Election 1966 Results
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1966 governor election results by state and county
Republicans won most of the 1966 governor races and took nine states from the Democrats, including California with Ronald Reagan, Maryland, Florida and Arkansas.
35 governor races were held in 1966. Democrats won 12 and Republicans 23.
The closest were Georgia (R+0.3), Alaska (R+1.6) and Hawaii (D+2.1). 12 governorships changed party: Alaska to the Republicans, Arizona to the Republicans, Arkansas to the Republicans, California to the Republicans, Florida to the Republicans, Kansas to the Democrats, Maine to the Democrats, Maryland to the Republicans, Minnesota to the Republicans, Nebraska to the Republicans, Nevada to the Republicans and New Mexico to the Republicans.
Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.
About the 1966 governor elections
The 1966 midterms came during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, with the Vietnam War growing, urban riots and a backlash against the pace of change on civil rights. Republicans recovered from their 1964 losses, gaining seats in Congress and winning 23 governor races to the Democrats' 11. Ronald Reagan defeated Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown in California in his first run for office. Spiro T. Agnew won Maryland, Claude Kirk took Florida and Winthrop Rockefeller became the first Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. Republicans also gained Arizona, Minnesota with Harold LeVander, Nebraska, New Mexico with David F. Cargo and Nevada, where Paul Laxalt unseated Grant Sawyer. Nelson Rockefeller won a third term in New York. Georgia produced an unusual result. Republican Howard H. "Bo" Callaway won the most votes, 0.3 points ahead of Democrat Lester Maddox, but a write-in campaign kept him below a majority. Under state law the Democratic legislature chose the governor, and it picked Maddox. Democrats gained Kansas and Maine, where Kenneth M. Curtis won.
Every race
| State | Democrat | Votes | Republican | Votes | Others | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Lurleen Burns Wallace | 537,505 (63.4%) | James D. Martin | 262,943 (31.0%) | Carl Robinson (Independent) 47,653 (5.6%) |
D+32.4 |
| Alaska flip | William A. Egan | 32,065 (48.4%) | Wally Hickel | 33,145 (50.0%) | 1,084 | R+1.6 |
| Arizona flip | Sam Goddard | 174,904 (46.2%) | Jack R. Williams | 203,438 (53.8%) | R+7.5 | |
| Arkansas flip | James Douglas Johnson | 257,203 (45.6%) | Winthrop Rockefeller | 306,324 (54.4%) | R+8.7 | |
| California flip | Edmund G. Brown | 2,749,183 (42.3%) | Ronald Reagan | 3,742,913 (57.6%) | 11,349 | R+15.3 |
| Colorado | Robert L. Knous | 287,132 (43.5%) | John A. Love | 356,730 (54.0%) | 16,201 | R+10.5 |
| Connecticut | John N. Dempsey | 561,599 (55.7%) | E. Clayton Gengras | 446,536 (44.3%) | D+11.4 | |
| Florida flip | Robert King High | 668,233 (44.9%) | Claude Roy Kirk | 821,190 (55.1%) | 238 | R+10.3 |
| Georgia | Lester Maddox | 450,626 (46.3%) | Bo Callaway | 453,665 (46.6%) | Ellis Arnall (Write-in) 69,025 (7.1%) |
R+0.3 |
| Georgia: No candidate won a majority; the Georgia General Assembly chose Lester Maddox. | ||||||
| Hawaii | John A. Burns | 108,840 (51.1%) | Randolph Crossley | 104,324 (48.9%) | D+2.1 | |
| Idaho | Cecil Andrus | 93,744 (37.1%) | Don Samuelson | 104,586 (41.4%) | Perry Swisher (Independent) 30,913 (12.2%) |
R+4.3 |
| Iowa | Harold E. Hughes | 494,259 (55.3%) | William G. Murray | 394,518 (44.2%) | 4,398 | D+11.2 |
| Kansas flip | Robert Docking | 380,030 (54.8%) | William H. Avery | 304,325 (43.9%) | 8,600 | D+10.9 |
| Maine flip | Kenneth M. Curtis | 172,036 (53.1%) | John H. Reed | 151,802 (46.9%) | D+6.3 | |
| Maryland flip | George P. Mahoney | 373,543 (40.6%) | Spiro Agnew | 455,318 (49.5%) | Hyman A. Pressman (Independent) 90,899 (9.9%) |
R+8.9 |
| Massachusetts | Edward J. McCormack | 752,720 (36.9%) | John A. Volpe | 1,277,358 (62.6%) | 11,099 | R+25.7 |
| Michigan | Zoltan A. Ferency | 963,383 (39.1%) | George W. Romney | 1,490,430 (60.5%) | 8,096 | R+21.4 |
| Minnesota flip | Karl F. Rolvaag | 607,943 (46.9%) | Harold Levander | 680,593 (52.6%) | 6,522 | R+5.6 |
| Nebraska flip | Philip C. Sorensen | 186,985 (38.5%) | Norbert T. Tiemann | 299,245 (61.5%) | R+23.1 | |
| Nevada flip | Grant Sawyer | 65,870 (47.8%) | Paul Laxalt | 71,807 (52.2%) | R+4.3 | |
| New Hampshire | John W. King | 125,882 (53.9%) | Hugh Gregg | 107,259 (45.9%) | 461 | D+8.0 |
| New Mexico flip | T. E. Lusk | 125,587 (48.3%) | David F. Cargo | 134,625 (51.7%) | R+3.5 | |
| New York | Frank D. O'Connor | 2,298,363 (38.1%) | Nelson Rockefeller | 2,690,626 (44.6%) | Paul L. Adams (Conservative) 510,023 (8.5%) |
R+6.5 |
| Ohio | Frazier Reams Jr. | 1,092,054 (37.8%) | Jim Rhodes | 1,795,277 (62.2%) | R+24.4 | |
| Oklahoma | Preston J. Moore | 296,328 (43.8%) | Dewey F. Bartlett | 377,078 (55.7%) | 3,852 | R+11.9 |
| Oregon | Robert W. Straub | 305,008 (44.7%) | Tom McCall | 377,346 (55.3%) | 508 | R+10.6 |
| Pennsylvania | Milton J. Shapp | 1,868,719 (46.1%) | Raymond P. Shafer | 2,110,349 (52.1%) | 71,600 | R+6.0 |
| Rhode Island | Horace E. Hobbs | 121,862 (36.7%) | John H. Chafee | 210,202 (63.3%) | R+26.6 | |
| South Carolina | Robert Evander McNair | 255,854 (58.2%) | Joseph O. Rogers Jr. | 184,088 (41.8%) | D+16.3 | |
| South Dakota | Robert Chamberlin | 96,504 (42.3%) | Nils Boe | 131,710 (57.7%) | R+15.4 | |
| Tennessee | Buford Ellington | 532,998 (81.2%) | none | H.L. Crowder (Independent) 64,602 (9.8%) |
D+81.2 | |
| Texas | John B. Connally | 1,037,517 (72.8%) | T. E. Kennerly | 368,025 (25.8%) | 20,264 | D+47.0 |
| Vermont | Philip H. Hoff | 78,669 (57.7%) | Richard A. Snelling | 57,577 (42.3%) | D+15.5 | |
| Wisconsin | Patrick J. Lucey | 539,258 (46.1%) | Warren P. Knowles | 626,041 (53.5%) | 4,874 | R+7.4 |
| Wyoming | Ernest Wilkerson | 55,249 (45.7%) | Stanley K. Hathaway | 65,624 (54.3%) | R+8.6 | |
Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Margins are Democrat minus Republican, of all votes. Certified results, from the states' own archives, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Heideman (2026) and Algara & Amlani (2021). By county: "As they were" draws each county as it stood on election day; "Today's" shares the old votes among today's counties by area. County boundaries: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5). How these results were checked.