Next year's elections will test the popularity of the Republican Party's push for state-level tax cuts and limits on unions, policies that are central to its argument that GOP governors are the beacon of the party's future.

Many governors who rode the 2010 tea-party wave to office and brought conservative policies to purple and swing states are up for re-election next November, including John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Snyder of Michigan and Rick Scott of Florida.

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