Democrats performed better than expected,[b] including in closely-watched races in Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and the party picked up the governorships of Arizona, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs won the election against Republican former television anchor Kari Lake.

Nonetheless, Hobbs ultimately defeated Lake with 50.32% of the vote, becoming the first Democrat elected governor of Arizona since Janet Napolitano in 2006.

Lake refused to concede and filed a post-election lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the results, with all her claims either being dismissed or ruled against for lack of evidence.

[48] This time Lamont won re-election by a wider margin, becoming the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial election by more than 5 points in the state since 1986.

Senator David Perdue, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump after Kemp refused to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

[64] Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and founder of Fair Fight Action who was narrowly defeated by Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial election, was once again the Democratic nominee for the governorship.

He vastly underperformed compared to Kemp, however, and lost to incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock in the December 6 runoff election.

Republican candidates who announced their candidacy included Richard Irvin, Darren Bailey, Gary Rabine, Paul Schimpf, and Jesse Sullivan.

[86] In the general election, incumbent Republican governor Kim Reynolds won re-election in a landslide, defeating Democratic nominee Deidre DeJear.

Kansas Republican Party Chair Mike Kuckelman pointed to this as evidence that Pyle was somewhat responsible for Schmidt's defeat.

Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey and state senator Sonia Chang-Díaz were running for the Democratic nomination.

Due to Massachusetts's strong liberal lean and Diehl's conservative political views, Healey was widely expected to win the election.

[115] Whitmer defeated Dixon by a vote margin of nearly 11 percentage points, a larger victory than when she was first elected four years prior.

[127] Sisolak lost re-election to a second term, being defeated by Republican nominee and Clark County Sheriff, Joe Lombardo.

Former senator Dean Heller ran for the Republican nomination[130] as did North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee,[131] and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

DeWine faced a primary challenge from former US Representative and 2018 Ohio Republican Senate Nominee Jim Renacci and farmer Joe Blystone.

Incumbent Republican governor Mike DeWine won re-election to a second term in a landslide, defeating Democratic nominee Nan Whaley, the former mayor of Dayton, 62.8% to 37.2%.

[165] DeWine's 25-point victory marked the continuation of a trend in which every incumbent Republican governor of Ohio since 1978 has won re-election by a double digit margin.

Meanwhile, Hofmeister's performance was the second best of any 2022 Democratic statewide candidate in Oklahoma, only behind State Superintendent of Public Instruction nominee Jena Nelson.

[189] Notably, the general election featured three prominent female candidates, including former state senator Betsy Johnson, who was a moderate Democrat, running as an independent.

Oregon was considered a possible Republican pickup, as Brown had the lowest approval rating of any governor in the United States at the time and Johnson could have siphoned votes from Kotek.

Shapiro scored the largest margin for a non-incumbent candidate for governor since 1946,[202][203] and his victory marked the first time since 1844 that the Democratic Party won three consecutive gubernatorial elections in Pennsylvania.

McKee easily won a full term on election day, defeating Republican Ashley Kalus by more than 19 percentage points.

[221] Beto O'Rourke, who gained national attention in 2018 for his unusually close and competitive campaign against Senator Ted Cruz, was widely viewed as a rising star in the Texas Democratic Party and potential challenger for Abbott, but a failed run for President of the United States in 2020 prompted criticisms of opportunism, via Republican attempts to brand him as anti-law enforcement and his former comments on guns.

Beto O'Rourke, meanwhile, performed 8.3% worse than his 2018 Senate run, but did still win the highest share for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate since Ann Richards received 45.88% in her unsuccessful reelection bid against George W. Bush in 1994.

O'Rourke outperformed Joe Biden two years prior among Latino voters though his performance with them was still worse than past nominees.

Scott's victory, in which he carried every municipality in the state, is the largest by margin in a Vermont gubernatorial race since Howard Dean's landslide in 1996.

As Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes ran for the U.S. Senate in the concurrent election, a new Democratic running mate, state assemblywoman Sara Rodriguez, was nominated in the partisan primary.

Torres was challenged by his lieutenant governor, Arnold Palacios, a career Republican who ran as an independent, and by Democratic representative Tina Sablan.