Mind-blowing facts about statewide officials

[Orser67]

Republicans have failed to win just 5 Senate elections in Kansas since it became a state in 1861. Kansas has had at least one Republican senator since 1895, which seems to be by far the longest streak for either party holding at least one Senate seat in a given state. I think Wisconsin (1957) holds that honor for Democrats, although Montana goes back to 1911 if you ignore short vacancies.

Of the first 50 governors of New York, 18 served as president, vice president, secretary of state, or Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, or were nominated for president by a major party. In the 21 presidential elections held from 1868 and 1948, the two major parties nominated a sitting or former governor of New York as their presidential nominee a total of 16 times (New Yorkers who didn't serve as governor won an additional three nominations in that period). Special mention goes to 1944, when a former governor of New York faced the sitting governor of New York; I believe that's the only time two individuals who had served in the same state office faced each other as presidential candidates.

Aside from 1944, the other same-state presidential matchups are 1860 (a re-match of the 1858 IL Senate election), 1904 (NY vs. NY), 1920 (sitting governor of Ohio vs. sitting senator from Ohio), 1940 (NY vs. NY), and 2016 (NY vs. NY again). Also 1992 (TX vs. TX) if you want to count Perot. To be clear, these are state of residence, not state of birth.

[Orser67]

Speaking of Pennsylvania, in the 2017 elections Democrats won several Chester County row offices that had existed since the 18th century and that the party had never previously won (unless you conflate the Democrats and the earlier Democratic-Republican Party). Chrissy Houlan is the first Democrat to represent Chester County in the U.S. House of Representatives since before the Civil War. Democrats also won row offices in Delco for almost the first time; the lone previous exception was a single race for sheriff in 1934.