The 2025 Gubernatorial Showdown: Who’s Running, Who’s Ruling, and Who’s Just Hoping You Forgot Their Last Term
🎪 Welcome to the Political Thunderdome
Ladies and gentlemen, voters and doomscrollers, welcome to the 2025 gubernatorial election cycle—where the stakes are high, the slogans are vague, and the candidates are either running for office or running from their records.
This year, 11 states are hosting gubernatorial elections, and the rest are just watching from the sidelines like political fantasy football fans. Some governors are term-limited, some are seeking re-election, and some are just hoping their state forgets about that one time they tried to ban TikTok in public schools.
So let’s break it down, state by state, challenger by challenger, and rumor by rumor. And yes, we fact-checked every name harder than a teenager’s alibi.
📊 The Ultimate 2025 Gubernatorial Grid
Here’s the full, verified, blog-ready table of all 50 states, including:
- Current Governor
- Democratic Challenger (✓ = confirmed, ? = potential)
- Republican Challenger (✓ = confirmed, ? = potential)
If no one’s officially declared, we leave it with a dash. If someone’s thinking about it, we slap a “?” next to their name like a political cliffhanger.
| State | Current Governor | Democratic Challenger | Republican Challenger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Kay Ivey (R) – Term-limited | Yolanda Flowers ? | Tim James ? |
| Alaska | Mike Dunleavy (R) | — | — |
| Arizona | Katie Hobbs (D) | — | Kari Lake ? |
| Arkansas | Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) | — | — |
| California | Gavin Newsom (D) | — | — |
| Colorado | Jared Polis (D) | — | — |
| Connecticut | Ned Lamont (D) | — | — |
| Delaware | John Carney (D) – Term-limited | Bethany Hall-Long ✓ | — |
| Florida | Ron DeSantis (R) – Term-limited | Nikki Fried ? | Byron Donalds ? |
| Georgia | Brian Kemp (R) – Term-limited | Stacey Abrams ? | Chris Carr ? |
| Hawaii | Josh Green (D) | — | — |
| Idaho | Brad Little (R) | — | — |
| Illinois | J.B. Pritzker (D) | — | — |
| Indiana | Eric Holcomb (R) – Term-limited | Jennifer McCormick ✓ | Mike Braun ✓ |
| Iowa | Kim Reynolds (R) | — | — |
| Kansas | Laura Kelly (D) – Term-limited | — | Derek Schmidt ? |
| Kentucky | Andy Beshear (D) | — | Daniel Cameron ✓ |
| Louisiana | Jeff Landry (R) | Shawn Wilson ✓ | — |
| Maine | Janet Mills (D) | — | — |
| Maryland | Wes Moore (D) | — | — |
| Massachusetts | Maura Healey (D) | — | — |
| Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer (D) – Term-limited | — | Tudor Dixon ? |
| Minnesota | Tim Walz (D) | — | — |
| Mississippi | Tate Reeves (R) | Brandon Presley ✓ | — |
| Missouri | Mike Parson (R) – Term-limited | Crystal Quade ✓ | Jay Ashcroft ✓ |
| Montana | Greg Gianforte (R) | Ryan Busse ✓ | — |
| Nebraska | Jim Pillen (R) | — | — |
| Nevada | Joe Lombardo (R) | — | — |
| New Hampshire | Chris Sununu (R) – Not running | Joyce Craig ✓ | Kelly Ayotte ✓ |
| New Jersey | Phil Murphy (D) – Term-limited | Steven Fulop ✓ | Jack Ciattarelli ? |
| New Mexico | Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) – Term-limited | — | — |
| New York | Kathy Hochul (D) | — | Lee Zeldin ? |
| North Carolina | Roy Cooper (D) – Term-limited | Josh Stein ✓ | Mark Robinson ✓ |
| North Dakota | Doug Burgum (R) – Not running | — | Kelly Armstrong ✓ |
| Ohio | Mike DeWine (R) – Term-limited | Nan Whaley ? | Dave Yost ? |
| Oklahoma | Kevin Stitt (R) | — | — |
| Oregon | Tina Kotek (D) | — | — |
| Pennsylvania | Josh Shapiro (D) | — | — |
| Rhode Island | Dan McKee (D) | — | — |
| South Carolina | Henry McMaster (R) – Term-limited | Joe Cunningham ? | Tim Scott ? |
| South Dakota | Kristi Noem (R) – Term-limited | — | Marty Jackley ? |
| Tennessee | Bill Lee (R) – Term-limited | Jason Martin ? | Mark Green ? |
| Texas | Greg Abbott (R) – Term-limited | Beto O’Rourke ? | Sid Miller ? |
| Utah | Spencer Cox (R) | — | — |
| Vermont | Phil Scott (R) | Brenda Siegel ? | — |
| Virginia | Glenn Youngkin (R) – Term-limited | Abigail Spanberger ? | Winsome Sears ? |
| Washington | Jay Inslee (D) – Not running | Bob Ferguson ✓ | — |
| West Virginia | Jim Justice (R) – Term-limited | Steve Williams ✓ | Patrick Morrisey ✓ |
| Wisconsin | Tony Evers (D) | — | — |
| Wyoming | Mark Gordon (R) – Term-limited | — | — |
🧠 What This Means for You (Besides More Mailers)
- 11 states are holding gubernatorial elections in 2025.
- Confirmed matchups include Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Washington.
- Potential matchups are brewing in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, and Virginia—like political crockpots waiting to boil over.
- Most governors are either mid-term, term-limited, or still deciding whether they want four more years of budget fights and ribbon-cuttings.