As part of the 2006 Democratic sweep, Democrats did not lose a single incumbent or open seat to the Republicans in any congressional or gubernatorial contest. The results of the 2006 elections gave Republicans 22 governors to the Democrats' 28, a reversal of the numbers held by the respective parties prior to the elections. Republicans held the majority of governorships from 1995 until 2007.
As of 2024, this election marked the last time that the Democratic Party won gubernatorial elections in Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Wyoming. This is also the most recent gubernatorial election cycle in which the Republican Party won governorships in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Rhode Island to date.
Governor Frank Murkowski, suffering poor approval ratings, was not favored to win renomination. An August 8 poll by Rasmussen Reports showed that going into the primary election his approval rating was at 27%, while his disapproval rating stood at 72%. Former Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and former state Railroad Commissioner John Binkley challenged Murkowski in the Republican primary. Former governor Tony Knowles was widely considered the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. In the primary held on August 22, Palin won the Republican nomination for governor with 51.1% of the vote, Binkley received 29.6%, and Murkowski received just 18.9% of the vote.[6] Knowles won the Democratic nomination with 68.6% of the vote; state representativeEric Croft, who received 23.1% of the vote, was his nearest competitor.[6]
Palin campaigned on a clean government platform in a state with a history of corruption. An October 15 CRG Research poll had the candidates tied at 43%.[7] An October 28 Rasmussen Reports poll showed Palin leading Knowles by a single percentage point.[7]
Republican nominee Sarah Palin was elected with 48.3% of the vote, a plurality.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano was re-elected in a landslide. Napolitano's widespread popularity contributed to her easy re-election; her general approval rating in October 2006, one month before the election, was at 58%.[9]
Governor Mike Huckabee was term-limited. The Republican Party nominated Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman, U.S. Attorney, DEA head, and Undersecretary of Homeland Security. The Democratic nominee was Arkansas Attorney GeneralMike Beebe. Beebe's campaign centered on what his campaign called his "Believe in Arkansas Plan", which outlined his plans for improving access to affordable healthcare, improving education, and stimulating economic development and job growth. Beebe led in most statewide polls, although his margin of victory in those polls varied wildly. Just days before the election, a Rasmussen Reports poll showed Beebe winning by just 8%,[11] while a SurveyUSA poll showed him winning by 20%.[12]
Democratic nominee Mike Beebe was elected with about 55.6% of the vote.
Arnold Schwarzenegger won the 2003 recall election and replaced Gray Davis. Despite his failed special election and budget cuts, Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to be ahead in the polls against Phil Angelides. Schwarzenegger's aggressive push for environment-friendly legislation, his support for stem cell research, gay rights and opposition to sending the National Guard to the border has made him very popular among the voters. Republican incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected.
The retirement of term-limited Governor Bill Owens revealed divisions among the state's Republicans. Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez, widely regarded as a conservative, was attacked by his primary opponent, former University of Denver President Marc Holtzman for compromising with Democrats in Congress. Beauprez became the nominee when Holtzman failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, but the negative attacks they exchanged damaged Beauprez's campaign. The Democratic nominee was former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, an anti-abortion Catholic and a political centrist who could not easily be portrayed as a liberal. Ritter did, however, support Referendum I and oppose Amendment 43; conversely, the public defeated the former and passed the latter. Ritter's campaign was boosted when he was endorsed by a group of Larimer County Republicans. During the period of January through August, Ritter raised almost twice as much as Beauprez.[15] According to an October 16 Zogby poll, Ritter led Beauprez 47% to 45%.[16] An October 22 SurveyUSA poll showed Ritter leading Beauprez by a larger margin, 56% to 38%.[17] Similarly, an October 22 Rasmussen Reports poll showed Ritter leading Beauprez, 51% to 39%.[18]
Democratic nominee Bill Ritter was elected with 57.0% of the vote.
Incumbent Republican Jodi Rell became governor when John G. Rowland resigned on corruption charges in 2004. Rell had an approval rating of 70% as of October 19, 2006,[19] and polls showed her leading the Democratic nominee, New Haven mayor John DeStefano by a near 30-point margin. As expected, she won the election to a full term in a landslide. DeStefano defeated Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy in the Connecticut Democratic gubernatorial primary on August 8.
Crist came out of the September 12 primary with momentum, but as the election drew closer, polls began to show a more competitive race. An October 23 Quinnipiac poll October 23 showed Crist's lead down to 2%.[22] However, an October 26 Rasmussen Reports poll had Crist leading Davis 52% to 41%.[23]
Republican nominee Charlie Crist was elected with 52.2% of the vote.
Incumbent Republican Governor Sonny Perdue ran for re-election to a second and final term as governor. Governor Perdue was renominated by the Republican Party, defeating a minor opponent in the process, while Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor narrowly emerged victorious from a competitive Democratic primary. In the general election, though Taylor ran a spirited campaign, Perdue was aided by the increasing tendency of the state to vote for Republicans and by his popularity with the public; polling showed his approval ratings above sixty percent. In the end, Perdue was overwhelmingly re-elected as governor, defeating Taylor in a landslide, becoming the first Republican Governor of Georgia to ever be reelected.
Exit polls showed that Perdue won white voters (68% to 27%) while Taylor won black voters (81% to 17%). Perdue's 17% of the African-American vote was the highest showing of any Republican seeking statewide office in Georgia.
Although 2006 was a strong election year for Democrats, Incumbent Republican Governor Lingle won re-election by a landslide owing to an economic rebound in the state that occurred during her tenure after a shaky decade for the state economy during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Governor Jim Risch was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2002; in May 2006, he succeeded to the governorship when his predecessor, Dirk Kempthorne, resigned to become United States Secretary of the Interior. Before Kempthorne's appointment, Risch, a former Ada County District Attorney and state Senator, had committed to a reelection campaign for Lieutenant Governor, which meant the campaign for the governorship remained open.
Republican Congressman C.L. "Butch" Otter, a former lieutenant governor himself, was heavily favored to succeed Risch. On May 23 he easily won a four-way Republican primary, receiving 70% of the vote. In the general election, he faced newspaper publisher Jerry Brady, who was the Democratic nominee for the second consecutive gubernatorial election. Although Brady won the state's most populous county (Ada County, the location of Boise) in 2002, he was decisively defeated by Kempthorne statewide. He was expected to fare similarly against Otter; however, the race became fairly competitive, possibly due to a national trend towards the Democratic party.
Republican nominee Butch Otter was elected with 52.7% of the vote. Brady received 44.1%, making this gubernatorial election the closest in Idaho since 1994.
Incumbent Rod Blagojevich proven to be an incredible fundraiser, and governed a relatively strong blue state. But recent opinion polling showed that his approval rating at a rather dismal 44%.[28] Blagojevich initially had the advantage in the general election, leading his Republican challenger, state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka by eight percentage points in polls, although not reaching the fifty percent "safe zone" for incumbents. In March, Topinka won the GOP primary by 38% to 32% over dairy magnate Jim Oberweis. Meanwhile, a former Chicago Alderman named Edwin Eisendrath won a surprising 30% in the Democratic primary. During the election United States AttorneyPatrick Fitzgerald was looking into the hiring practices of Governor Blagojevich.[29]
An October 15 Rasmussen Reports poll showed Blagojevich dropping 4 points, to end with 44% and Topinka staying at 36%.[30] An October 22 SurveyUSA poll had Blagojevich leading Topinka 44% to 34% with 8% undecided.[31] However, an October 31 Mason-Dixon poll showed Blagojevich leading Topinka only 44% to 40% with 9% undecided.
Democratic incumbent Rod Blagojevich was re-elected. Green Party candidate Rich Whitney showed one of the best showings of a third-party candidate in the 2006 election. Whitney received 361,336 votes, or 10% of the ballot share. This made the Green party an official major party in the state of Illinois.
Congressman Jim Nussle was the Republican nominee, while the Democratic Party nominated Iowa Secretary of StateChet Culver, a progressive whose father was a U.S. Senator. An October 11 poll by Rasmussen Reports showed the candidates tied at 42% each.[33] An October 19 Rasmussen Reports poll had Culver leading Nussle 47% to 44%.[34]
The Democratic nominee, Chet Culver, was elected with 54.0% of the vote.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who sported high approval ratings[36] ran for re-election to serve a second and final term. Governor Sebelius was unopposed for the Democratic nomination and she faced the Republican nominee, State SenatorJim Barnett, who emerged from a crowded primary. Sebelius soundly defeated Barnett and cruised to re-election, which was quite a considerable feat for a Democrat in staunchly conservative Kansas.
In February 2006, Baldacci was given a mere 41% approval rating by the voters of Maine in one poll.[38] But when the GOP unexpectedly nominated conservative state Senator Chandler Woodcock over the more moderate state Senator Peter Mills and former Congressman Dave Emery, Baldacci was handed a huge boost.
Bob Ehrlich's approval rating was 48%, which suggested a close election. Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore City, who was expected to run for governor almost as soon as the 2002 election was over, was initially expected to be a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination, but he was challenged by Montgomery CountyExecutiveDoug Duncan, who then unexpectedly dropped out of the race, citing a recent diagnosis of clinical depression, saving Democrats from a costly and potentially divisive primary.
A November 2 SurveyUSA poll had O'Malley leading Ehrlich 48% to 47% with 2% undecided.[42] A November 3 Mason-Dixon poll has O'Malley and Ehrlich tied at 45% with 9% undecided.[43] Democratic nominee Martin O'Malley was elected.
When Ehrlich unexpectedly beat his Democratic challenger, Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy in 2002, and became first Republican Governor of Maryland since Spiro T. Agnew, he was regarded by many as potential presidential candidate for 2008.
O'Malley defeated Ehrlich in the general election, 52.7% to 46.2%.
On November 7, Deval Patrick was elected with 56% of the vote. He became the first African American governor ever elected in the history of the state, and just the second in the nation's history (the first was Douglas Wilder, a Democrat from Virginia, who served as Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994). Patrick was also the first Democratic governor of Massachusetts since Michael Dukakis left office in 1991.
Michigan, like many other Midwestern states, had been unable to take advantage of reported national economic and job growth. A string of plant and factory closings by big name companies such as General Motors in Granholm's state led to growing disapproval of her among voters. Opposing her was wealthy Republican businessman Dick DeVos. Throughout the race polls showed the election to be close, but in the last days Granholm pulled ahead. According to a November 1 EPIC-MRA poll, Granholm led DeVos 52% to 43% with 5% undecided. A November 4 SurveyUSA poll had Granholm leading DeVos 51% to 45%.[49] Ultimately, Democratic incumbent Jennifer Granholm was re-elected with 56.4 percent of the vote.
Pawlenty's approval rating was measured at 56%[38] on September 21, 2006. In 2002, Pawlenty won the governor's mansion with only 44% of the vote, facing a strong challenge from DFL Party candidate Roger Moe and Independence Party candidate Tim Penny, a former DFLer himself. Pawlenty has been criticized by some Minnesotans for budget cuts to programs such as MinnesotaCare to balance the budget (and controversial moves such as deferring required payments to the state's education and health care funds to later budget biennia to make the budget appear balanced when it was actually not). Pawlenty faces another strong DFL challenge this year in state Attorney General Mike Hatch, who fended off a liberal primary challenge from State Senator Becky Lourey. Pawlenty and Hatch were virtually neck and neck, with between 40-45% support for both candidates as recently as September, until the Mark Foley scandal hit the papers late that month, and 5-6% for Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson.
An October 23 SurveyUSA poll has Hatch leading Pawlenty 45% to 44% and Hutchinson with 7% . A November 1 Saint Cloud Times poll has Hatch at 46% and Pawlenty at 36%.[51] Republican incumbent Tim Pawlenty was re-elected.
Governor Kenny Guinn, a moderate Republican, was term-limited. His retirement resulted in competitive primaries in both parties. The Democratic nominee was State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, who won the primary with 54% of the vote over Henderson mayor Jim Gibson. The Republican nominee was Congressman Jim Gibbons, who won the primary with 48% of the vote, defeating state senator Bob Beers and Lieutenant GovernorLorraine Hunt. Gibbons, who then represented Nevada's 2nd congressional district, had a strong base in northern Nevada. Titus had a strong base in the Las Vegas Valley due to her legislative and education careers. An October 17 Rasmussen Reports poll put Gibbons ahead of Titus with a 51% to 43% lead.[54] Polls in late October conducted by Mason-Dixon and Research 2000 indicated that Gibbons was on track to win the election.
Republican nominee Jim Gibbons was elected with 48% of the vote, a plurality. Titus received 44% of the vote and Christopher H. Hansen, the nominee of the Independent American Party of Nevada, received about 3%.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Bill Richardson was running for re-election. He faced Republican John Dendahl in the general election and won by a landslide.
Term-limited incumbent Governor Bob Taft was viewed as one of the most unpopular Governors in the history of Ohio. Polls showed his approval rating in the vicinity of 10% to 25%.
Congressman Ted Strickland won the Democratic primary with 79% of the vote, defeating state representative Bryan Flannery. The Republican primary, between Ohio Secretary of StateKen Blackwell and Ohio Attorney GeneralJim Petro, was more competitive by far. Petro came under fire for switching positions on same-sex marriage and abortion, as well as allegedly taking business from lawyers who refused to give him campaign contributions.[60] Blackwell and Petro also split over proposals to reduce state spending. Blackwell ultimately won the primary with 56% of the vote.
Blackwell was not a close ally of disgraced Governor Taft, but Taft's unpopularity still damaged his campaign. The negativity of the Republican primary also damaged Blackwell's general election campaign. In addition, in 2006 there was a nationwide trend towards the Democratic Party. An October 6 poll by Rasmussen Reports showed that Strickland led by 52% to 40%, a decline from September.[61] By contrast, an October 12 SurveyUSA poll had Strickland leading Blackwell 60% to 32%.[62]
Democratic nominee Ted Strickland was elected with 60.5% of the vote. He became the first Democratic Governor of Ohio since Dick Celeste.
Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski was elected in 2002 barely defeating former State Representative Kevin Mannix. Kulongoski leads his challenger, former Portland Public School Board member Ron Saxton 51% to 44%.[66] Oregon has not elected a Republican as governor since 1982, when Kulongoski lost to then-Governor Victor Atiyeh. Democratic incumbent Ted Kulongoski was re-elected.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Ed Rendell successfully ran for re-election. Pennsylvania's first female lieutenant governor, Catherine Baker Knoll, was also running for re-election.
Polling in the race showed Donald Carcieri, Republican governor in one of the most liberal states in the country, running even with his Democratic challenger, Lieutenant Governor Charles J. Fogarty.[69] Carcieri was re-elected with 51% of the vote.
Incumbent RepublicanGovernorMark Sanford won re-election against DemocraticState SenatorTommy Moore, becoming only the third Republican governor in South Carolina to win a second term (Robert Kingston Scott and Carroll A. Campbell Jr. were the others). Sanford started the campaign with a double-digit edge over Moore and he maintained that lead to election day. During the course of the campaign, Sanford's approval rating averaged in the mid-fifties.[71] In Sanford's re-election victory, he also garnered 22% of the African American vote.
As of 2024, this was the last time a Democrat won a majority of counties in the state, the last time a Democrat won any statewide race in Tennessee, and the most recent statewide election in Tennessee in which 88 of the state's 95 counties, including Knox County and Hamilton County, went to the Democratic candidate. Only Davidson, Shelby, Haywood, Hardeman, Houston, Jackson, and Lake counties have voted for a Democratic candidate in a Presidential, Senate, or gubernatorial race since 2006, with Jackson and Lake only going Democratic once. Eight years later, Republican Governor Bill Haslam won every county in the state when he won re-election. This marked a sharp political shift in Tennessee.
Challenges from two popular independents, coupled with Perry's mediocre approval ratings, made the race interesting. Populist state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn decided to defect from the GOP and run against Perry, her bitter political foe, as an independent. Six weeks after the announcement of her candidacy, she moved to within single digits of Perry in polls. In addition to Perry and Strayhorn, former Congressman Chris Bell ran as the Democratic candidate, with country singer and Texas icon Kinky Friedman as another independent. This resulted in a peculiar four-way race (technically, a six-way race including the Libertarian candidate and a write-in candidate) in which no run-off would take place. Perry was elected to a second full term with just 39% of the vote.
In 2002, Doyle was elected with only 45 percent of the vote because of an unusually strong challenge from the Libertarian party. Although his early 2006 approval rating was a mildly unfavorable 45 percent, he led both Republican challengers, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Congressman Mark Green by six to nine points in polls; he has not been able to poll greater than fifty percent. Green got a big break when Walker dropped out of the race. And more recent polls show that Green has pulled even. Wisconsin is a swing state in the strongest sense, with George W. Bush losing the state by some 5,700 votes in 2000 and around 12,400 votes in 2004, although they hadn't voted for a Republican for president since 1984, and they hadn't had a Republican senator since 1993. An October 18 Rasmussen Reports poll has Doyle leading Green 48% to 44%[77] and an October 31 Research 2000 poll has Doyle leading Green 50% to 44%.[78] Democratic incumbent Jim Doyle was re-elected.
Incumbent Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal won re-election in a landslide over Republican Ray Hunkins, becoming the first Democrat since 1910 to win every county in the state. To date this was the last time a Democrat was elected to statewide office in Wyoming, the last time a Democrat carried every county in the state, the last gubernatorial election in which a Democrat received more than 30% of the vote, and the last statewide election in which a Democrat received more than 45% of the vote.
The Democratic primary was held on September 12. The winner of that and general election was Adrian Fenty, the representative for Ward 4 on the D.C. Council. He took office on January 2, 2007, becoming the sixth directly elected mayor since the establishment of home rule in the District, and — at 35 — the youngest elected mayor of a major American city in U.S. history.
In the U.S. territory of Guam, in the western Pacific Ocean, Republican Governor Felix P. Camacho was challenged by Democrat Robert Underwood. A former Guam Delegate-at-Large in the U.S. House of Representatives, Underwood had previously represented Guam from 1993 to 2003. The race was a rematch of the 2002 gubernatorial election in which Camacho handily defeated Underwood and won his first term in office by 10 points (see Politics of Guam). However, the race was significantly more close and competitive in 2006, with Camacho narrowly winning re-election by a 2-point margin over Underwood.
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