Democrats won the most governorships up in 1978.

36 governor's races on the ballot — Democrats won 21, Republicans 15. Each state below links to its candidate results.

Akashic

Results by state

Every row links to the state's full governor result with its county map.

Akashic

State	Won	Governor-elect	Margin	Pres. 1976	Votes
Alabama	D	Fob James	+46.7%	D+13.1	748,749
Alaska	R	Jay Hammond	−12.6%	R+22.3	124,447
Arizona	D	Bruce Babbitt	+7.7%	R+16.6	523,698
Arkansas	D	Bill Clinton	+26.7%	D+30.0	528,847
California	D	Jerry Brown	+19.6%	R+1.8	6,783,306
Colorado	D	Richard Lamm	+20.2%	R+11.5	801,277
Connecticut	D	Ella Grasso	+18.4%	R+5.2	1,035,425
Florida	D	Bob Graham	+11.2%	D+5.3	2,530,468
Georgia	D	George Busbee	+61.4%	D+33.9	662,711
Hawaii	D	George Ariyoshi	+10.2%	D+2.5	278,004
Idaho	D	John Evans	+19.2%	R+22.8	283,689
Illinois	R	Jim Thompson	−18.9%	R+2.0	3,122,818
Iowa	R	Robert D. Ray	−17.3%	R+1.0	837,232
Kansas	D	John W. Carlin	+2.1%	R+7.6	711,850
Maine	D	Joseph Brennan	+13.4%	R+0.8	369,244
Maryland	D	Harry Hughes	+41.2%	D+6.1	999,545
Massachusetts	D	Edward J. King	+5.3%	D+15.7	1,956,366
Michigan	R	William Milliken	−13.7%	R+5.4	2,865,741
Minnesota	R	Al Quie	−7.1%	D+12.9	1,548,263
Nebraska	R	Charles Thone	−11.9%	R+20.7	492,227
Nevada	R	Robert List	−16.5%	R+4.4	184,458
New Hampshire	D	Hugh Gallen	+4.0%	R+11.3	255,597
New Mexico	D	Bruce King	+1.1%	R+2.5	345,479
New York	D	Hugh Carey	+5.7%	D+4.4	4,585,676
Ohio	R	Jim Rhodes	−1.7%	D+0.3	2,756,798
Oklahoma	D	George Nigh	+4.5%	R+1.2	769,295
Oregon	R	Victor Atiyeh	−9.8%	R+0.2	907,863
Pennsylvania	R	Dick Thornburgh	−6.1%	D+2.7	3,703,930
Rhode Island	D	J. Joseph Garrahy	+32.1%	D+11.3	314,363
South Carolina	D	Richard Riley	+23.6%	D+13.1	621,844
South Dakota	R	Bill Janklow	−13.2%	R+1.5	259,795
Tennessee	R	Lamar Alexander	−11.7%	D+13.0	1,185,454
Texas	R	Bill Clements	−0.8%	D+3.2	2,350,747
Vermont	R	Richard Snelling	−28.7%	R+11.2	120,663
Wisconsin	R	Lee S. Dreyfus	−9.5%	D+1.7	1,489,869
Wyoming	D	Edgar Herschler	+1.7%	R+19.5	137,567