The governor is the head of the executive branch of state government. He or she is popularly elected, serving in most cases for a term of four years. The timing of governors’ elections varies; some are elected in the same year as presidential elections, while others are elected in the mid-term elections that take place halfway through a presidential term of office.

Although the original intent in establishing state governments was that governors should enjoy powers within their states broadly analogous to that of the president, in fact there are substantial restrictions on governors’ powers. Many aspects of governance for which they are nominally responsible, including education, public health and welfare, are also supervised by federal agencies that can override the governors’ powers.

Governors, like presidents, are also answerable to their state Senates and Houses of Representatives. In some cases, governors of states that have large urban centers with powerful mayors find their writ is limited with regard to the latter; the governor of New York, for example, is arguably less powerful than the mayor of New York City who is nominally subordinate to him. The early practice of locating state capitals in relatively minor towns (such as Albany in New York, Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, or Sacramento in California) can also serve to increase governors’ isolation from the main currents of affairs in their states.

Despite this, many governors do have significant impact on their states. Michael Dukakis’ term as governor of Massachusetts saw important reforms affecting legal and social issues, while in Texas George W. Bush’s program of “caring conservatism” has claimed a similar impact.

Until comparatively recently most presidents of the United States came from the ranks of the Washington, DC elite, with most having served previously as senators, members of Congress or vice-presidents; this was the case with, for example, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. More recently however, successful governors have increasingly used their position as a platform for presidential ambitions. Gerald Ford and George Bush are the only recent presidents not to have been governors. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter (Georgia), Ronald Reagan (California), and Bill Clinton (Arkansas) all came from state rather than national politics. Michael Dukakis, Bush’s unsuccessful Democratic opponent in 1988, was also Governor of Massachusetts. The majority of candidates seeking their party’s nomination for the presidency in the last two decades have also been governors or former governors; other powerful governors such as Mario Cuomo have been pressed to stand, but have refused. George W. Bush (son of the former president) parlayed the weak governorship of Texas into a platform from which he became Republican presidential nominee in 1999. Among those discussed to balance the ticket was yet another governor, Tom Ridge of Pennsyl Governors of wealthy high-population states such as California, Texas, Massachusetts and New Jersey are often influential figures on the national scene, but many of those in the smaller states in the Midwest and West are all but unknown outside their own state.

The election of a former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura, as governor of Minnesota was one of the few events in state politics to make national headlines in 1998.