MANAGEMENT UPDATE.

WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE NEWLY ELECTED GOVERNORS

On the surface, there weren’t a lot of surprises in the outcomes of the 11 gubernatorial elections last week, but there were certainly a number of facts that have gone largely unnoticed. We at Barrett and Greene, Inc. have dug deep into the results and following are a list of our favorite factoids. We took a similar look at the nine governors who were elected in 2022, in a B&G Report titled “Nine New Governors and a Generational Shift”.

But first the most basic news: The three Republican incumbents who were running for reelection – Phil Scott in Vermont; Greg Gianforte in Montana, and Utah’s Spencer Cox – all won a second term easily.

Of the eight races that involved new candidates, the narrowest margin of victory – in New Hampshire – still gave Republican Kelly Ayotte a 9-percentage point margin over Democratic opponent Joyce Craig.

In the end no state had a switch of political party. But there are still some significant differences between the outgoing governors and the ones who will be replacing them

Read on for our observations:

This election adds one new woman to the top state role, which means that in 2025, the nation will have a record number of 13 female governors. (This would have been the case, whoever won in New Hampshire as both major party candidates were women).

After the new governors are sworn in early next year, the ranks of Baby Boomer governors (those born between 1946 and 1964) will be reduced by six. That brings the percentage of Baby Boomer state top leaders to fewer than half in 2025. (Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was born in 1982 and was elected governor of Arkansas in 2022, remains the only gubernatorial Milennial and Alabama’s Kay Ivey, born in 1944, remains the only governor whose birth year precedes the Baby Boom generation.)

The age of the eight new governors elected in 2024 was slightly older (average age 58) than the batch elected in November 2022 (average age 52). Two of the recent electees are baby boomers themselves – Michael Lee Kehoe of Missouri and Mike Braun of Indiana. (Braun is 14 years older than Eric Holcomb the governor he will replace).

Of the eight new governors elected this year, three were born outside of the state they will lead. Two of these, Matt Meyer, governor-elect of Delaware and Josh Stein, governor-elect of North Carolina, have spent their childhoods and most of their lives respectively in Delaware and North Carolina. Patrick Morrisey, governor-elect of West Virginia, was born in New York, lived and worked in New Jersey; moved to West Virginia in 2006, and worked as a lawyer in Washington D.C. from 2004 through 2012, when he successfully ran for attorney general in West Virginia.

All of the eight outgoing governors were born in the states they currently lead.

The professions of the eight governors-elect are less diverse than the ones they will be replacing. Six out of the eight are lawyers and two come from the business world.

Of the eight outgoing governors, three were lawyers and the others had a combination of past experience in business, politics, consulting, the military, and law enforcement.

All eight of the new governors have previously held elected office at the federal state or local level. Four of them have been attorneys general for their state. That role directly preceded this year’s run for governor for Washington’s Bob Ferguson; North Carolina’s Josh Stein and West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey. New Hampshire’s Ayotte was that state’s AG from 2004 to 2009, prior to serving in the U.S. Senate from January 2011 to January 2017.

While many AGs in the past have considered moving into the top spot, that route to higher leadership was less common than appears to be the case now. In 2010, the Center for Politics research noted that of the 250 State AGs that had held that office between 1984 and 2010, only 28– or 11% -- eventually became governor. In contrast, of the individuals who held a lieutenant governor position during the same time frame, 22% became governor.

In 2024, Michael Lee Kehoe in Missouri is the only governor- elect who was previously lieutenant governor. Of the eight outgoing governors, three had served as lieutenant governor, and one – North Carolina’s Roy Cooper – had held the AG position.

For more details about the nation’s current governors, see our Guide to the Governors in our resources section. After they are inaugurated in January, you’ll be able to find similar details about the new governors.

For the record, the recently-elected governors are: