U.S. Elects Historic Number of Black Governors
This article is published in collaboration with Statista
by Katharina Buchholz
While the counting of votes is still ongoing after Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, history has already been made as five Black governors will start their terms come January. This is a major increase in governors of color. Previously, only three had ever been elected and none of them had ever served simultaneously. Among the five newly elected and reelected candidates are four Democrats and one Republican.
Democrats had the upper hand this election cycle also in gubernatorial races, winning a majority of seats for the first time since 2009. Two more gubernatorial races, in Alaska and Kansas, haven't been called, but have no Black candidates.
Previously the only Black U.S. governor in office, Wes Moore was reelected in Maryland. He is joined by Dems. Aaron Ford in Nevada, David Crowley in Wisconsin and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia as well as Republican Byron Donalds in Florida.
Moore (48) beat Republican challenger Dan Cox for the second time to become the first Black governor Maryland elected and reelected. The U.S. Army veteran, bestselling author and former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation had never held elected office before his gubernatorial runs, but became the chair of the National Governors Association this August.
Aaron Ford (54) is Nevada's attorney general and a former state senator as well as a former state senate majority and minority leader, having first been elected in 2012. He is a lawyer and former public schoolteacher. David Crowley will become Wisconsin's youngest governor in almost a century. The 40-year-old political campaigner is a former state representative and current Milwaukee County executive. Keisha Lance Bottoms (56) is the country's first female Black governor and the first Democratic governor from Georgia in 24 years. She is a former judge, prosecutor, mayor of Atlanta and Biden administration senior advisor.
The only Republican of the bunch, Byron Donalds, will be the nation's first Black Republican governor. The 48-year-old former financial advisor and current U.S. Representative is a MAGA Republican and ran on a platform of continuing Ron DeSantis' policies.
In 1989, Douglas Wilder was the first Black person to be elected governor of a U.S. state, winning Virginia. He served one term and only in 2007, the next Black governor took office in Massachusetts. Deval Patrick served two terms until 2015, overlapping with one of three Black governors who ever ascended to the position without being directly elected. David Paterson served almost three years between 2008 and 2010 as governor of New York after the elected governor resigned. He was America's first legally blind governor.
Long before all of these governors, Oscar Dunn and P.B.S. Pinchback served as acting governors of Louisiana in the late 1800s. Both were lieutenant governors of the state and stood in for the governor during his absence due to sickness (then a usual course of action) and briefly after his impeachment, respectively.
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