Women Governors in The United States of America

Thirty women have served as Governor in the history of this country. The first was Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming. She won a special election after the death of her husband William Ross, who had been elected in 1922 and died in office. She was defeated in her re-election campaign, but remained active in politics, giving the speech seconding Al Smith’s nomination as Democratic Presidential candidate in 1928. She was later named Director of the US Mint by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.

Delaware’s Governor Ruth Ann Minner is the longest serving female Governor in history. She will leave office next year: she could not run for re-election due to the State’s statutory term limits. However, Beverley Perdue was elected to succeed Gov. Mike Easley in North Carolina, so the number of women in the office of Governor will not decline. Both are Democrats. However, there will be, in all probability, a total of nine next year. Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano is President-elect Barack Obama’s designee to be Secretary of Homeland Security. If she resigns to take the post, the Secretary of State Jan Brewer, a Republican, will succeed her. New Mexico’s Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has also been designated for a cabinet post: Obama has tapped him to be Secretary of Commerce. Should he resign, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, also a Democrat, will assume the position. Should all of this come to pass, of the nine women in their state’s top executive position, five will be Democrats and four Republican. This will equal the most that have ever served simultaneously.

In all, assuming that the above-mentioned successions take place, there will have been 33 female Governors. There has been at least one women serving as Governor since 1982. The eight women that are serving now represent 16% of the Governorships, exactly the same proportion as are currently serving in the US Senate. (In an earlier post, I discussed women in the Senate.) Arizona and Texas have had three female Governors, the most among the states. However, should Arizona’s Gov. Napolitano resign to assume the above-mentioned Cabinet post, Jan Brewer will become the state’s fourth women to assume the post.

Nearly a century ago, the first women to serve in the various high offices in the United States were often appointed to fill terms of spouses. That is certainly not the case now. The longest serving Governor, Democrat Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware, was elected nine times before her first of two successful Gubernatorial campaigns. She was elected four times to the State House, twice to the State Senate, and twice as Lt. Governor before her election to the state’s top post. For 34 years, she ran for public office without suffering a single defeat.

Hawaii’s Republican Governor Linda Lingle has a similar history. Term limits will limit her tenure in office to eight years when the next election for Governor is held in 2010. At that time, she will tie Gov. Minner as longest-serving female Governor. Beginning in 1980, Lingle served five two-years terms on the Maui City Council and two four-year terms as Mayor before seeking the state’s top job in 1998. Incumbent Governor Benjamin Cayetano defeated her by the thinnest margin in Hawaii history. Nonetheless, she came back to win the first of her two elections as Governor in 2002. Whereas Gov. Minner will be 75 when her current term expires, Gov. Lingle will be just 57. Many view her as a likely candidate for Senate in the near future, as the state’s current Senators, Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, will be 86 and 88 years of age when they are next up for re-election.

Now that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has officially removed herself from consideration for Cabinet posts, she too will have served eight years when she completes her current term in office. Among all of the women serving as Governors, she has perhaps received the most national attention. She was widely rumored as being given strong consideration for the Vice Presidential slot in each of the last two cycles, was chosen to give the Democratic response to this year’s State of the Union address delivered by President Bush, and has served as Chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association. She also has a long history of electoral success. She served four two-year terms in the State House and two four-year terms as the state’s Insurance Commissioner before her election as Governor in 2002. When term limits preclude her from seeking re-election in 2010, she will be 62 years old, and is widely rumored as a candidate for the US Senate.

I think there is great likelihood that Gov. Sebelius will become the first woman to serve as President of the United States.