Dem
51
GOP
49
A future president might have been in a New Orleans hotel ballroom last Saturday. That's where and when the Democratic Governors Association met. Democrats did very well in the gubernatorial battles, holding all but one of their incumbents (Steve Sisolak lost in Nevada), holding all their open seats, and flipping three Republican open seats. Moreover, many of them are quite young. Some of them undoubtedly have a big future in national politics. Below is a list of all the Democratic governors once the new class is sworn in come January. An asterisk indictates an incumbent who was reelected. The last column shows whether the governor was up for (re)election last month. The list is sorted on age.
| State | Governor(-elect) | Age | 2022? |
| Maryland | Wes Moore | 44 | Yes |
| Kentucky | Andy Beshear | 45 | No |
| Colorado | Jared Polis* | 47 | Yes |
| Pennsylvania | Josh Shapiro | 49 | Yes |
| Massachusetts | Maura Healey | 51 | Yes |
| Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer* | 51 | Yes |
| Arizona | Katie Hobbs | 52 | Yes |
| Hawaii | Josh Green* | 52 | Yes |
| California | Gavin Newsom* | 55 | Yes |
| Louisiana | John Bel Edwards | 56 | No |
| Oregon | Tina Kotek | 56 | Yes |
| Illinois | J.B. Pritzker* | 57 | Yes |
| Minnesota | Tim Walz* | 58 | Yes |
| New Mexico | Michelle Lujan Grisham* | 63 | Yes |
| New York | Kathy Hochul* | 64 | Yes |
| New Jersey | Phil Murphy | 65 | No |
| North Carolina | Roy Cooper | 65 | No |
| Delaware | John Carney | 66 | No |
| Connecticut | Ned Lamont* | 68 | Yes |
| Washington | Jay Inslee | 71 | No |
| Rhode Island | Daniel McKee* | 71 | Yes |
| Wisconsin | Tony Evers* | 71 | Yes |
| Kansas | Laura Kelly | 72 | Yes |
| Maine | Janet Mills | 74 | Yes |
The first thing to note is that four of the governors are under 50 and 13 are under 60. If Joe Biden decides not to run after all and the Democrats want to go for a new generation, there is plenty of material in the governors' mansions. And in 2028, some of them might try for a big promotion.
The group is quite diverse. Eight are women. Three are gay (Healey, Kotek, and Polis). One is Black (Moore). One is Jewish (Shapiro). None are gay Black Jews, however. Of the 24 Democratic governors, only 11 are straight white Christian men. That's probably an all-time low for either party. Democrats are clearly betting on a young, diverse next generation.
Some of the newcomers won by historic margins. Shapiro was the first gubernatorial candidate in the state's history to clear 3 million votes. Moore won by a historic margin, even for blue Maryland. He's the son of immigrants and won the veterans' vote, which is rare for any Democrat. (V)