Lieutenant gubernatorial elections, 2027

	« 2026
	State Executive Officials
	State executive elections by position and year:
	Select a position:GubernatorialLieutenant gubernatorialAttorney GeneralSecretary of StateState executive officialSelect year:2025202420232022202120202019201820172016201520142013201220112010Reset

There are three lieutenant gubernatorial seats on the ballot in 2027. These elections are in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Explore Ballotpedia's coverage of these elections:

Partisan balance
The partisan balance of U.S. lieutenant governors
Read more
On the ballot
A list of elections and candidates on the ballot
Read more
About the office
Information about lieutenant governors across all 50 states
Read more

Partisan balance

The following chart displays the number of lieutenant governors' offices held by each party before and after the 2027 elections.

U.S. lieutenant governors partisan breakdown
Party	As of October 2025	After the 2027 elections
Democratic	20	TBD
Republican	25	TBD
Total	45	45

The chart below shows historical partisan breakdown information for lieutenant governors.

On the ballot

Click the tabs below to view information about the elections this year. In this section, you will find:

A list of seats up for election
A list of candidates running
Ballotpedia's Sample Ballot Lookup Tool

Seats up for election

List of candidates

What's on your ballot?

There are three lieutenant gubernatorial seats on the ballot in 2027. These elections are in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

The table below contains a list of all candidates for lieutenant governor in 2027. The table is fully searchable by candidate, party and candidacy status. Depending on the size of your screen, you'll either see a menu to the left of the table or an arrow at the top right corner, which you can use to select a state.

Kentucky Lieutenant governor Candidates - 2027
candidate	party	office	status
No candidates available for this race		Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky

Louisiana Lieutenant governor Candidates - 2027
candidate	party	office	status
No candidates available for this race		Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana

Mississippi Lieutenant governor Candidates - 2027
candidate	party	office	status
No candidates available for this race		Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi

About the office

See also: Lieutenant Governor (state executive office)

In the United States, the office of lieutenant governor is the second-highest executive office in a state and is nominally subordinate to the governor. In the U.S., the main duty of the lieutenant governor is to act as governor should the governor be temporarily absent from the office. In addition, the lieutenant governor generally succeeds a governor who dies, resigns or is removed in trial by the legislative branch. In most states, the lieutenant governor then becomes governor, with the title and its associated salary, office, and privileges. In a few states, like Massachusetts, the lieutenant governor instead becomes "acting governor" until the next election.

Other than this primary constitutional duty, most state constitutions do not prescribe the duties of the lieutenant governor in detail.

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.

As of 2025, five states did not have a lieutenant governor position: Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wyoming.

Selection process

Partisan affiliation

Compensation

Vacancy fill methods

Legislative powers

Gubernatorial delegation

Acting governor

Term limits

In 26 states, the lieutenant governor is selected on a ticket with the governor, meaning that lieutenant gubernatorial candidates serve as running mates to gubernatorial candidates, with the winning gubernatorial candidate's running mate becoming lieutenant governor. In eight of these states, there are separate primaries for governor and lieutenant governor, with the winning candidate in each primary appearing on the general election ticket. In the remaining 18 states, gubernatorial candidates may pick their own running mates in a similar fashion to presidential candidates. In 17 states, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor. In Tennessee and West Virginia, the title of lieutenant governor is given to the president of the state Senate.^[1]

Lt. gov. nominated in separate primary and elected in separate general election (17): Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington
Lt. gov. nominated in separate primary but runs on a single ticket with gubernatorial nominee in general election (7): Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
Lt. gov. chosen by gubernatorial candidate before primary and runs on a single ticket with gubernatorial candidate in both the primary and general election (9): Alaska, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah
Lt. gov. chosen by gubernatorial nominee after primary and runs on a single ticket with gubernatorial nominee in the general election (10): Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Carolina, South Dakota
Lt. gov. is a member of the legislature (2): Tennessee, West Virginia
Lt. gov. office does not exist in state (5): Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Wyoming