Why are Republican Governors so much more popular than Democratic Senators?

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

A lot of factors. There are the red state governors, the blue state ones, and then there are the inoffensive Republicans. Governors like Abbott and Gordon are from red states with nascent (if existent at al) opposition, and in effect only answer to conservative voters. In order to have a chance of losing an election in that kind of environment, you have to **** up on the level of Brownback or Bevin.

Baker, Hogan, and Scott are easy enough. They're closer to Weld than Trump, and the Democratic legislature means that they don't have to make any rough decisions wrt conservative policies. Conservatives largely see them as a check on the legislature, and are just glad to be in power in the first place.

Sununu is a different story. I can personally attest that he has governed the state like a generic conservative. He takes relatively little stances against the establishment, and only offers vague condemnations of Trump when absolutely needed. New Hampshire likes inoffensive conservatives like Kelly Ayotte who can pretend to be bipartisan. DeSantis has also triangulated to "inoffensive conservative" territory. While I may be vehemently against Sununu and Kemp's voter suppression measures, the average voter has it low on their priorities.

For the other end of the spectrum, there's a greater tendency to criticize Democratic governors for their lack of reforms. Raimondo has been largely pro-business (especially in a state where the RIGOP is largely moribund and the RIDP is corrupt to the point where they supported a Nazi against an anti-machine representative). Cuomo, in contrast, has made maneuvers to salvage his political career (and also spoke out against Trump).

It's also much more difficult to implement sweeping Democratic reforms you see from Bernie/AOC, considering every state but VT (which has fewer resources) has a balanced budget amendment. There's no way to implement a statewide public option without raising taxes.

But as for the main answer, there hasn't been enough time for Republicans to **** up yet. Most Republicans are in their first term, and there hasn't been enough time to implement the sweeping, unpopular cuts that Fallin or Bevin or Brownback did. It also helps that none of them are virulent assholes like LePage (who largely coasted in on a strong Republican environment and was built to run up margins in ME-2, Michaud's home region).