A History of Open Wisconsin Gubernatorial Seats

Wisconsin’s chief executive has not run for reelection in just eight of the previous 44 cycles during the primary era

Tony Evers’ decision not to seek a third term as Wisconsin Governor last week creates a fairly unusual scenario of an open gubernatorial seat in the Badger State. In only six of the previous 37 gubernatorial elections over the last 100 years did the incumbent opt against running for reelection.

Incumbents in just two of the last 14 cycles opted to retire during the last 50+ years – both occurring during national wave elections for the governor’s opposition party.

In late April 1982, Republican Lee Dreyfus announced he would retire after just one term at 56 years of age. Democrats picked up the seat behind former Assemblyman Tony Earl’s 14.8-point victory and netted seven seats across the country that November.

Two-term Democrat Jim Doyle retired in 2010 at the age of 65. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by 5.8 points in a cycle that helped the GOP net six gubernatorial seats.

Each of the last three open seats for governor in Wisconsin has seen a change in partisan control including 1970’s race following the retirement of three-term Republican Governor Warren Knowles. Former Democratic Lieutenant Governor (and 1966 gubernatorial nominee) Patrick Lucey bested sitting Lieutenant Governor Jack Olson by 9.4 points.

In each of these three cycles, however, the party flipping Wisconsin’s governorship was the opposing party of the sitting president. Since 1932, the party of the sitting president has won only six of 34 gubernatorial elections in the state: Republicans Walter Kohler (1954), Vernon Thomson (1956), and Tommy Thompson (1986-1990) and Democrats John Reynolds (1962) and Evers (2022). That context bodes well for Wisconsin Democrats with Donald Trump in office but off the ballot.

The remaining three open seat cycles in Wisconsin over the last century took place in:

• 1926: Three-term Republican Governor John Blaine won a U.S. Senate seat
• 1956: Three-term Republican Walter Kohler retired a year preceding his 1957 U.S. Senate special election loss to William Proxmire
• 1962: Two-term Democrat Gaylord Nelson won a U.S. Senate seat

Only a few Democrats and Republicans have officially entered the 2026 race at this point. When Evers was first nominated to the office in 2018, he was victorious in a party record 10-candidate primary with seven candidates receiving at least five percent of the vote.

There have been more than four Democrats on a Wisconsin gubernatorial primary ballot in just two other cycles out of the 44 primaries conducted since 1912:

• 1942 (six candidates): Won by Kaukauna dentist William Sullivan with just 24.3 percent
• 2012’s recall (five): Won by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (58.2 percent)

Wisconsin Republican primary voters have had the choice of five or more candidates in five of 44 GOP gubernatorial primaries:

• 1914 (six candidates): Won by Milwaukee Police Commissioner Emanuel Philipp with 35.1 percent
• 1920 (six): Won by Attorney General John Blaine (29.9 percent)
• 1944 (five): Won by Governor Walter Goodland (47.2 percent)
• 1946 (five): Won by Governor Walter Goodland (42.5 percent)
• 1986 (five): Won by Assemblyman Tommy Thompson (52.1 percent)

During the early cycles of Wisconsin’s primary era there were also open gubernatorial seats in 1914 (Republican Francis McGovern ran for the U.S. Senate and lost the general election) and 1920 (Governor Philipp retired).

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