Historically, when there is a governor’s race and a senator’s race on the ballot in a non-presidential year, it is the governor’s race that gets the most votes. We tend to focus on federal offices because they impact all of us, while gubernatorial races only impact the people of that particular state. But it’s more likely that governors’ races will provide coattails to Senate candidates than the other way around. The Republicans are banking on this theory being true in places like Ohio and Michigan.
Yet, the phenomenon could spell trouble for Republicans in states like New Hampshire and New York, where very strong Democratic gubernatorial candidates could doom GOP hopes in down-ticket races. In any case, you can help Democratic candidates for federal office by helping out in the governors’ races. Whether it is here in Pennsylvania, or out in California, we can save some federal seats if we can get our governors over the top.
