Katie Hobbs
Kathleen Marie Hobbs (born December 28, 1969) is an American politician and social worker serving since 2023 as the 24th governor of Arizona. Hobbs is the first social worker to be elected governor of a U.S. state and is Arizona's fifth female governor. A member of the Democratic Party, she was secretary of state of Arizona from 2019 to 2023 and a member of the Arizona State Legislature from 2011 to 2019. Born and raised in Arizona, Hobbs holds degrees in social work from Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University. She specialized in domestic violence and worked for one of the nation's largest domestic violence centers. Inspired to run for office by her involvement with Emerge Arizona, Hobbs was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2010 and to the Arizona Senate in 2012. She served as Senate minority leader from 2015 to 2019 and was elected secretary of state of Arizona in 2018. Hobbs won the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, narrowly defeating Republican nominee Kari Lake.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders (born August 13, 1982) is an American politician serving since 2023 as the 47th governor of Arkansas. Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, who served from 1996 to 2007 as Arkansas's 44th governor. A member of the Republican Party, she was the 31st White House press secretary, serving under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019. Sanders was the third woman to be White House press secretary. She also served as a senior advisor on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Sanders became the Republican nominee in the 2022 Arkansas gubernatorial election and won, defeating Democratic nominee Chris Jones. As press secretary, Sanders was the spokesperson for the Trump administration's policy decisions, and had a confrontational relationship with the White House press corps. When interviewed by investigators as part of the Mueller probe, she admitted making false statements in her role. Sanders hosted fewer press conferences than any of the 13 previous White House press secretaries.In June 2019, Trump tweeted that Sanders would be leaving her role as press secretary. On January 25, 2021, she announced her candidacy for governor of Arkansas; Trump endorsed her. She secured the Republican nomination in May 2022; her general election opponents were the Democratic nominee, Chris Jones, and the Libertarian nominee, Ricky Dale Harrington. She is the first woman to hold the office, the first woman to be governor of a state of which her father was also governor, and the youngest current governor.Sanders has been recognized in Fortune and Time magazine's "40 under 40". She is the author of The New York Times bestseller Speaking for Myself, is a former Fox News Channel contributor, and served on the Fulbright board.

Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 49th lieutenant governor of California from 2011 to 2019 and the 42nd mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. Newsom graduated from Santa Clara University in 1989. Afterward, he founded the boutique winery PlumpJack Group with billionaire heir and family friend Gordon Getty as an investor. The company grew to manage 23 businesses, including wineries, restaurants, and hotels. Newsom began his political career in 1996, when San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appointed him to the city's Parking and Traffic Commission. Brown then appointed Newsom to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors the next year and Newsom was first elected to the board in 1998. Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco in 2003 and reelected in 2007. He was elected lieutenant governor of California in 2010. As lieutenant governor, Newsom hosted The Gavin Newsom Show from 2012 to 2013. He also wrote the 2013 book Citizenville, which focused on using digital tools for democratic change. He was reelected in 2014. Newsom was elected governor of California in 2018. During his governorship, Newsom faced criticism for his personal behavior and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. He faced an unsuccessful attempt to recall him from office in 2021; he was reelected the next year.

Jared Polis
Jared Schutz Polis (; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician, businessman, and philanthropist serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019. Polis served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007, and five terms as the United States representative from Colorado's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2019. A libertarian Democrat, he was the only Democratic member of the Liberty Caucus. He was elected governor of Colorado in 2018 and reelected in a landslide in 2022. As an openly gay man, Polis has made history several times through his electoral success. He became the first non-incumbent openly gay man elected to Congress in 2008, and the first openly gay parent in Congress in 2011. In 2018, he became the first openly gay man and second openly LGBT person (after Kate Brown) elected governor of a U.S. state. He is also the first Jewish person elected governor of Colorado. In 2021, he became the first U.S. governor in a same-sex marriage. In 2022, he became the first openly gay man and the first U.S. governor in a same-sex marriage to be reelected.

Ned Lamont
Edward Miner Lamont Jr. (born January 3, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving since January 2019 as the 89th governor of Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a Greenwich selectman from 1987 to 1989 and was the party's nominee for the United States Senate in 2006, losing to incumbent Joe Lieberman.Lamont ran for governor in 2010, but lost the Democratic primary to former Stamford mayor Dannel Malloy, who went on to win the general election. He ran again in 2018, winning the nomination and defeating Republican Bob Stefanowski in the general election. He faced Stefanowski again in 2022, defeating him by a wider margin. As governor, Lamont signed legislation legalizing cannabis, sports betting, and online gambling.

Brian Kemp
Brian Porter Kemp (born November 2, 1963) is an American politician serving since January 2019 as the 83rd governor of Georgia. A member of the Republican Party, Kemp served as the 27th secretary of state of Georgia from 2010 to 2018, and as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 2003 to 2007. Kemp is a graduate of the University of Georgia. Before entering politics, he owned several agribusinesses, financial services, and real estate companies. In 2002, he was elected to the Georgia State Senate. Kemp ran for commissioner of the Georgia Department of Agriculture in 2006 but lost the Republican primary. In 2010, Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Kemp secretary of state. He was elected to a full term as secretary in 2010 and reelected in 2014. In 2015, Kemp was criticized after a data breach of over six million voters' personal information to 12 organizations. During the 2016 election, he was the only state official to reject help from the Department of Homeland Security to guard against Russian interference. Kemp ran for governor in 2018 and faced Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams. He refused to resign as secretary of state while campaigning for governor, which stirred controversy and accusations of abuse of power from Democrats. Kemp narrowly won the general election and resigned as secretary of state shortly thereafter. Abrams accused Kemp of voter suppression, which he denied. News outlets and political science experts have found no evidence that voter suppression affected the result of the election. In his first term as governor, Kemp opposed face mask mandates and stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, and prohibited localities from implementing stricter public health measures than the state as a whole. After the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, he faced criticism from President Donald Trump for following the state law that required him to certify the results, despite Trump's repeated false claims of fraud in the election. In 2021, Kemp signed into law the Election Integrity Act of 2021, which expanded early in-person voting and increased the state government's control over local election officials.In his 2022 reelection campaign, Kemp was challenged by former U.S. Senator David Perdue in the Republican primary. Although Trump endorsed Perdue, Kemp defeated Perdue in a landslide. In the general election, Kemp defeated Abrams in a rematch by a wider margin than in 2018; she conceded defeat on election night.

Josh Green
Josh Green (politician)
Joshua Booth Green (born February 11, 1970) is an American politician and physician who has been the governor of Hawaii since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the state's ninth governor. He was the 15th lieutenant governor of Hawaii from 2018 to 2022, a member of the Hawaii Senate from 2008 to 2018, and as a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2004 to 2008.

J. B. Pritzker
Jay Robert Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American businessman, philanthropist, attorney, venture capitalist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the worldwide hotel chain Hyatt, Pritzker is based in Chicago. He has started several venture capital and investment startups such as the Pritzker Group, where he is a managing partner. Pritzker has been a longtime financial supporter and active member of the Democratic Party. He became the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois in the 2018 gubernatorial election after winning a crowded primary election. He defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner in the general election on November 6, 2018, and took office on January 14, 2019. Pritzker was reelected on November 8, 2022.

Eric Holcomb
Eric Joseph Holcomb (born May 2, 1968) is an American politician who has served since 2017 as the 51st governor of Indiana. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 51st lieutenant governor of Indiana from 2016 to 2017 under Governor Mike Pence, who left the governorship in 2017 to become the vice president of the United States. Holcomb was nominated to fill the remainder of Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann's term after she resigned on March 2, 2016, to become president of Ivy Tech Community College. He won the 2016 election for governor of Indiana over Democratic nominee John R. Gregg. Holcomb was reelected in 2020 over Democratic nominee Woody Myers and Libertarian nominee Donald Rainwater.

Jeff Landry
Jeffrey Martin Landry (born December 23, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2024 as the 57th governor of Louisiana. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th attorney general of Louisiana from 2016 to 2024 and as the U.S. representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2013. Born in St. Martinville, Louisiana, Landry graduated from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He was a member of the Louisiana National Guard, which he joined while in high school, for 11 years. While in college, Landry worked as a police officer and sheriff's deputy. He ran for a seat in the Louisiana State Senate in 2007 but narrowly lost. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2010, serving one term until he lost his seat after redistricting. Landry defeated incumbent Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell in 2015, and was reelected four years later with over 66% of the vote. During his tenure, he supported Louisiana's abortion ban, advocated for prayer in public schools, and challenged Governor John Bel Edwards on LGBT issues. Landry won the 2023 Louisiana gubernatorial election with a majority of the vote in the first round.

Tim Walz
Timothy James Walz ( WAWLZ; born April 6, 1964) is an American politician, former U.S. Army non-commissioned officer, and retired educator who has served as the 41st governor of Minnesota since 2019. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Minnesota's 1st congressional district from 2007 to 2019. Born in West Point, Nebraska, Walz was a member of the Army National Guard, and worked in agriculture, manufacturing, and teaching after high school. He later graduated from Chadron State College and Minnesota State University, Mankato. He moved to Minnesota in 1996. Before running for Congress in 2006, he served for 24 years in the Army National Guard and as a social studies teacher in the Mankato school district. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in 2006, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht. He was reelected five times, retiring in 2019 after being elected governor. Walz represented a large, mostly rural section of southern Minnesota situated along the border with Iowa. On November 6, 2018, Walz was elected governor, defeating the Republican nominee, Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson. Walz was reelected in the 2022 Minnesota gubernatorial election, defeating Republican nominee Scott Jensen.

Tate Reeves
Jonathan Tate Reeves (born June 5, 1974) is an American politician serving since 2020 as the 65th governor of Mississippi. A member of the Republican Party, Reeves served as the 32nd lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020 and as the 53rd Mississippi State Treasurer from 2004 to 2012. Born in Florence, Mississippi, Reeves graduated from Florence High School in 1992 and Millsaps College in 1996. After receiving his degree in economics, he became a Chartered Financial Analyst. He began work at Park South Corporation, leaving in 2000 to become a financial portfolio manager at Trustmark. Reeves entered the race for Mississippi state treasurer after Democratic incumbent Marshall G. Bennett announced he would not run. In the Republican primary runoff, he defeated former Central District Transportation Commissioner Wayne Burkes. In the general election, he defeated Democratic nominee Gary Anderson. He won reelection in 2007 and went on to become lieutenant governor in 2012, holding the position until his inauguration as governor. Reeves was chosen as his party's nominee in the 2019 Mississippi gubernatorial election, defeating former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. and State Representative Robert Foster. In the general election, he narrowly defeated Attorney General Jim Hood. During his tenure, Reeves has changed the state flag, undermined efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, opposed vaccine requirements, and legalized medical cannabis. He was narrowly reelected in 2023, defeating Brandon Presley.

Jim Justice
James Conley Justice II (born April 27, 1951) is an American businessman and politician who has served as the 36th governor of West Virginia since 2017. Justice was once a billionaire, but his net worth had declined to $513.3 million as of 2021. He inherited a coal mining business from his father and built a business empire with 94 companies, including the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs.In 2015, Justice announced his candidacy for governor in the 2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election. Although a registered Republican before running for governor, he ran as a Democrat and defeated the Republican nominee, Bill Cole. Less than seven months after taking office, Justice switched back to the Republican Party after announcing his plans at a rally with U.S. president Donald Trump in the state. In the 2020 gubernatorial race, he was reelected over Democratic challenger Ben Salango. On April 27, 2023, Justice announced his candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in West Virginia, looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin. On November 9, despite having filed paperwork to run for reelection, Manchin announced that he would retire at the end of his term, leaving the seat open.

Greg Gianforte
Gregory Richard Gianforte ( JEE-ən-FOR-tay; born April 17, 1961) is an American businessman, politician, software engineer, and writer serving as the 25th governor of Montana since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Gianforte served as the U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2021. In 1997, Gianforte and his wife, Susan, co-founded RightNow Technologies, a customer relationship management software company. The company went public in 2004; by that time, it employed over 1,000 workers. RightNow Technologies was acquired by Oracle Corporation for $1.5 billion in 2011.In 2016, Gianforte ran for governor of Montana as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent governor Steve Bullock. In May 2017, Gianforte defeated Democratic nominee Rob Quist in a special election for Montana's at-large congressional seat to fill a vacancy created by the appointment of Ryan Zinke as U.S. secretary of the interior. Gianforte was convicted of assault in state court in June 2017 stemming from his election-eve body-slamming attack on The Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs in May 2017. He was fined and sentenced to community service and anger management therapy. Gianforte was reelected in 2018, defeating Democratic nominee Kathleen Williams. Gianforte did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 2020 and instead was a candidate in the 2020 Montana gubernatorial election. In the November general election, he defeated incumbent lieutenant governor Mike Cooney. He is the first Republican to serve as governor of Montana since Judy Martz left office in 2005.

Michelle Lujan Grisham
Michelle Lujan Grisham (; born October 24, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2019 as the 32nd governor of New Mexico. A member of the Democratic Party, Lujan Grisham previously served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 1st congressional district from 2013 to 2019. Lujan Grisham served as the state secretary of health from 2004 to 2007 and as a Bernalillo County commissioner from 2010 to 2012. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, defeating Janice Arnold-Jones. In 2016, Lujan Grisham was selected as the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. She won the Democratic nomination for governor of New Mexico in 2018 and defeated Republican Steve Pearce on November 6, 2018. She was reelected in 2022.

Doug Burgum
Douglas James Burgum (born August 1, 1956) is an American businessman and politician serving since 2016 as the 33rd governor of North Dakota. He is among the wealthiest governors in the U.S., with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. A member of the Republican Party, Burgum was a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election.Burgum was born and raised in the small town of Arthur, North Dakota. After graduating from college in 1978, and getting an MBA in 1980, he mortgaged inherited farmland in 1983 to invest in Great Plains Software in Fargo. Becoming the company's president in 1984, he grew Great Plains into a successful large software company. Burgum sold the company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001. While working at Microsoft, he managed Microsoft Business Solutions. He has served as board chairman for Atlassian and SuccessFactors. Burgum is the founder of Kilbourne Group, a Fargo-based real-estate development firm, and also is the co-founder of Arthur Ventures, a software venture capital group. A lifelong resident of North Dakota, Burgum entered the Republican primary in the 2016 North Dakota gubernatorial election with no political experience. He upset longtime Attorney General and Republican-endorsed candidate Wayne Stenehjem in the primary election, and defeated Democratic nominee Marvin Nelson by a landslide in the general election. He was reelected by a wide margin in 2020. In June 2023, Burgum launched a campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He ended his candidacy in early December.

Kevin Stitt
John Kevin Stitt (born December 28, 1972) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 28th governor of Oklahoma since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2018, defeating Democrat and former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson with 54.3% of the vote. Stitt was reelected to a second term in 2022, defeating Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, a Republican turned Democrat, with 55.4% of the vote. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Stitt is the second Native American governor after former Oklahoma governor Johnston Murray. Stitt grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in accounting. He is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Gateway Mortgage Group.

Josh Shapiro
Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 48th governor of Pennsylvania since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 50th Pennsylvania attorney general from 2017 to 2023 and as a member of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners from 2012 to 2017. Raised in Montgomery County, Shapiro studied political science at the University of Rochester and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University. After that he worked as a senior adviser to Senator Robert Torricelli. Shapiro was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2004, defeating former Republican U.S. representative Jon D. Fox. He represented the 153rd district from 2005 to 2012. Shapiro was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2011, marking the first time Republicans lost control of Montgomery County. Serving on the board from 2011 to 2017, he held the position of chairman, and in 2015 was also appointed chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency by Governor Tom Wolf. Shapiro ran for Pennsylvania attorney general in 2016, defeating Republican John Rafferty Jr., and was reelected in 2020. As attorney general, he released the findings of a statewide grand jury report that revealed the abuse of children by priests and coverup by church leaders; he also helped negotiate $1 billion for Pennsylvania as part of a national opioid settlement. Shapiro ran for governor of Pennsylvania in the 2022 election. He ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican nominee Doug Mastriano in the general election by a 14.8 percent margin.

Bill Lee
Bill Lee (Tennessee politician)
William Byron Lee (born October 9, 1959) is an American businessman and politician who has served since 2019 as the 50th governor of Tennessee. A member of the Republican Party, Lee was president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Lee Company, a business operated by his family, from 1992 to 2016.In 2017, Lee described himself as a social conservative. As governor, he has signed bills to ban abortion in Tennessee, mask mandates, and ranked-choice voting; to allow guns to be carried without a permit, create school voucher programs, and increase penalties for protest-related offenses. Lee signed Tennessee's "bathroom bill", as well as a bill that assures continued taxpayer funding of faith-based adoption agencies that exclude LGBT people for religious reasons, and the Adult Entertainment Act, which banned drag shows in public until a federal court ruled it unconstitutional.

Glenn Youngkin
Glenn Allen Youngkin (born December 9, 1966) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he spent 25 years at the private-equity firm the Carlyle Group, where he became co-CEO in 2018. He resigned from the position in 2020 to run for governor.Youngkin won the 2021 Republican primary for Governor of Virginia and defeated former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe in the general election, becoming the state's first Republican governor since Bob McDonnell in 2009. Youngkin supported COVID-19 vaccination efforts against the disease but opposed mandates for the vaccine, and banned mask mandates in Virginia public schools; this ban was partially rescinded following legal challenges. During his first year in office, Youngkin signed a bipartisan state budget that paired increased education spending with expansive tax cuts.

John Carney
John Carney (Delaware politician)
John Charles Carney Jr. (born May 20, 1956) is an American politician serving as the 74th governor of Delaware since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Carney served as the U.S. representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district from 2011 to 2017 and as the 24th lieutenant governor of Delaware from 2001 to 2009. He also served as Delaware's secretary of finance from 1996 to 2000. He first unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 2008, losing to Jack Markell. He ran for governor again in 2016 and won, succeeding Markell, who was term-limited. He was reelected in 2020, defeating Republican Julianne Murray with 59.5% of the vote.

Tony Evers
Anthony Steven Evers ( EE-vurs, born November 5, 1951) is an American educator and politician serving as the 46th governor of Wisconsin since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Wisconsin's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2009 to 2019.Born and raised in Plymouth, Wisconsin, Evers was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, eventually receiving a Ph.D. After working as a teacher for several years, he became a school administrator, serving as a principal, until he assumed the office of district superintendent. Evers first ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1993 and again in 2001, losing both elections. Evers was instead appointed deputy superintendent, a position he served in from 2001 to 2009. In 2009, he ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction again, this time winning. He was reelected twice, in 2013 and 2017. On August 23, 2017, Evers announced his candidacy for governor of Wisconsin, challenging two-term Republican incumbent Scott Walker. Walker was seen as a vulnerable incumbent and had been criticized for his education policies. Evers won the Democratic primary in August 2018. Former state representative Mandela Barnes won the primary for the lieutenant governorship, becoming Evers's running mate. The pair defeated the Scott Walker-Rebecca Kleefisch ticket in the 2018 election. Evers was reelected by a larger margin in 2022.

Mark Gordon
Mark Gordon (born March 14, 1957) is an American politician serving as the 33rd governor of Wyoming since January 7, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as state treasurer; then-governor Matt Mead appointed him to that position on October 26, 2012, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Joseph Meyer.

Kay Ivey
Kay Ellen Ivey (born October 15, 1944) is an American politician who is the 54th governor of Alabama, serving since 2017. Originally a conservative Southern Democrat, Ivey became a member of the Republican Party in 2002. She was the 38th Alabama state treasurer from 2003 to 2011 and the 30th lieutenant governor of Alabama from 2011 to 2017. Ivey became Alabama's second female governor and the first female Republican governor upon the resignation of her predecessor, Robert J. Bentley. She won a full term in 2018 by 19.1 percentage points against Democratic nominee Walt Maddox and was reelected by 37.7 percentage points over Democratic nominee Yolanda Flowers in 2022. At 79, Ivey is the oldest currently serving governor in the United States.

Mike Dunleavy
Mike Dunleavy (politician)
Michael James Dunleavy (born May 5, 1961) is an American educator and politician serving since 2018 as the 12th governor of Alaska. A Republican, he was a member of the Alaska Senate from 2013 to 2018. He defeated former U.S. senator Mark Begich in the 2018 gubernatorial election after incumbent governor Bill Walker dropped out of the race. He was reelected in 2022.

Ron DeSantis
Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Florida. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Florida's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018. DeSantis was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He withdrew his candidacy in January 2024. Born in Jacksonville, DeSantis spent most of his childhood in Dunedin, Florida. He graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. DeSantis joined the United States Navy in 2004 and was promoted to lieutenant before serving as a legal advisor to SEAL Team One. He was stationed at Joint Task Force Guantanamo in 2006, and was deployed to Iraq in 2007. When he returned to the U.S. about eight months later, the U.S. attorney general appointed DeSantis to serve as a special assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida, a position he held until his honorable discharge from active military duty in 2010. DeSantis was first elected to Congress in 2012 and was reelected in 2014 and 2016. During his tenure, he became a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and was an ally of President Donald Trump. He briefly ran for U.S. Senate in 2016, but withdrew when incumbent senator Marco Rubio sought reelection. DeSantis won the Republican nomination for the 2018 gubernatorial election and narrowly defeated the Democratic Party nominee, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, in the general election by 0.4%. DeSantis was governor during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole. He encouraged the passage of the Parental Rights in Education Act. In the 2022 gubernatorial election, he defeated Charlie Crist by 19.4 percentage points, the state's largest margin of victory for a governor's election in 40 years. On May 24, 2023, DeSantis announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, and he continued to serve as governor during the campaign. On January 21, 2024, DeSantis withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Trump.DeSantis has written two books: Dreams From Our Founding Fathers, published before his first campaign for Congress in 2011, and The Courage to Be Free, published in 2023.

Brad Little
Bradley Jay Little (born February 15, 1954) is an American politician serving as the 33rd governor of Idaho since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 42nd lieutenant governor of Idaho from 2009 to 2019 and as an Idaho state senator from 2001 to 2009. Little is a graduate of the University of Idaho, having earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. He has been involved in public service since the 1980s. Little was appointed as an Idaho state senator by governor Dirk Kempthorne in 2001, a position he held for just under eight years. During his senate seating, Little chaired the majority caucus and represented the 8th and (after redistricting in 2002) 11th legislative districts. In 2009, Governor Butch Otter appointed Little to the office of lieutenant governor after the previous lieutenant governor, Jim Risch, resigned to become a United States Senator. After Otter declined to run for a fourth term, Little ran for governor in the 2018 gubernatorial election and defeated Democratic nominee Paulette Jordan. He was reelected in 2022 with 60.5% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee Stephen Heidt and Independent candidate Ammon Bundy.

Laura Kelly
Laura Jeanne Kelly (born January 24, 1950) is an American politician serving since 2019 as the 48th governor of Kansas. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented the 18th district in the Kansas Senate from 2005 to 2019. Kelly was elected governor in 2018, defeating Republican nominee Kris Kobach. She was reelected in 2022, narrowly defeating Republican nominee Derek Schmidt.

Wes Moore
Westley Watende Omari Moore (born October 15, 1978) is an American politician, investment banker, author, nonprofit executive, and former television producer. Since 2023, he has been the 63rd governor of Maryland. Moore was born in Maryland and raised largely in New York. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received a master's degree from Wolfson College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. After several years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, he became an investment banker in New York. Between 2010 and 2015, Moore published five books, including a young-adult novel. He served as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation from 2017 to 2021. Moore authored The Other Wes Moore and The Work. He also hosted Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and was executive producer and a writer for Coming Back with Wes Moore on PBS.Moore is a longtime member of the Democratic Party. He won the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election against Republican nominee Dan Cox, to become Maryland's first African-American governor, the third African-American person elected as governor of any U.S. state, and as of 2024, the only African-American incumbent governor of any U.S. state. Moore is the fifth African-American U.S. state governor overall following P. B. S. Pinchback of Louisiana, Douglas Wilder of Virginia, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and David Paterson of New York.

Phil Murphy
Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American politician, diplomat, and financier serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected governor in 2017 and narrowly reelected in 2021. From 2009 to 2013, Murphy served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Barack Obama. Murphy had a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he held several high-level positions and accumulated considerable wealth before retiring in 2006. He is involved in many civic organizations and philanthropic pursuits. He served as finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee in the mid-late 2000s under Howard Dean. During his ambassadorial tenure, Murphy dealt with international fallout from the United States diplomatic cables leak. While planning to run for governor of New Jersey, Murphy and his wife Tammy Murphy launched New Start New Jersey, a progressive organization. He defeated Republican then-Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno in the 2017 gubernatorial election with 56% of the vote. In December 2019, Murphy became the chairperson of the Democratic Governors Association, a position he held for a year. He was reelected in an unexpectedly close race in 2021, defeating Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli with 51.2% of the vote. Murphy is the first Democratic governor of New Jersey to win a second term since Brendan Byrne did so in 1977. In July 2022, Murphy became the first National Governors Association chair from New Jersey.

Roy Cooper
Roy Asberry Cooper III (born June 13, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving since 2017 as the 75th governor of North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th attorney general of North Carolina from 2001 to 2017 and in the North Carolina General Assembly in both the House of Representatives and Senate from 1987 to 2001.Cooper graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979. He began his career as a lawyer and in 1986 was elected to represent the 72nd district in the North Carolina House of Representatives. In 1991, he was appointed a member of the North Carolina Senate, a position he held until 2001. He was elected North Carolina Attorney General in 2000 and reelected in 2004, 2008, and 2012, serving just under 16 years, the second-longest tenure for an attorney general in the state's history. Cooper defeated Republican incumbent Pat McCrory for the governorship in a close race in the 2016 election. This election made Cooper the first challenger to defeat a sitting governor in the state's history. Before he took office, the Republican-dominated legislature passed bills in a special session to reduce the power of the governor's office. The legislature has overridden several of Cooper's vetoes of legislation. Cooper was reelected in 2020, defeating Republican nominee and Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest.

Henry McMaster
Henry Dargan McMaster (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 117th governor of South Carolina since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 50th Attorney General of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011 and the 91st lieutenant governor of South Carolina from 2015 to 2017 under Governor Nikki Haley. McMaster worked for U.S. senator Strom Thurmond, both in private practice and as a federal prosecutor. Appointed United States attorney for the District of South Carolina by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, he gained attention for investigating South Carolina marijuana smugglers in Operation Jackpot. McMaster was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in South Carolina in 1986, losing to incumbent Democrat Fritz Hollings. He was then defeated for lieutenant governor of South Carolina by Democrat Nick Theodore in 1990. McMaster chaired the South Carolina Republican Party from 1993 to 2002. He was elected attorney general in 2002 and reelected in 2006. In 2010, McMaster ran for governor but lost to Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. In 2011, Haley appointed him to the South Carolina Ports Authority. McMaster was then elected lieutenant governor of South Carolina under Haley's governorship in 2014. McMaster succeeded to the office of governor in 2017 when Haley resigned to become the United States ambassador to the United Nations. He won a full four-year term in the 2018 gubernatorial election after narrowly winning a runoff for the Republican nomination and defeating Democratic nominee James E. Smith Jr. in the general election. He won reelection against Democratic nominee Joe Cunningham in 2022.

Jay Inslee
Jay Robert Inslee (; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician, lawyer, and economist who has served as the 23rd governor of Washington since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2012, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He is the longest-serving current governor in the United States. Born and raised in Seattle, Inslee graduated from the University of Washington and Willamette University College of Law. He served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993. In 1992, Inslee was elected to represent Washington's 4th congressional district, based around Central Washington, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Defeated for reelection in 1994, Inslee briefly returned to private legal practice. He made his first run for governor of Washington in 1996, coming in fifth in the blanket primary with 10% of the vote ahead of the general election, which was won by Democrat Gary Locke. Inslee then served as regional director for the United States Department of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton. Inslee returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999, this time for Washington's 1st congressional district. The new district included Seattle's northern suburbs in King County, Snohomish County, and Kitsap County. He was reelected six times before announcing that he would make another run for the governorship in the 2012 election. He resigned from Congress to focus on his campaign. He defeated Republican Rob McKenna, the state attorney general, 51% to 48%. Inslee was reelected to a second term in 2016, defeating Republican Seattle Port Commissioner Bill Bryant, 54% to 45%. Inslee served as chair of the Democratic Governors Association for the 2018 election cycle. Inslee was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election, launching his campaign on March 1, 2019. He suspended his campaign on August 21, citing extremely low poll numbers. The next day, Inslee announced his intention to seek a third term as governor in the 2020 election, which he won with 57% of the vote, becoming the first incumbent governor of Washington elected to a third term in more than 40 years. As governor, Inslee has emphasized climate change, education, criminal justice reform, and drug policy reform. He has garnered national attention for his critiques of President Donald Trump. Inslee joined state attorney general Bob Ferguson and state solicitor general Noah Purcell in suing the Trump administration over Executive Order 13769, which halted travel for 90 days from seven Muslim-majority countries and imposed a total ban on Syrian refugees entering the United States. The case, Washington v. Trump, led to the order being blocked by the courts, and other executive orders later superseded it.

Phil Scott
Philip Brian Scott (born August 4, 1958) is an American politician, businessman, and stock car racer who has been the 82nd governor of Vermont since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he was a representative for the Washington District in the Vermont Senate from 2001 to 2011 and the 81st lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2017. Scott was elected governor in the 2016 general election with 53% of the vote. He was reelected in 2018 with 55.2% of the vote; in 2020 with 68.5%; and in 2022 with 70.9% of the vote and a margin of 46%, the largest of any Vermont gubernatorial election since 1996, and the largest for a Republican since 1950.Regarded as one of the nation's most popular governors, Scott is considered a moderate and is the only Republican elected to a statewide office in Vermont as of 2024.

Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox (politician)
Spencer James Cox (born July 11, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 18th governor of Utah since 2021. A moderate member of the Republican Party, he served as the eighth lieutenant governor of Utah from 2013 to 2021. In Fairview, Utah, where Cox lives and was raised, he was elected to the city council in 2004 and then as mayor in 2005. In 2008, he was elected as a Sanpete County county commissioner.He was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 2012. In October 2013, Governor Gary Herbert appointed Cox to replace Greg Bell as lieutenant governor; he was confirmed unanimously by the Utah State Senate. Cox was elected to the lieutenant governorship as Herbert's running mate in 2016, and was elected governor in 2020.

Kim Reynolds
Kimberly Kay Reynolds (née Strawn; born August 4, 1959) is an American politician serving as the 43rd governor of Iowa since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Reynolds served as the 46th lieutenant governor of Iowa from 2011 to 2017. Reynolds served four terms as Clarke County treasurer beginning in 1994 and then served a partial term in the Iowa Senate from 2009 to 2011. She became governor in May 2017 when Governor Terry Branstad stepped down to become the United States ambassador to China. She won a full term as governor in 2018, and was reelected in 2022.

Andy Beshear
Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of former Governor Steve Beshear. Beshear was elected the 50th attorney general of Kentucky in November 2015 and served from January 2016 to December 2019. As attorney general, he sued Governor Matt Bevin several times over issues such as pensions, and defeated Bevin by just over 5,000 votes in the 2019 gubernatorial election. Beshear was reelected to a second term in 2023 by a wider margin of 5%, becoming only the fourth incumbent governor in Kentucky history to win a second consecutive term. As of 2023, Beshear and Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman are the only Democratic statewide elected officials in Kentucky.

Janet Mills
Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 75th governor of Maine since January 2019. She previously served as the Maine Attorney General on two occasions. A member of the Democratic Party, Mills was first elected attorney general by the Maine Legislature on January 6, 2009, succeeding G. Steven Rowe. Her second term began on January 3, 2013, after the term of William Schneider. She was the first woman to hold the position. Before her election, she served in the Maine House of Representatives, representing the towns of Farmington and Industry. Her party nominated her for governor in the 2018 election, and she won, defeating Republican Shawn Moody and independent Terry Hayes. On January 2, 2019, she became Maine's first female governor. Mills was reelected in 2022.

Maura Healey
Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 73rd governor of Massachusetts since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as Massachusetts Attorney General from 2015 to 2023 and was elected governor in 2022, defeating the Republican nominee, former state representative Geoff Diehl. Hired by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007, Healey served as chief of the Civil Rights Division, where she led the state's challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She was then appointed chief of the Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau and then chief of the Business and Labor Bureau before resigning in 2013 to run for attorney general in 2014. She defeated former State Senator Warren Tolman in the Democratic primary and then defeated Republican attorney John Miller in the general election. Healey was reelected in 2018. She was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2022.In 2014, Healey became the first openly lesbian woman elected attorney general of a U.S. state and the first openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in Massachusetts. In 2022, she became one of the first two openly lesbian women (alongside Tina Kotek) and the co-third openly LGBT person (alongside Tina Kotek and after Kate Brown and Jared Polis) elected governor of a U.S. state as well as the first woman elected governor of Massachusetts.

Gretchen Whitmer
Gretchen Esther Whitmer (born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 and in the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015. Whitmer was born and raised in Michigan. She is a graduate of Forest Hills Central High School, Michigan State University, and the Detroit College of Law. She ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives in the 1990s before being elected in 2000. In 2006, she became a state senator, a position she kept until 2015. She was the Senate's first female Democratic leader from 2011 to 2015. In 2013, Whitmer gained national attention for a floor speech during a debate on abortion in which she shared her experience of being sexually assaulted. For six months in 2016, she was the prosecutor for Ingham County. Whitmer was elected governor in 2018, defeating Republican nominee and state attorney general Bill Schuette. As governor, Whitmer has focused on healthcare and infrastructure legislation. In February 2020, she was selected to give the Democratic response to then President Donald Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address. On October 8, the Federal Bureau of Investigation thwarted a militia group's kidnapping plot against Whitmer. Since January 2021, Whitmer has served as one of the vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee. She was reelected governor in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Tudor Dixon.

Mike Parson
Michael Lynn Parson (born September 17, 1955) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of Missouri since 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Parson assumed the governorship when Eric Greitens resigned, as he was lieutenant governor at the time. Parson served the remainder of Greitens's term and was elected governor in his own right in 2020. Parson served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011 and the Missouri Senate from 2011 to 2017. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2016. He assumed the governorship on June 1, 2018, upon Greitens's resignation. As governor, Parson has signed a bill criminalizing abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy and opposed Medicaid expansion. He oversaw the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing a temporary stay-at-home order in April 2020 but allowing school districts to decide whether to close. Parson placed restrictions on mail-in voting during the 2020 U.S. elections, and oversaw Missouri's reaction to the George Floyd protests.

Jim Pillen
James Douglas Pillen (born December 31, 1955) is an American politician, veterinarian and livestock producer serving as the 41st and current governor of Nebraska since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Pillen served on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents from 2013 to 2023.

Joe Lombardo
Joseph Michael Lombardo (born November 8, 1962) is an American politician and former law enforcement officer serving since 2023 as the 31st governor of Nevada. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 17th sheriff of Clark County from 2015 to 2023, capping a 34-year career in law enforcement.Born in Japan, Lombardo moved to Las Vegas in 1976 and holds degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He served in the United States Army before becoming an officer in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 1988. He was elected sheriff in 2014 and reelected in 2018. As sheriff, he oversaw the investigation into the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. He won the Republican nomination for governor of Nevada in 2022 and defeated incumbent Democratic governor Steve Sisolak in the general election; he took office on January 2, 2023.

Chris Sununu
Christopher Thomas Sununu ( sə-NOO-noo; born November 5, 1974) is an American politician and engineer who has served since 2017 as the 82nd governor of New Hampshire. A member of the Republican Party, Sununu was on the New Hampshire Executive Council from 2011 to 2017. Sununu earned a bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been chief executive officer of the Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire. Sununu is a son of former New Hampshire governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, and a younger brother of former U.S. representative and senator John E. Sununu. Every member of the family has served as a Republican. Sununu's 2021 budget proposal included phasing out New Hampshire's only state income tax—on dividends and interest income (which Sununu states unfairly targets senior citizens more likely to be living off those types of income); slightly reducing selected other taxes; and instituting targeted student loan relief for those entering the healthcare, biotechnology, and social work fields.In January 2021, Sununu began his second term as governor of New Hampshire. In November 2021, amid speculation that he would run in the 2022 United States Senate election in New Hampshire, he announced that he would instead seek a fourth term as governor in 2022, which he won. This made Sununu the second modern governor of New Hampshire to serve four terms, after John Lynch.On July 19, 2023, Sununu announced that he would not run for a fifth term.

Kathy Hochul
Kathleen Hochul ( HOH-kəl; née Courtney; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of New York since August 24, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she is New York's first female governor, as well as the first governor from Upstate New York since Nathan L. Miller became New York's governor in 1920.Born in Buffalo, New York, the second of six children in a family of Irish Catholic descent, Hochul graduated from Syracuse University in 1980 and received a Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1984. After serving on the Hamburg town board and as deputy Erie County clerk, Hochul was appointed Erie County clerk in 2007. She was elected to a full term as Erie County clerk in 2007 and reelected in 2010. In May 2011, Hochul won a four-candidate special election for New York's 26th congressional district to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of then-Representative Chris Lee, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district in 40 years. She served as a U.S. representative from 2011 to 2013. Hochul was defeated for reelection in 2012 by Chris Collins after the district's boundaries and demographics were changed in the decennial reapportionment process. Hochul later worked as a government relations executive for the Buffalo-based M&T Bank.In the 2014 New York gubernatorial election, Andrew Cuomo selected Hochul as his running mate; after they won the election, Hochul was inaugurated as lieutenant governor. Cuomo and Hochul were reelected in 2018. Hochul took office as governor of New York on August 24, 2021, after Cuomo resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment. She won a full term in the 2022 election against Republican U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin in the narrowest New York gubernatorial election since 1994.

Mike DeWine
Richard Michael DeWine (; born January 5, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2019 as the 70th governor of Ohio. He served as the 50th Attorney General of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, and in both houses of Congress: in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991 and in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party. DeWine was born in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1947. He graduated from Miami University with a bachelor's degree in 1969 and earned a Juris Doctor from Ohio Northern University College of Law in 1972. After graduation, DeWine worked as an assistant prosecutor for Greene County and was elected county prosecutor, serving one term. A lifelong member of the Republican Party, he continued his political career in the Ohio Senate in 1980. He served as a U.S. representative from 1983 until 1991. In 1991 he was sworn in as the 59th lieutenant governor of Ohio, under George Voinovich. DeWine was elected to the United States Senate in a landslide in the 1994 Republican Revolution. He served in the Senate until his defeat by Sherrod Brown in 2006. DeWine returned to politics four years later and became the 50th attorney general of Ohio, serving from 2011 to 2019. He was elected governor in 2018. During DeWine's first term as governor, a shooting in Dayton prompted him to urge the Ohio legislature to enact new gun control measures, such as expanding background checks and harsher penalties for those in possession of unregistered firearms. In early 2020, DeWine received national attention for his COVID-19 response, ordering the closing of dine-in restaurant service and sporting events and delegated additional resources to elderly care facilities. He was reelected by a landslide 25% margin against Democratic nominee Nan Whaley, the former mayor of Dayton, in 2022.

Tina Kotek
Christine Kotek (born September 30, 1966) is an American politician serving as the 39th governor of Oregon since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Kotek served eight terms as the state representative from the 44th district of the Oregon House of Representatives from 2007 to 2022, as majority leader of the Oregon House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, and as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives from 2013 to 2022. She won the 2022 Oregon gubernatorial election, defeating Republican nominee Christine Drazan and independent candidate Betsy Johnson.As an openly lesbian woman, Kotek has made history several times through her electoral success. She became the first openly lesbian woman elected speaker of a U.S. state house in 2013, and was the longest-serving Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. In 2022, she became one of the first two openly lesbian women (alongside Maura Healey) and the third openly LGBT person (alongside Healey and after Kate Brown and Jared Polis) elected governor of a U.S. state, as well as the third woman elected governor of Oregon (after Barbara Roberts and Kate Brown).

Dan McKee
Daniel James McKee (born June 16, 1951) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 76th governor of Rhode Island since March 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as Rhode Island's 69th lieutenant governor from 2015 to 2021. Born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, McKee received his undergraduate degree from Assumption College and received his Master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School. He served on the Cumberland town council from 1992 to 1998 and as mayor of Cumberland twice, from 2000 to 2004 and from 2006 until 2014. McKee was elected lieutenant governor in 2014 and reelected in 2018. When Governor Gina Raimondo resigned upon being confirmed as United States Secretary of Commerce in 2021, McKee ascended to the governorship. He was elected to a full term in 2022.

Kristi Noem
Kristi Lynn Noem (; née Arnold; born November 30, 1971) is an American politician who became the 33rd governor of South Dakota in 2019. A member of the Republican Party, she was the U.S. representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district from 2011 to 2019, and a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives for the 6th district from 2007 to 2011. First elected governor in 2018, Noem is South Dakota's first female governor. During the 2018 election, she was endorsed by President Donald Trump. As governor, Noem rose to national prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic over her refusal to issue a statewide mandate to wear face masks.

Greg Abbott
Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 to 2015 and as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001. Abbott was the third Republican to serve as attorney general of Texas since the Reconstruction era. He was elected to that office with 57% of the vote in 2002 and reelected with 60% in 2006 and 64% in 2010, becoming the longest-serving Texas attorney general in state history, with 12 years of service. Before becoming attorney general, Abbott was a justice of the Texas Supreme Court, a position to which he was appointed in 1995 by then-governor George W. Bush. Abbott won a full term in 1998 with 60% of the vote. As attorney general, he successfully advocated for the Texas State Capitol to display the Ten Commandments in the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Perry, and unsuccessfully defended the state's ban on same-sex marriage. He was involved in numerous lawsuits against the Barack Obama administration, seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act and the administration's environmental regulations. Elected in 2014, Abbott is the first Texas governor and third governor of a U.S. state to use a wheelchair, the others being Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Wallace. As governor, Abbott supported the Donald Trump administration and has promoted a conservative agenda, including measures against abortion such as the Texas Heartbeat Act, lenient gun laws, opposition to illegal immigration, support for law enforcement funding, and election reform. In response to the power crisis following a February 2021 winter storm, Abbott called for reforms to Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and signed a bill requiring power plant weatherization. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, Abbott opposed implementing face mask and vaccine mandates, while blocking local governments, businesses, and other organizations from implementing their own.