2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election
November 6, 2018
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| Turnout | 61.2% ( 6.7%) | |||||||||||||||||||
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Evers: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Walker: 20–30% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Tie: 40–50% 50% No data | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Wisconsin |
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The 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018. It occurred concurrently with a Senate election in the state, elections to the state's U.S. House seats, and various other elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker sought a third term, and was challenged by Democratic candidate and then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, as well as Libertarian Phil Anderson and independent Maggie Turnbull. Evers, along with his running mate Mandela Barnes, managed to defeat Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch in a closely fought and widely watched race, ending the state's Republican trifecta.
The result was considered "too close to call" on election night, with Walker and Evers being separated by a mere few hundred votes for much of the night as counties reported their results. Shortly after midnight on November 7, Milwaukee County reported around 46,000 uncounted absentee ballots. From those ballots, Evers received 38,674 votes, or 84% of the total, and Walker 7,181, giving Evers a narrow lead. The race was called for him shortly after.
Wisconsin was the only state in the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle to elect a Democratic governor while voting more Republican than the national average. With a margin of 1.1%, this election was also the second-closest race of the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle, behind only the election in Florida. Walker was one of two Republican incumbent governors to be defeated for re-election in 2018, the other being Bruce Rauner in neighboring Illinois, who had lost decisively to J. B. Pritzker.
As previously mentioned, the deep purple state of Wisconsin hosted among the most competitive contests for governor in the nation, with Evers edging out Walker by just around 1.1%. He received 49.5% of the statewide vote to Walker's 48.4%, making it was the closest gubernatorial election in the state since 1964. It also marked the first time a Democrat won the state's governor's office since Jim Doyle was reelected in 2006. Despite a relatively small shift from the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump narrowly and shockingly flipped the state, to this one, Evers carried seven counties that were won by Trump two years prior, those being Columbia, Crawford, Grant, Kenosha, Richland, Sauk, and Vernon counties.
In comparison to the last gubernatorial race in 2014, both candidates improved their raw vote shares; Walker received around 35,000 more votes than he did in 2014, while Evers received over 200,000 more votes than that of Mary Burke, the Democratic nominee in the last election who ultimately lost to Walker by around 5.7%. That said, Evers' victory was significantly lower than that of Democrat Tammy Baldwin in the concurrent Senate election, in which she was reelected by a double-digit margin in an impressive display of ticket-splitting.
Evers' victory came amidst key Democratic victories in other statewide races held concurrently, including pickups in the state's Attorney General (Josh Kaul) and State Treasurer (Sarah Godlewski) races and a solid reelection for Democrat Doug La Follette in the state's Secretary of State race.