Led by Mr George W. Bush and Mr Jeb Bush, potentially the most compelling political brother act since the Kennedy brothers John and Robert, the Republicans have maintained their grip on a majority of the US's governorships as a power base for their political future.
Faced with the loss of the 1998 election's richest prize, the governorship of California, the US's most populous state, the Republicans were buoyed by Mr George Bush's re-election in Texas, the second-most populous state.
The eldest son of former president Bush ran ahead of the Democratic lands commissioner Mr Gary Mauro by a margin of more than 2-1. The victory for the 52-year-old former managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team capped four successful years in Austin that earned him poll standings so high it was hard for Democrats to find a candidate willing to oppose him.
Republicans got another boost from 45-year-old Mr Jeb Bush's victory in Florida, the fourth-most populous state, which before the election had a Democratic governor. In that contest, the younger Bush won easily over the Democratic lieutenant governor, Mr Buddy McKay.
After narrowly losing the governorship race four years ago, Mr Jeb Bush - criticised for his ultra-conservatism - dramatically revised his political profile in his second attempt, reaching out to such traditional Democratic voters as blacks and Jews.
The Bushes' victories in these two big states are bound to give considerable impetus to the prospective presidential candidacy of Governor Bush of Texas in 2000, a contest in which he is already the early Republican front-runner.
In other big state gubernatorial contests, Republicans easily won in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan, while the Democrats retained the governorship of Georgia. Democrats unseated two incumbent Republican governors in the South and won the governorship of Iowa, which had been long held by the Republicans.
In Minnesota, in perhaps the most bizarre contest of the election, Mr Jesse "The Body" Ventura, a former professional wrestler, talk-show host and part-time mayor of a Minneapolis suburb, defeated the Democratic Attorney-General, Mr Hubert H. Humphrey III, son of the late vice-president, and the Republican candidate, Mr Norm Coleman, mayor of St Paul.
But the results of the governor elections in all 36 states contested - 24 previously held by the Republicans - were laden with additional significance for both parties. After the next census, governors will play a major role in deciding who wins and who loses in the subsequent struggles over reapportionment of state congressional delegations.
In addition, for Republicans, the contests provided an important ideological test, because many of their governors - by stressing problem-solving rather than issues such as abortion - have established a more pragmatic image for the party than their congressional leaders.
Republican governors "combine moderation on social issues with a very tough approach on holding down taxes and curbing crime and trimming the bureaucracy", said Dr Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia specialist in state politics. "And that's about where most Americans are politically."
The Republican Party entered the election controlling 32 governorships, with 17 in Democratic hands and one state, Maine, governed by an Independent. Before Tuesday's election, Republican holdings included eight of the 10 most populous states, all but Georgia and Florida.
In addition to Texas, Republican incumbents swept to victory in three other big states. In New York, the governor, Mr George Pataki, routed the New York City Council president, Mr Peter Vallone. In Pennsylvania, the governor, Mr Tom Ridge, trounced the state representative, Mr Ivan Itkin. And in Michigan, the incumbent, Mr John Engler, overwhelmed a lawyer, Mr Geoffrey Fieger, whose inflammatory rhetoric had cost him support among fellow Democrats.
In Ohio, the Democrat Mr Lee Fisher, a former attorney general, waged an aggressive campaign against Mr Robert A. Taft, possessor of Ohio's best-known political name, but Mr Taft won for the Republicans. In Illinois, Representative Glenn Poshard, the Democratic nominee and a blue-collar populist from downstate, lost to the better-known, better financed Republican, Mr George Ryan .
In Democratic-held Georgia, the attempt by the wealthy Republican businessman Mr Guy Millner, to become the first Republican governor since Reconstruction was defeated by the veteran Democratic State Representative, Mr Roy Barnes.