A massive blue wave swept Democrats into governorships in deep red states Tuesday, handing the party a majority of the nation’s gubernatorial offices for the first time in nearly a generation.

Races in the Northeast, the South and the Midwest broke toward Democrats, fueled by anger at President Donald Trump and rising prices. Democrats picked up open Republican-held seats in Georgia, Ohio and Iowa, and defeated sitting Republican governors in Nevada and Texas.

In Georgia, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will become the first Black woman to serve as governor of a state — and the first Democrat to win her state’s top office since Roy Barnes was elected in 1998. She overcame a massive spending disadvantage, with health care executive Rick Jackson, the Republican nominee, spending $200 million on his own campaign.

With 75% of the vote in, Bottoms led Jackson by 55% to 45% — a much more substantial victory than polls predicted. The Associated Press projected that Bottoms would win.

A political earthquake rocked Texas, where Rep. Gina Hinojosa ousted Gov. Greg Abbott, the three-term Republican who also exercised a massive spending advantage.

With 94% of the vote reported, Hinojosa led Abbott 53% to 46%. Polls had projected a close race. Several counties in the Houston and Dallas metroplexes broke for Hinojosa after favoring Abbott by wide margins in his last three elections.

Former Ohio health director Amy Acton, a Democrat, will succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Acton fended off entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, her Republican rival who ran a provocative ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother late in the race.

Acton led Ramaswamy 52% to 44% with more than 95% of the vote reported.

In Iowa, state Auditor Rob Sand easily beat back businessman Zach Lahn, the Republican nominee. Sand, one of the cycle’s most promising Democratic candidates, is the first Democrat to be elected governor there since Chet Culver in 2006, another blue wave year.

Sand led Lahn 55% to 45% with more than 95% of the vote reported. The Associated Press projected Sand would win.

And in Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo succumbed to Attorney General Aaron Ford, who will become the first Black governor of his state. With 87% of the votes tallied, Ford led Lombardo 52% to 44%.

Votes for Republican-held Alaska were still being counted overnight. The only Democrat in the four-candidate field, former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, held 49.2% of the vote, just shy of the margin needed to win outright, with 74% of the vote counted.

Democrats retained governorships in every state where races have been called. The party’s most vulnerable seat, in Kansas, remained too close to call as of Wednesday morning. With more than 95% of the votes counted, state Sen. Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee, leads Senate President Ty Masterson by 5,500 votes, less than one percentage point.

Democrats will hold at least 28 governorships, and as many as 30 if the party’s nominees hold on in Alaska and Kansas.

Democrats will have governors in all seven swing states most crucial to winning the presidency: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Exit polls showed that voters punished Republicans for their support for President Donald Trump and on issues including data centers and rising healthcare and gas prices.

In four of the five states, voters very concerned with data centers broke for Democrats by more than 20 percentage points. The lone exception was in Texas(opens cnn.com in a new tab), where those voters picked Hinojosa by a 19-point margin.

Similarly, voters very concerned about gas prices broke for Democrats in Nevada (opens cnn.com in a new tab), Georgia (opens cnn.com in a new tab), Ohio (opens cnn.com in a new tab) and Iowa (opens cnn.com in a new tab) by more than 30 points. Those voters favored Hinojosa in Texas by 26 points.

Republicans who went into the elections wary of Trump’s impact on their party said the GOP needed to start moving on and look ahead to the 2028 elections.

“This doesn’t mean we’re going to lose in ’28. This means we’ll lose in ’28 if we don’t listen to the American people,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, said on NBC News.

National exit polls(opens cnn.com in a new tab) showed just 38% of voters approved of Trump’s job performance, the lowest total registered for an incumbent president during a midterm election since George W. Bush in 2006.