Thirty-five states elect a senator in 2026 and thirty-six elect a governor. Those two sets overlap heavily but not completely, and when you subtract both from fifty, five states are left with neither: Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Utah and Washington.
If you live in one of them, your 2026 ballot has no statewide federal or executive contest on it at all. Thirty-two House seats, plus whatever your state legislature and county happen to be running, is the entire thing.
The four groups
| What is up | States | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Senate and governor | AL AK AR CO GA ID IL IA KS ME MA MI MN NE NH NM OK OR RI SC SD TN TX WY, plus the FL and OH specials | 26 |
| Senate only | DE KY LA MS MT NJ NC VA WV | 9 |
| Governor only | AZ CA CT HI MD NV NY PA VT WI | 10 |
| Neither | IN MO ND UT WA | 5 |
The twenty-six in the first row are where turnout machinery gets built, because a party running a coordinated campaign there is running it for two statewide candidates at once. North Dakota, with a single at-large House seat and nothing above it, has one federal race on the ballot in the entire state.
Why the sets do not line up
Senate terms are six years, split into three classes, so exactly one class faces voters every two years. Class 2 was last elected in 2020 and is up now. Florida and Ohio are on the list as well because both seats were filled by appointment and the special elections land in 2026.
Governorships follow state constitutions instead, most on four-year terms elected in midterms, which is why thirty-six of them cluster here. New Hampshire and Vermont are on two-year terms and appear every cycle. Nothing coordinates the two systems, so the overlap is a coincidence that changes shape every two years.
Washington is the largest of the five states with neither, at ten House seats. Missouri has eight, Indiana nine, Utah four and North Dakota one.