This year, 1,140 major party candidates were on the primary ballot for 304 state executive seats around the country. The offices up for election include 36 gubernatorial seats, 30 lieutenant gubernatorial seats, 30 state attorney general seats, and 26 secretary of state seats.
Of the major party candidates on the ballot, 463, or 40.61%, were Democrats, and 677, or 59.39%, were Republicans.
The percentage of major party candidates this year who identified as Democrats was lower than in 2020, when 46.25% of major party candidates did, and in 2018, when 49.02% did.
Conversely, the percentage of major party candidates who identified as Republicans this year was higher than in 2020, when 53.75% did, and in 2018, when 50.98% did.
There were 1.52 Democratic candidates on the ballot per state executive seat this year. That’s more than the 1.35 Democrats per seat who appeared on the ballot in 2020 and fewer than the 1.7 Democrats per seat who appeared in 2018.
There were 2.23 Republican candidates on the ballot per state executive seat in 2022. That’s more than the 1.56 Republicans per seat who appeared on the ballot in 2020 and the 1.76 Republicans per seat who appeared in 2018.
