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Lieutenant Governor office comparison
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The office of Lieutenant Governor is an elected statewide executive office in 43 states. Two states—Tennessee and West Virginia—bestow the title of lieutenant governor on senate presidents. The five states that do not have a lieutenant governor position include Maine, Arizona, Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Oregon.
In Alaska, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Utah, the position of lieutenant governor is equivalent to that of Secretary of State.
In the majority of the states with the position, the role and duties of the lieutenant governor are similar, with the main responsibility being to act as governor if the governor is absent from the office, and to succeed a governor who dies, resigns, or is removed from office.
However, beyond that, the duties of the office are often not explicitly laid out, resulting in the position being largely shaped by the governor and the officeholder. This page compares the office from state to state, examining similarities and differences such as how they win office, term limits, authority, salary, and duties.
Current officeholders
Political parties
The chart below is a breakdown of the political parties pertaining to the state executive office of the lieutenant governor. For other state executive offices, click here.
| Office |  Democratic
|
 Republican
|
 Independent
|
Vacant | Total seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State Lieutanant Governors | 20 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| Counts current as of September 2025 If you see an error, please email us | |||||
List of Current Lieutenant Governors
Note: In Hawaii, the lieutenant governor serves concurrently as the secretary of state. In Tennessee and West Virginia, the president of the Senate also serves as lieutenant governor and is elected from within the legislature.
Five states do not have a lieutenant governor position. Those states are: Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wyoming.
Salaries by state
The following table lists the salary reported for each state's lieutenant governor in the Book of the States going back to 2010. Darker shades of grey indicate higher salaries. To rank states by lieutenant gubernatorial salary for a given year, click the header for that year.
About the office
Elected or Appointed
Only two states do not have direct elections for lieutenant governor—Tennessee and West Virginia. In both states, whoever is elected the President of the State Senate is the de facto Lieutenant Governor. In Tennessee, the full title of this individual is, "Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate." West Virginia allows the Senate President to use the title, "Lieutenant Governor."[1]
Of the 43 states that elect lieutenant governors, there are three methods by which officeholders are chosen:
- on a single ticket in both the primary and general elections (20 states)
- Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin
- separately in the primary election; for the general election each party's ticket for Governor and Lt. Governor is made up of the highest vote-getters in the separate primary elections (6 states)
- Alaska, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania
- entirely separate elections for governor and lt. governor (17 states)
Qualifications
Qualifications for the office of lieutenant governor vary widely from state to state.
Minimum age
43 states have a formal provision specifying minimum age, while two states, Kansas and Massachusetts, have no formal provision.[2]
Of the 43 states:
- 29 designate an officeholder must be at least 30 years of age
- 6 require a minimum age of 25. These include Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, and West Virginia.
- 6 require a minimum age of 18. These include California, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
- 1, South Dakota, sets the limit at 21.
- 1, Oklahoma, sets the limit at 31.
State Citizen
31 states have a formal provision stating a lieutenant governor must be a state citizen, while 14 do not have a formal provision. Of the 31 states, 16 specify the number of years and 15 do not.[2]
States that specify the number of years as a state citizen:
- 2 years - Montana, Nevada
- 4 years - Vermont
- 5 years - Hawaii, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia
- 6 years - Kentucky
- 7 years - Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas
- 10 years - Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma
U.S. citizen
41 states have a formal provision stating a lieutenant governor must be a United States citizen, while four—Kansas, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and West Virginia—do not have a formal provision. Of the 41 states, 10 specify the number of years and 31 do not.[2]
States that specify the number of years as a United States citizen:
- 2 years - Iowa
- 5 years - Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina
- 7 years – Alaska
- 10 years – Alabama
- 12 years – Delaware
- 15 years – Missouri
- 20 years - Mississippi, New Jersey
State Resident
43 states have a formal provision stating a lieutenant governor must be a state resident, while two—Kansas and North Dakota—do not have a formal provision. Of the 43 states, 33 specify the number of years and 10 do not.[2]
States that specify the number of years as a state resident:
- 1 year - Minnesota,
- 2 years - Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, South Dakota
- 3 years - Illinois, Tennessee
- 4 years - Michigan, Vermont
- 5 years - California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia
- 6 years - Delaware
- 7 years - Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
- 10 years – Missouri
- 15 years – Georgia
Qualified Voter
30 states have a formal provision stating a lieutenant governor must be a qualified voter, while 15 do not have a formal provision. Of the 30 states, three specify the number of years and 27 do not.[2]
States that specify the number of years as a qualified voter:
Term Limits
- See also: State executives with term limits
Of the 43 Lieutenant Governors, 23 have term limits, while 20 do not. The two senate presidents (Tennessee and West Virginia) who are designated as lieutenant governors do not face legislative term limits but do serve two-year terms. Of the elected lieutenant governors, all serve four-year terms except for Vermont, who serves a two-year term.[3]
- 6 lieutenant governors are limited to serving two four-year terms. These include Arkansas, California, Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, and Oklahoma.
- 12 lieutenant governors are limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms, after which they must wait four years and/or one full term before being eligible again. These include Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and South Dakota.
- 4 lieutenant governors—Alaska, Florida, Mississippi, and Nebraska—are limited to two consecutive terms and must wait one term before being eligible to run again.
- 1 lieutenant governor, Montana, is limited to two terms in any 16 years.
Authority
All 43 elected lieutenant governors derive their authority from their state's Constitution. The majority of these were original state executive positions. Notable exceptions include:
- Established soon after the Civil War, the office of the lieutenant governor of Alabama was abolished with the 1875 Constitution and recreated in 1901.[4]
- The Alaska Lieutenant Governor/Secretary of State ballot question, passed by voters in 1970, amended the state Constitution to change the name of the secretary of state to the lieutenant governor, with all powers and duties remaining the same.
- The position of Arkansas lieutenant governor was established by a 1914 constitutional amendment, though the position was vacant until 1927 due to confusion over whether the amendment had been passed.[5]
- The New Jersey lieutenant governor took office for the first time in January 2010 following a conjoint election with the governor of New Jersey. The position was created as the result of a constitutional amendment to the New Jersey State Constitution passed by the voters on November 8, 2005, and effective as of January 17, 2006.
- The position of Utah secretary of state was abolished by the legislature and became the lieutenant governor in 1980.[6]
The two states where senate presidents are given the title of lieutenant governor are unique:
- The Tennessee Speaker of the Senate has been the successor to the Governor since the first state Constitution of 1796 but did not receive the title of lieutenant governor until the enactment of a statutory law in 1951.[7]
- Similarly, the office of lieutenant governor of West Virginia does not exist in the state's constitution. Legislation in 2000 bestowed the title on the Senate President. In 2011, then acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (R) submitted a constitutional amendment to the legislature that would have created a new elected state executive position of lieutenant governor. It did not make it to the ballot in 2012.[8]
Attempt to abolish the office in Illinois
On April 11, 2013, the Illinois House of Representatives approved a proposal seeking to eliminate the position of lieutenant governor by constitutional amendment. For the measure to be passed, it had to win the approval of both the state Senate and Illinois voters. If the proposal was approved in a statewide public vote, the office would have remained intact for one final term following the 2014 election.[9] There have been at least 10 attempts to eliminate the office since 1970, but David McSweeney's (R) was the first to be passed by the House.[10]
Duties
The powers and duties of lieutenant governors come from a variety of sources - gubernatorial appointment, statute, the Constitution, direct democracy action, and personal initiative.[11]
- All 43 elected lieutenant governors are the first in the line of succession to the governor's office. The two senate presidents in Tennessee and West Virginia, who are bestowed with the title of lieutenant governor, are the first in line. In the five states without lieutenant governors, the senate presidents in New Hampshire and Maine are the first, while the secretary of states in Arizona, Oregon, and Wyoming are first in line.[12]
- 27 lieutenant governors serve as President of the Senate. 24 have the power to break roll-call ties.
- 11 lieutenant governors appoint committees.
- 9 lieutenant governors have the power to assign bills.
- Governors in 26 states have the authority to assign duties to the lieutenant governor. In 26 states, the lieutenant governor serves as a member of the governor’s cabinet or advisory body.
- 29 lieutenant governors serve as acting the governor when the governor is out of the state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Issuu, "The Book of the States 2021," accessed September 22, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Issuu, "The Book of the States 2021, Table 4.13 - Lieutenant Governors: Qualifications and Terms," accessed September 22, 2022
- ↑ Issuu, "The Book of the States 2021, Table 4.13 - Lieutenant Governors: Qualifications and Terms," accessed September 22, 2022
- ↑ Alabama Department of Archives and History, " Alabama Lieutenant Governors," accessed October 22, 2013
- ↑ Arkansas Lieutenant Governor, " Office History," accessed October 22, 2013
- ↑ Utah Department of Administrative Services, " Governor – Agency History #446," accessed October 22, 2013
- ↑ Lexis-Nexis, "Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-2-101," accessed December 28, 2012
- ↑ Register Herald, "Tomblin proposes lieutenant governor," February 22, 2011
- ↑ The Chicago Tribune, "House votes to eliminate lieutenant governor post," April 12, 2013
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "A job nobody would miss: Illinois lieutenant governor," April 29, 2013
- ↑ Issuu, "The Book of the States 2021, Table 4.14 - Lieutenant Governors: Powers and Duties," accessed September 22, 2022
- ↑ The Council of State Governments, "Lieutenant Governors and the Role of Succession," July 1, 2011
