Black governors: election and succession

NPR reports that Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor, while Byron Donalds and David Crowley won Florida and Wisconsin’s first Black governorships. These are election milestones; taking office is a separate step. ^[1]

In Nevada, KUNR reports Aaron Ford defeated incumbent Joe Lombardo, citing an Associated Press race call. Ford had already broken barriers as Nevada’s attorney general and Senate majority leader. ^[2]

The distinction between election and succession reaches back to Reconstruction. Republican P. B. S. Pinchback became Louisiana’s acting governor on December 9, 1872, when impeachment suspended Henry Clay Warmoth. He was not elected governor. ^[3]

Pinchback’s subsequent Senate claim remained contested until its rejection in 1876. The Senate’s historical account connects that struggle to violence against Black voters and the retreat from federal protection of their political rights. ^[3]

Virginia’s Douglas Wilder reached a different milestone in 1989: the first Black person elected governor of a state. His path ran through the state Senate and lieutenant governorship, offices he won before the gubernatorial election. ^[4]

Deval Patrick later became the second Black person elected governor, as a 2007 Senate resolution records. That category describes an electoral breakthrough, rather than erasing Pinchback’s earlier service through succession. ^[5]

Maryland’s archives record Wes Moore’s election as its first Black governor in 2022 and his service beginning January 18, 2023. Those dates distinguish winning an election from exercising the office; they do not establish a 2026 reelection result. ^[6]

About this item: Retrospective report. No first-hand reporting or independent testing is claimed. Corrections policy.