Gubernatorial Election Years

[Schiff for Senate]

Simple question. States hold their elections in either the year after a presidential election (2021; NJ and VA), the midterm election (2022; most states), the year before a presidential election (2023; KY, LA and MS) or the presidential election year itself (a handful of states including ND, IN, MT, WA and WV). Of course, VT and NH have elections every two years (in even years), but I'm talking about the 48 states with four-year terms. In your opinion, which year makes the most sense? Personally I'm inclined to say an off-year election, even if only 10% of states actually hold their gubernatorial elections then, because midterms and presidential election years are very influenced by the national environment, which I don't think is necessarily a good thing. Gubernatorial elections should be differentiated from federal/presidential races (since they are different and have different candidates), and races should be more candidate-orientated and less based on the national enviornment. Clearly, most states think otherwise, but if you think about it based on examples, if a state is competitive and has generic-enough candidates and holds its election in the midterm, it's not too tough to guess its results - blue in 2018, red in 2014 and 2010 and blue in 2006. If the 2019 governor election races were held in 2020 (when Trump ran), the 3 southern states (KY, LA, MS) with elections those years would certainly be redder. Bevin would be shored up because of increased Trump turnout in the state, Bel Edwards (who narrowly survived) would lose, and Mississippi wouldn't be nearly as competitive. I think that's not a good thing. Not all elections should be presidential referendums, and while states can't control when they have senate elections, they can do for governor elections. So the question is if 2021 or 2023 is better. I'd say 2021 (since I feel like 2019/2023 would be more influenced by presidential approval than 2017/2021 ones). Would do you think?