Sabato’s Crystal Ball Moves Three Gubernatorial Races Left, Giving Democrats ‘Chance’ to Get Majority 2026

Sabato’s Crystal Ball Moves Three Gubernatorial Races Left, Giving Democrats ‘Chance’ to Get Majority 2026

Bulgaria News

2026 gubernatorial ratings by Sabato's Crystal Ball

Screenshot via Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a project of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, updated its ratings to shift three key gubernatorial races to the left, assessing the November ballot as giving Democrats a “chance” to hold the majority of governorships.

The project has made several other ratings shifts this year in the Democrats’ direction, including key House and Senate races. Crystal Ball managing editor Kyle Kondik shared the new ratings for Alaska, Iowa, and Pennsylvania Thursday along with a longer analysis.

“Democrats used to routinely control a majority of the state governorships, but Republicans have held a majority for almost all of the post-1994 period,” wrote Kondik. “Democrats have a chance to grab an edge this cycle, though.”

Alaska’s open seat has moved from Likely R to Toss-up, Kondik wrote, calling it “a Republican-leaning but quirky state with a very quirky election system”:

In the first round of voting, in which all candidates run together, two Democrats (former state legislators Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich) and two Republicans (businesswoman and media personality Bernadette Wilson and former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson) grabbed the four slots to advance to the ranked-choice November general election. But Begich dropped out in deference to Kreiss-Tomkins, which also had the effect of “promoting” another Republican into the top four—the details of which are convoluted in their own right, but Alaska Public Media had a good explainer. The bottom line here is that there is now one prominent Democratic contender, Kreiss-Tomkins, and two prominent Republicans, Wilson and Bronson. None of these candidates are proven statewide, but the lineup of candidates is somewhat reminiscent of the group that allowed former Rep. Mary Peltola (D) to win statewide in special and general 2022 House elections. Ballot exhaustion—in which supporters of the Republican candidates don’t rank other candidates in the ranked-choice voting allocation—threatens Republican chances. Until we know more, this race is a Toss-up, despite Alaska’s generic Republican lean. Meanwhile, voters in November will once again decide the fate of the state’s election system, which unfortunately seems to have devolved into an exercise in mischief-making.

In Iowa, another open seat moved from Toss-up to Leans D, with Kondik calling the GOP nominee, businessman Zach Lahn, the “underdog” against the Democrat, state Auditor Rob Sand (D), as the latter “has posted consistent, though sometimes small, polling leads,” although “partisan gravity” could “eventually make it more of a 50-50 proposition despite Sand attracting a lot of national attention for a quality campaign so far.”

And finally, in Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is in a strong position to win re-election, with his race moving from Likely D to Safe D. Shapiro is “on a glidepath to reelection,” wrote Kondik.

The Real Clear Politics polling average currently has Shapiro up 21.2 points over his Republican opponent, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity. Shapiro has been ahead by double digits for months in the various polls RCP tracks and was as high as 31 points up in one poll in late August.

Kondik also noted that the Senate races in Maine and Michigan were eating up most of the media oxygen there, “but that’s fine for Democratic gubernatorial nominees in each state, who are favored to varying degrees in both.”

Georgia is remaining a Toss-Up for now, and “[w]e doubt we’ll have a real lean here until right before the election, and even then it may not be much of a lean,” wrote Kondik, noting that Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) popularity may help bring former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) across the finish line with him.

The open seat for Florida governor and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) re-election bid both moved from Safe Republican to Likely Republican earlier this year, noted Kondik, and both states “merit watching for signs of GOP erosion down the stretch of the campaign.”

The post Sabato’s Crystal Ball Moves Three Gubernatorial Races Left, Giving Democrats ‘Chance’ to Get Majority first appeared on Mediaite.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball Moves Three Gubernatorial Races Left, Giving Democrats ‘Chance’ to Get Majority 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-09-03 23:24:36 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law

БЪЛГАРИЯ НОВИНИТЕ – ИНФОРМАЦИОННА АГЕНЦИЯ 2009-2026 2026-09-03 23:24:36

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *