Democrats won the most governorships up in 1986.

36 governor's races on the ballot — Democrats won 19, Republicans 17. 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. 1984	Votes
Alabama	R	H. Guy Hunt	−12.8%	R+22.4	1,233,366
Alaska	D	Steve Cowper	+4.7%	R+36.8	171,471
Arizona	R	Evan Mecham	−5.2%	R+33.9	866,984
Arkansas	D	Bill Clinton	+27.8%	R+22.2	688,229
California	R	George Deukmejian	−23.2%	R+16.2	7,287,315
Colorado	D	Roy Romer	+17.2%	R+28.3	1,050,745
Connecticut	D	Bill O'Neill	+16.8%	R+21.9	984,127
Florida	R	Bob Martinez	−9.2%	R+30.7	3,386,145
Georgia	D	Joe Frank Harris	+41.0%	R+20.4	1,174,977
Hawaii	D	John D. Waiheʻe III	+4.0%	R+11.3	334,115
Idaho	D	Cecil Andrus	+0.9%	R+46.0	383,223
Illinois	R	Jim Thompson	−12.7%	R+12.9	3,121,305
Iowa	R	Terry Branstad	−3.9%	R+7.4	909,699
Kansas	R	Mike Hayden	−3.8%	R+33.7	840,605
Maine	R	John McKernan	−9.7%	R+22.1	426,847
Maryland	D	William Donald Schaefer	+64.7%	R+5.5	1,101,476
Massachusetts	D	Michael Dukakis	+37.6%	R+2.8	1,683,150
Michigan	D	James Blanchard	+36.6%	R+19.0	2,385,785
Minnesota	D	Rudy Perpich	+13.0%	D+0.2	1,396,893
Nebraska	R	Kay Orr	−5.9%	R+41.7	563,481
Nevada	D	Richard Bryan	+48.0%	R+33.9	252,349
New Hampshire	R	John H. Sununu	−7.4%	R+37.7	250,966
New Mexico	R	Garrey Carruthers	−6.1%	R+20.5	394,833
New York	D	Mario Cuomo	+32.9%	R+8.0	4,139,013
Ohio	D	Dick Celeste	+21.2%	R+18.8	3,065,636
Oklahoma	R	Henry Bellmon	−2.9%	R+37.9	897,172
Oregon	D	Neil Goldschmidt	+4.0%	R+12.2	1,056,445
Pennsylvania	D	Bob Casey	+2.3%	R+7.4	3,355,752
Rhode Island	R	Edward D. DiPrete	−32.3%	R+3.6	313,326
South Carolina	R	Carroll Campbell	−3.1%	R+28.0	745,893
South Dakota	R	George Mickelson	−3.6%	R+26.5	294,441
Tennessee	D	Ned McWherter	+8.5%	R+16.3	1,210,051
Texas	R	Bill Clements	−6.7%	R+27.5	3,398,294
Vermont	D	Madeleine Kunin	+8.8%	R+17.1	196,142
Wisconsin	R	Tommy G. Thompson	−6.5%	R+9.2	1,510,668
Wyoming	D	Mike Sullivan	+7.9%	R+42.3	164,720