Party As of January 2026, there are 26 states with a
Republican governor and 24 states with a
Democratic governor. Four Democrats (including the
Mayor of the District of Columbia), one Independent, and one
New Progressive also occupy territorial governorships or mayorships. No independent and other third parties currently hold a state governorship.
Tenure For each term, governors serve four years in office. The exceptions are
Vermont and
New Hampshire where tenures are two years long. The longest-serving current governor is
Greg Abbott of
Texas, who was re-elected to his third term in 2022 and seeking re-election to a fourth term in 2026. The
longest-serving governor of all time was
Terry Branstad of
Iowa, who was elected to his sixth (non-consecutive) term in
2014. Governor Branstad resigned on May 24, 2017, to become the United States Ambassador to China. He held the title of
Governor of Iowa for 22 years. On December 14, 2015, he became the longest-serving governor in US history, breaking the record held by
George Clinton of
New York, who served 21 years from 1777 to 1795 and from 1801 to 1804. In the majority of states and territories,
term limit laws officially cap a governor's tenure.
Age The oldest current state governor is
Kay Ivey of
Alabama, who was born on . The youngest current state governor is
Sarah Huckabee Sanders of
Arkansas, who was born on . Among territorial governors,
Lou Leon Guerrero of
Guam, born on , is the oldest, and
Jenniffer González-Colón of
Puerto Rico, born on , is the youngest. The youngest person to ever serve as a governor in the United States was
Stevens T. Mason of the
Michigan Territory, first elected in 1835 having just turned 24. Mason would later become the first governor of the state of
Michigan when it was admitted to the Union in January 1837, when he was 25. Mason was re-elected in November 1837, then age 26. The second youngest governor ever elected was
Henry C. Warmoth of
Louisiana, who was elected during reconstruction in 1868 at the age of 26. The third youngest governor was
William Sprague IV of
Rhode Island, who was elected in 1860 at the age of 29. When future President
Bill Clinton was elected
Governor of Arkansas in 1978 at age 32, he became the youngest governor since
Harold Stassen of
Minnesota, elected in 1938 at age 31. In 35 states, the minimum age requirement of the governor is age 30 years old or older, though in some it is age 25 years old or older (7), age 21 years old or older (1), or age 18 years old or older (5). Oklahoma is the only state with an older minimum age requirement, age 31 years old or older. Some states require the governor to be a qualified elector/voter, implying a minimum age of 18. Vermont requires candidates to be residents of the state for at least four years as of Election Day, which would preclude small children from running, but has no other implicit or explicit age limit.
Gender As of January 2026, 36 men and 14 women serve as state governors. The 14 female governors are:
Kay Ivey of
Alabama,
Katie Hobbs of
Arizona,
Sarah Huckabee Sanders of
Arkansas,
Kim Reynolds of
Iowa,
Laura Kelly of
Kansas,
Janet Mills of
Maine,
Maura Healey of
Massachusetts,
Gretchen Whitmer of
Michigan,
Kelly Ayotte of
New Hampshire,
Mikie Sherrill of
New Jersey,
Michelle Lujan Grisham of
New Mexico,
Kathy Hochul of
New York,
Tina Kotek of
Oregon, and
Abigail Spanberger of
Virginia. Of those, Ayotte, Huckabee Sanders, Ivey, and Reynolds are
Republicans, while Healey, Hobbs, Hochul, Kelly, Kotek, Lujan Grisham, Mills, Sherrill, Spanberger, and Whitmer are
Democrats. This record of 14 was briefly matched for less than two weeks in January 2025 following the inauguration of
Kelly Ayotte of
New Hampshire on January 9 but prior to the departure of
Bethany Hall-Long of
Delaware on January 21. 4 territorial governors are male; one territorial governor and the mayor of Washington, D.C. are female. 44 women have served or are currently serving as state or territorial governors, including two in an acting capacity. The first female governor was
Nellie Tayloe Ross of
Wyoming (widow of the late Wyoming Governor
William B. Ross) who was elected on November 4, 1924, and sworn in on January 5, 1925, succeeding
Frank Lucas. Also elected on November 4, 1924, was
Miriam A. Ferguson of
Texas (wife of former Texas Governor
James E. Ferguson), succeeding
Pat Morris Neff on January 21, 1925. The first female governor elected without being the wife or widow of a past state governor was
Ella T. Grasso of
Connecticut, elected in 1974 and sworn in on January 8, 1975.
Connecticut,
Arizona,
New Hampshire,
New Jersey, and
New Mexico are the only five states to have elected female governors from both major parties. Arizona was the first state where a woman followed another woman as governor (they were from different parties). Arizona also has had the most female governors with a total of five, and is the first state to have three women in a row serve as governor.
Washington was the first state to have both a female governor and female U.S. Senators serving at the same time (
Christine Gregoire;
Patty Murray;
Maria Cantwell, respectively), from 2005 to 2013. New Hampshire was the first and currently only state to have a female governor and entirely female Congressional delegation serving at the same time, from 2013 to 2015.
LGBTQ status There are currently three governors from the
LGBTQ community:
Jared Polis (Colorado), who is gay, along with
Tina Kotek (Oregon) and
Maura Healey (Massachusetts), who are both lesbian.
Race and ethnicity Ethnic minorities as
defined by the United States Census currently constitute 38.9% of the total population of the U.S. as of 2018. There are currently 47 state governors who are non-Hispanic whites of
European American background. There are 3 minority governors:
Wes Moore of
Maryland, who is black,
Michelle Lujan Grisham of
New Mexico, who is of Hispanic descent; and
Kevin Stitt of
Oklahoma, who is a member of the
Cherokee Nation. Stitt is a
Republican, while Grisham and Moore are
Democrats. Among the five U.S. territories, one Hispanic (
Jenniffer González-Colón of
Puerto Rico), one Black (
Albert Bryan of the
U.S. Virgin Islands), and three
Pacific Islander Americans (
Lou Leon Guerrero of
Guam,
Pula Nikolao Pula of
American Samoa, and
Arnold Palacios of the
Northern Mariana Islands) currently serve as governor. African-American
Muriel Bowser is the current
Mayor of the District of Columbia, an office equivalent to a governor. In 1990,
Douglas Wilder of
Virginia became the first African-American governor of any state since the
Reconstruction era.
Birthplace Seventeen of the current state governors were born outside of the state they are serving as governor.
Mike Dunleavy of Alaska (born in Pennsylvania),
Ned Lamont of Connecticut (born in Washington, D.C.),
Josh Green of Hawaii (born in New York),
J. B. Pritzker of Illinois (born in California),
Laura Kelly of Kansas (born in New York),
Maura Healey of Massachusetts (born in Maryland),
Tim Walz of Minnesota (born in Nebraska),
Greg Gianforte of Montana (born in California),
Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey (born in Virginia),
Abigail Spanberger of Virginia (Born in New Jersey),
Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma (born in Florida),
Tina Kotek of Oregon (born in Pennsylvania),
Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania (born in Missouri),
Mark Gordon of Wyoming (born in New York), and
Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia (born in New York City). One governor,
Joe Lombardo of Nevada, was born outside the United States (born in Sapporo, Japan). State constitutions have varying requirements for the length of citizenship and residency of the governor but unlike the President, state governors do not need to be
natural-born citizens. There is some ambiguity in some state constitutions if a governor must be a citizen or just a resident.
Physical disability Two legally blind governors have served:
Bob C. Riley, who was acting governor of Arkansas for 11 days in January 1975, and
David Paterson, who was governor of New York from 2008 until 2011. The current governor of Texas,
Greg Abbott, has been
paraplegic since an accident in 1984; he has used a wheelchair ever since. Governor of New York
Franklin D. Roosevelt was paraplegic; he later became the first wheelchair-using president. Governor of Alabama
George Wallace was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in 1972. He never walked again. ==Salary==