Governor of Missouri

Missouri Governor
General information
Office Type:	Partisan
Office website:	Official Link
Term limits:	2 terms
Structure
Length of term:	4 years
Authority:	Missouri Constitution, Article IV, Section I the Executive Department
Selection Method:	Elected
Current Officeholder
Name:	Jay Nixon
Officeholder Party:	Democratic
Assumed office:	January 12, 2009
Compensation:	$133,821
Elections
Next election:	November 2016
Last election:	November 6, 2012
Other Missouri Executive Offices
Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General • Treasurer • Auditor • Commissioner of Education • Agriculture Director • Insurance Director • Natural Resources Director • Labor Director • Public Service Commission

The Governor of the State of Missouri is an elected Constitutional officer, the head of the Executive branch, and the highest state office in Missouri. The Governor is popularly elected every four years by a plurality and is limited to two terms.

Current officer

The 55th and current governor is Jay Nixon, a Democrat elected in 2008, and re-elected in 2012.

Authority

The state Constitution addresses the office of the governor in Article IV, the Executive Department.

Under Article IV, Section I:

The supreme executive power shall be vested in a governor.

Qualifications

Governors
Current Governors
Gubernatorial Elections
2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 Lists of candidates
Current Lt. Governors
Lt. Governor Elections
2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010
Breaking news

A candidate for governor must be:

• at least thirty years old
• a citizen of the United States for at least fifteen years
• a resident of Missouri for at least ten years

Elections

Missouri elects governors in the Presidential elections, that is, in leap years. For Missouri, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 are all gubernatorial election years. Legally, the gubernatorial inauguration is always set for the second Monday in the January following an election. Thus, January 14, 2013 and January 9, 2017 are inaugural days.

2012

• 2012 General Election for Governor of Missouri

On November 6, 2012, incumbent Jay Nixon defeated Dave Spence (R) and Jim Higgins (L) to win a second term as governor.

Governor of Missouri General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jay Nixon Incumbent	54.8%	1,494,056
	Republican	Dave Spence	42.5%	1,160,265
	Libertarian	Jim Higgins	2.7%	73,509
Total Votes				2,727,830
Election Results via Missouri Secretary of State.

Term limits

See also: States with gubernatorial term limits

Missouri governors are restricted to two terms in office during their lifetime.

Missouri Constitution, Article IV, Section 17

No person shall be elected governor...more than twice, and no person who has held the office of governor..., or acted as governor..., for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected to the office of governor or treasurer shall be elected to the office of governor...more than once.

Partisan composition

The chart below shows the partisan breakdown of Missouri State Governors from 1992-2013.

Vacancies

See also: How gubernatorial vacancies are filled

Details of vacancies are addressed under Article IV, Sections 11(a), (b), and (c).

Should a Governor-elect die before taking office, the Lieutenant Governor-elect shall be sworn in as the Governor. At any time that the sitting governor dies, resign, or is convicted or impeached, the [Lieutenant Governor of Missouri|Lieutenant Governor]] shall take over the office. Similarly in the case of a temporary or permanent disability, the Lieutenant Governor is first in the line of succession.

Regardless of the reason for the vacancy, the line of succession after the Lieutenant Governor is the same:

• the President Pro Tem of the Senate

• the Speaker of the House of Representatives

• the Secretary of State

• the State Auditor

• the State Treasurer

• the Attorney General

Whoever serves as Acting Governor shall have the full powers and emoluments of the office.

The Governor may state his temporary disability in writing to the Senate President Pro Tem and the Speaker of the House, at which point the governorship shall be vacant until the Governor indicates in writing to the same two officers that he is ready to resume the office.

A disability board made up of the same individuals in the line of succession as well as the Majority Floor Leaders in each chamber may convene to challenge a governor's declaration that is fit to resume office or initiate a hearing into the governor's fitness for office. If that board chooses to recommend the governor not discharge his office, they will deliver that decision to the President Pro Tem and the Speaker, who will in turn inform the Missouri Supreme Court.

The Court then convenes and has 21 days to reach a decision.

Any state officer who serves as Acting Governor is not considered to have vacated his office; that officer's chief administrative staffer shall discharge the office until the elected officer returns.

Duties

Missouri's governor is commander-in-chief of the state military forces in the state of Missouri. (§ 6) The governor appoints department heads and members of boards and commissions, including issuing, signing, and sealing the commission. (§ 5)

Additionally, the governor has power the to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses except treason and cases of impeachment. (§ 7) Specifically, the governor's pardon power does not include a power to parole.

Excepting bills to convene or adjourn and proposed Constitutional Amendments, all bills requiring the concurrence of both chambers must be presented to the Governor. (§ 8) In extraordinary circumstances, he may convene special sessions of the legislature. (§ 9)

At the start of each regular legislative session, at the end of the governor's term, and at other time she deems prudent, the governor shall address the legislature on the state of the state and make recommendations. (§ 9)

Other duties and privileges of the office include:

• Making all appointments not otherwise provided for by law (§ 4)

• Submitting a budget to the legislature within 30 days of the start of each session (§ 24)

• Exercising a line item veto on appropriations bills (§ 26) and reducing state expenditures in line with revenue (§ 27)

Compensation

Under Section 21, the governor's salary is fixed by law and, if changed, does not take effect during the current term. All fees must be paid in advance by the Treasurer. Former office holders are Constitutionally barred from making claims.

As of 2010, the Governor of Missouri is paid $133,821 a year, the 26th highest gubernatorial salary in America.

Former officeholders

Since 1820, Missouri has had 55 governors. There have been 38 Democrats, 9 Republicans, 3 Jeffersonian Republicans, 2 Union, 2 Radical Republicans and 1 Liberal Republican.

#	Name	Took office	Left office	Party
1	Alexander McNair	1820	1824	Jeffersonian Republican
2	Frederick Bates	1824	1825	Jeffersonian Republican
3	Abraham J. Williams	1825	1825	Jeffersonian Republican
4	John Miller	1825	1832	Democratic
5	Daniel Dunklin	1832	1836	Democratic
6	Lilburn W. Boggs	1836	1840	Democratic
7	Thomas Reynolds	1840	1844	Democratic
8	Meredith Miles Marmaduke	1844	1844	Democratic
9	John Cummins Edwards	1844	1848	Democratic
10	Austin Augustus King	1848	1853	Democratic
11	Sterling Price	1853	1857	Democratic
12	Trusten Polk	1857	1857	Democratic
13	Hancock Lee Jackson	1857	1857	Democratic
14	Robert Marcellus Stewart	1857	1861	Democratic
15	Claiborne Fox Jackson	1861	1861	Democratic
16	Hamilton Rowan Gamble	1861	1864	Union
17	Willard Preble Hall	1864	1865	Union
18	Thomas Clement Fletcher	1865	1869	Radical Republican
19	Joseph Washington McClurg	1869	1871	Radical Republican
20	Benjamin Gratz Brown	1871	1873	Liberal Republican
21	Silas Woodson	1873	1875	Democratic
22	Charles Henry Hardin	1875	1877	Democratic
23	John Smith Phelps	1877	1881	Democratic
24	Thomas Theodore Crittenden	1881	1885	Democratic
25	John Sappington Marmaduke	1885	1887	Democratic
26	Albert Pickett Morehouse	1887	1889	Democratic
27	David Rowland Francis	1889	1893	Democratic
28	William Joel Stone	1893	1897	Democratic
29	Lon Vest Stephens	1897	1901	Democratic
30	Alexander Monroe Dockery	1901	1905	Democratic
31	Joseph Wingate Folk	1905	1909	Democratic
32	Herbert Spencer Hadley	1909	1913	Republican
33	Elliott Woolfolk Major	1913	1917	Democratic
34	Frederick Dozier Gardner	1917	1921	Democratic
35	Arthur Mastick Hyde	1921	1925	Republican
36	Sam Aaron Baker	1925	1929	Republican
37	Henry Stewart Caulfield	1929	1933	Republican
38	Guy Brasfield Park	1933	1937	Democratic
39	Lloyd Crow Stark	1937	1941	Democratic
40	Forrest C. Donnell	1941	1945	Republican
41	Phil M. Donnelly	1945	1949	Democratic
42	Forrest Smith	1949	1953	Democratic
43	Phil M. Donnelly	1953	1957	Democratic
44	James T. Blair, Jr.	1957	1961	Democratic
45	John M. Dalton	1961	1965	Democratic
46	Warren E. Hearnes	1965	1973	Democratic
47	Christopher S. Bond	1973	1977	Republican
48	Joseph P. Teasdale	1977	1981	Democratic
49	Christopher S. Bond	1981	1985	Republican
50	John Ashcroft	1985	1993	Republican
51	Mel Carnahan	1993	2000	Democratic
52	Roger Wilson	2000	2001	Democratic
53	Bob Holden	2001	2005	Democratic
54	Matt Blunt	2005	2009	Republican
55	Jay Nixon	2009	Present	Democratic

History

Partisan balance 1992-2013

See also: Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States and Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States, Missouri’’

Partisan breakdown of the Missouri governorship from 1992-2013

From 1992-2013, in Missouri there were Democratic governors in office for 17 years, including the last five, while there were Republican governors in office for five years.

Across the country, there were 493 years of Democratic governors (44.82%) and 586 years of Republican governors (53.27%) from 1992-2013.

Over the course of the 22-year study, state governments became increasingly more partisan. At the outset of the study period (1992), 18 of the 49 states with partisan legislatures had single-party trifectas and 31 states had divided governments. In 2013, only 13 states have divided governments, while single-party trifectas held sway in 36 states, the most in the 22 years studied.

The chart below shows the partisan composition of the Office of the Governor of Missouri, the Missouri State Senate and the Missouri House of Representatives from 1992-2013.

Contact information

Office of the Governor, Missouri
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
(573) 751-3222   

See also

• Missouri Governor Jay Nixon
• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri
• Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder
• Missouri Attorney General
• Missouri Secretary of State

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Governor of Missouri