Cook Political Report shifts two red-state governor races toward Democrats

The Washington Post ^ | October 27, 2026 | Praveena Somasundaram

[MinorityRepublican]

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Tuesday moved its ratings of the gubernatorial races in Nebraska from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican” and in Kansas from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up,” another positive sign for Democrats running in red states.

The more favorable ratings for Democrats help boost the party’s odds of having a majority of state leaders after the midterms for the first time since 2010, Cook said.

In Kansas, Democratic State Sen. Cindy Holscher and Republican Senate President Ty Masterson are running to replace Gov. Laura Kelly (D), who is term-limited. Holscher is running hard on opposing data centers and attacking Masterson on the issue. The state’s Senate race between Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, tightened in recent weeks, a change that has helped make the gubernatorial race more competitive.

gubernatorial race more competitive.

Kansas is still the GOP’s best chance to flip a governor’s seat this year, according to Cook.

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TOPICS: Politics
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[devane617]

I can’t read the article, but I put Georgia in the toss-up column.

[God luvs America]

Cook Political Report shifts North Carolina toward Harris

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4850871-cook-political-report-north-carolina-kamala-harris-donald-trump/

[Fledermaus]

Lost me in the first sentence. Nonpartisan. LOL

[bray]

Fake polls by Fake News

[BookmanTheJanitor]

[willk]

Who knows what is going to happen but I could be so happy if it turned out to be a red wave. I know the chances are small but just imagine the leftist heads exploding. I love rewatching the 2024 election on YouTube. Especially the PBS coverage.

[pburiak]

Hahahaha Cook is about as non-partisan as James Carville or Pat Buchanan

[Dan in Wichita]

The Cook Political Report is now controlled by Amy Walter, who is a smug leftwinger with an obvious bias and who has been terribly wrong on many elections.

Recently, she appeared on CNN and predicted a sweep by the Democrats, at which anchor Dana Bash gushed "I adore you!!"

[CFW]

“Non-partisan”.

Cook Report and WaPo. LOL!

[Jane Long]

Too many, here, fall for it way too many times.

[Signalman]

Fake polls by Fake News

Absolutely. If I recall, in previous elections, Cook Political Report has a less than stellar success rate in their predictions. Back in 2024 3-4 months before the presidential election, I was following a youtuber (unfortunately I can't recall his handle) but he was predicting the election outcome and posted updates every few days. He didn't use polls. His main predictor was based on the number of voters that were registered in each political party. Amazingly, his final prediction (and this was a few weeks before the election) was Trump: 312 Electoral Votes; Harris 226 Electoral Votes. I also recall, he predicted the correct outcome in all 50 states and, of course D.C. He did use other factors for his prediction but the number of registered voters in each political party was the main one.

[DIRTYSECRET]

She’s got the smile of Al Sayed.

Please be advised that while governors races are important it’s the senate that’s most important.

Ohio-is Husted the best candidate? If he loses I’d blame DeWine for appointing him. Vivek seems better suited to be in the senate-speaking skills a la Al Sayed, just more positive. Leave it to DeWine to f things up like the rest of the rinos. Should Husted lose the good news is it will be for 2 years only-the seat will be up again in ‘28. Why Scott at his age would really want to continue on is to suggest these people would rather do politics than f-ck.

[FreeReign]

Should be Cooked Political Report.