The only governorship to change party was the open seat in Missouri, which was won by a Democrat after being previously held by a Republican.

In an upset, state Treasurer Jack Markell defeated Lieutenant Governor John Carney by 51 to 49% for the Democratic nomination on September 9.

The Republican nominee was former state Superior Court Judge Bill Lee, defeating airline pilot Michael Protrack.

Some pundits thought Mitch Daniels was vulnerable in 2008, but polling taken by SurveyUSA on October 21 and 22, 2008 showed him with a significant 54–35 lead.

While Indiana had not voted Democratic for president since 1964, Daniels was the first Republican elected governor in 16 years there.

Daniels was also endorsed by the state's largest newspapers, the Indianapolis Star, the Evansville Courier & Press, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the Times of Northwest Indiana, the Gary Post-Tribune and the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The Democratic nominee was four-term Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1998.

Nixon defeated Hulshof comfortably, despite the fact that Missouri ultimately voted for John McCain, a Republican, for president.

Soundly defeating the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, State Senator Tim Mathern,[19] (24%) and independent candidate DuWayne Hendrickson (2%).

Her 2004 opponent, Republican former State Senator Dino Rossi,[25] officially announced his candidacy on October 25, 2007.

On November 4, he faced former State Senator Russ Weeks, a Republican, and Mountain Party candidate Jesse Johnson, who ran in 2004.

In 2004, Acevedo narrowly beat former Governor and Senator Pedro Rosselló, also a Democrat, by a mere 3,566 votes.

Republican at-large Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, who announced in December 2006 that he would not again seek re-election to his current post, ran against him.

The federal indictment against Acevedo for alleged corruption schemes when he was in Congress, and generally low approval, may have been a drag on his candidacy and chances of winning re-election.