Election 2026: Five States Elect Black Governors, a U.S. First

Multiple Black governors will serve at the same time in the United States for the first time in the country's history, after five Black candidates won governor's races in Tuesday's elections, according to NBC News.

Who won governor's races Tuesday?

Five Black candidates were elected governor across five states, NBC News reported: Democrat Wes Moore, who won re-election in Maryland; Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who won in Florida; Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won in Georgia; Democrat David Crowley, who won in Wisconsin; and Democrat Aaron Ford, who won in Nevada. The group spans both parties and five states, but all five will take office — or remain in office — as part of the same wave of results.

Why has this never happened before?

Before Tuesday, only three Black candidates had ever been elected governor in U.S. history, per NBC News: Moore in Maryland; Deval Patrick, a Democrat elected governor of Massachusetts in 2006; and Doug Wilder, a Democrat elected governor of Virginia in 1989. None of the three served at the same time as another Black governor. Tuesday's results mean that for the first time, several will hold office simultaneously.

The numbers behind Tuesday's results

• 5 Black candidates won governor's races Tuesday, across Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada, according to NBC News.
• 3 Black candidates had ever been elected governor before Tuesday — in 1989, 2006 and Moore's prior win — and none served concurrently, per NBC News.
• $100 million+ of his own money was spent by Republican Rick Jackson, a healthcare executive, in his losing bid against Bottoms in Georgia, NBC News reported.

How did Keisha Lance Bottoms win in Georgia despite a massive spending gap?

Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, defeated Republican Rick Jackson despite what NBC News described as an enormous spending disadvantage; Jackson put more than $100 million of his own money into the race. Her win makes her the first woman and the first Black person elected governor of Georgia, and NBC News reported she will be the first Black woman to serve as a governor in U.S. history.

What did Byron Donalds say about the significance of his win?

Donalds, a Republican member of Congress who won Florida's governor's race, told NBC News in an interview last month that the history-making nature of his candidacy was "very special."

"From a larger perspective, there's so much that has been talked about in politics over the last couple decades around race. Obviously, the country has had some real negative parts of our history," Donalds said, according to NBC News.

Donalds is the only Republican among the five winners; Moore, Bottoms, Crowley and Ford all ran as Democrats.

What happens next for these governors?

Moore's win was a re-election, meaning he continues in office in Maryland without interruption. Bottoms, Donalds, Crowley and Ford are newly elected and will take over their states' governorships for the first time, pending the standard transition and inauguration processes in each state. NBC News did not report specific inauguration dates for the incoming governors in its initial results coverage.

The five wins mean that, taken together, Black governors will simultaneously lead a Mid-Atlantic state (Maryland), a Southeastern state (Georgia and Florida), a Midwestern state (Wisconsin) and a Western state (Nevada) — a geographic spread that NBC News noted has no precedent in prior elections, when Black governors who won office did so one at a time and in different eras. Readers tracking state-by-state results can follow NBC News's live election updates for confirmation of vote totals and any changes as counting continues in close contests.

Who first reported the results?

NBC News reporter Adam Edelman wrote the initial story confirming the five wins, with a byline time stamp of Nov. 3, 2026, at 9:15 p.m. ET and an update logged early Nov. 4, 2026, according to the outlet's published report.

Is there video of the victory speeches?

NBC News published a video of Bottoms's remarks after she was declared the projected winner in Georgia's governor's race, carrying the title "Full speech: Keisha Lance Bottoms projected winner in Georgia governor's race" and running more than 13 minutes, according to the network's posted clip. The outlet did not pair similar full-length video with the other four winners in its initial coverage of Tuesday's results.