Even in gubernatorial races — in which candidates generally do a better job at separating themselves from national party dynamics than in federal races — negative views of the president present a huge problem for a slate of Democratic incumbents up next year. That’s especially true after many tied themselves closely to Biden during his 2020 campaign and the first six months of his presidency.

Democrats hold the governorship in eight states up in 2022 that are less or similarly favorable than Virginia — Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — a grouping that has topped Republicans’ target list since the election cycle began. Biden won all those states except for Kansas, and each one of those states has a Democratic incumbent seeking reelection except for Pennsylvania, where the party is lining up behind state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to replace term-limited Gov. Tom Wolf.

“The Biden stuff and everything that happened was so loud, and you couldn’t ignore it,” said Neil Oxman, a veteran Democratic admaker based in Pennsylvania, listing everything from Afghanistan to the ebbs and flows of the pandemic. “Clearly the election was nationalized last Tuesday, more so than you necessarily get in some elections.”