Republican Governors

The American Presidency was limited in allowable terms of office by the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution in 1951, after passage by Congress in 1947, two years after Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to a fourth term in the White House, died 82 days into that fourth term.

So even popular Presidents such as Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s, Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and Barack Obama in the 2010s, could not have returned to the Presidency at any point after their two terms in office.

The issue of term limits also affects state governorships, as 23 states limit governors to two terms maximum consecutive terms. Three other states allow a return after one four year term away from the governorship, and one allows a return after two four year terms away from the governorship. And nine states have a lifetime limit of two terms.

So a total of 36 states limit gubernatorial terms in some form. And one state (Virginia) limits any governor to one term.

So only 13 states have no term limits, including Vermont and New Hampshire, which have terms of two years, not four years!

So when one analyzes these realities, it means governors such as the following, would have to be considered potential Presidential contenders in the future!

Ron DeSantis of Florida
Jared Polis of Colorado
Gavin Newsom of California
Brian Kemp of Georgia
Andy Beshear of Kentucky
Wes Moore of Maryland
Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan
Phil Murphy of New Jersey
Roy Cooper of North Carolina
Doub Burgum of North Dakota
Mike DeWine of Ohio
Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania
Kristi Noem of South Dakota
Glenn Youngkin of Virginia

All of the above 14, 6 Republicans and 8 Democrats, would be out of the governorship, or finishing a second term by the time of the Presidential Election of 2028.

Besides Republicans DeSantis and Burgum, who are already seeking the Presidency, there are strong rumors that other Republican Governors, Youngkin and Noem, might enter the race belatedly, and Kemp and DeWine are long shots for now or 2028!

And certainly, Democrats on this list are not running in 2024, due to Joe Biden, but certainly, it would seem likely that Polis, Newsom, Moore, Whitmer, Murphy, and Shapiro are all likely to plan to run in 2028. Less likely would be Beshear and Cooper, but being from states that Democrats have more difficulty winning, who can say they would not enter the race for President in 2028?