1932): Democrats Guy Park and Bennett Champ Clark
  • Massachusetts (1944): Democrat Maurice Tobin and Republican Leverett Saltonstall
  • North Carolina (1944): Democrats R. Gregg Cherry and Clyde Hoey
  • Alabama (1946): Democrats James Folsom and John Sparkman

In some cycles, a sitting governor or U.S. Senator did not seek reelection but became the victorious nominee for the other office, such as Iowa Democrat Harold Hughes in 1968 (from governor to U.S. Senator), Arkansas Democrat David Pryor in 1978 (governor to U.S. Senator), Kansas Republican Sam Brownback in 2010 (U.S. Senator to governor), Indiana Republican Mike Braun in 2024 (U.S. Senator to governor), and West Virginia Republican Jim Justice in 2024 (governor to U.S. Senator).

The challenge for parties controlling both seats in some states, like Democrats in Michigan in 2026, is finding the political talent to field strong nominees to hold both open seats at the same time. Sitting Governor Gretchen Whitmer will not be running for Peters’ senate seat although other state constitutional officers have not ruled out bids.

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Posted in Governorships, Michigan, U.S. Senate and tagged ,

1 Comments

  1. Cecil Crusher on February 7, 2025 at 2:17 am

    – Actually, the roster of States assuredly would be at least slightly longer – if *ascended governors* and *appointed senators* (de facto open contests, i.e. not having been vetted by the voters previously) were included, such as the infamous MN 1978 election, when the obtuse decision by Governor “Wendie” Anderson to essentially appoint himself to the Class 2 seat resulted in the aforementioned scenario.

    – Of the ‘odd-numbered-year’ States, there is at least one case with “open-seat” elections in back-to-back years within the same federal cycle; the Pelican State held an open governor election in 1995 and an open Senate election in 1996.

    – Peters is not a candidate to succeed Governor Whitmer (either), even though were he to stand for that election he would need to spend an abundance of hours in hotels only in locales like Ypsilanti and Grand Rapids (his all-consuming role as chair of the Senate campaign committee in both the ’24 and ’22 cycles – four years in practice making cross-country sojourns on behalf of his fellow Senate aspirants – may well have dissuaded the comparatively short-time senator from standing for any office, period).

    – My surmise is that the Mitten State US Senate seat seems more likely than the governor post to draw keen competition, at least on the Democratic side, though nationally renowned S of S Benson will not have a total ‘free ride’ to the Democratic nomination to succeed potential presidential contender Whitmer.

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