A record five Black governors will serve at the same time beginning in January, a historic milestone after Tuesday's midterm elections nearly doubled the number of Black Americans ever elected governor in the United States.
Before this election, only three Black Americans had ever been elected governor: Doug Wilder in Virginia in 1989, Deval Patrick in Massachusetts in 2006 and Wes Moore in Maryland in 2022. Never had two elected Black governors served at the same time. On Election Day, four Black gubernatorial candidates broke barriers in their states, joining Moore, who won reelection.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, made history as Georgia's first Black governor and the first Black woman ever elected governor of any state, defeating Republican Rick Jackson and ending Republicans' 24-year hold on the Georgia governor's office.
Democrat David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, defeated Republican Representative Tom Tiffany to become Wisconsin's first Black governor. In Nevada, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford defeated incumbent Republican Governor Joe Lombardo to become that state's first Black governor, and the first Black governor of any state west of the Mississippi River. Republican Representative Byron Donalds dodged the Election Day Democratic wave to become Florida's first Black governor, and the first Black Republican ever elected governor in the United States.
Moore, who spent four years as the only Black governor in the country after his 2022 election in Maryland, won a second term and will no longer hold that distinction alone. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the results raise the total number of Black Americans ever elected governor from three to seven.
The five victories stretch across regions and party lines, from Georgia and Florida to Nevada and Wisconsin, and they came alongside a record number of women winning governors' offices: at least 17 women, 14 Democrats and three Republicans, are expected to serve as governors in 2027, according to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics.
