Which states had Democratic governors in 2025 and who are their governors?
Executive summary
There were 23 Democratic governors in the United States in 2025, a partisan tally reported by multiple nonpartisan trackers (MultiState, Ballotpedia) [1][2]. The year also saw two high‑profile 2025 gubernatorial contests — New Jersey and Virginia — won by Democrats Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, respectively [3][4].
1. The bottom line: how many Democratic governors in 2025 and where that figure comes from
Across authoritative trackers and election trackers, the partisan composition for governors in 2025 is reported as 23 Democrats and 27 Republicans; MultiState summarizes that count explicitly for 2025 (23 Democratic governors) [1], and Ballotpedia’s partisan‑composition page corroborates the 23/27 split for that period [2]. These aggregated counts reflect the snapshot of state chief executives before the handful of 2025 elections were resolved and are widely used by analysts to measure state partisan control [1][2].
2. Named Democratic governors visible in reporting and why they matter
Several Democratic governors are repeatedly named in reporting and demographic snapshots: Katie Hobbs (AZ), Maura Healey (MA), Janet Mills (ME), Gretchen Whitmer (MI), Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM), Kathy Hochul (NY), Tina Kotek (OR), and others are listed among the eight women Democratic governors cited by Rutgers’ Eagleton Center as of early 2025 [5]. That Rutgers compilation highlights gender and partisan composition to show that eight of the women governors were Democrats, underscoring both the party’s geographic reach and the prominence of women in gubernatorial offices in that cycle [5].
3. The two 2025 races that changed or reinforced partisan control
Only two states held gubernatorial elections in November 2025 — New Jersey and Virginia — and both produced Democratic victories: Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey’s governorship, preserving Democratic control there, and Abigail Spanberger won Virginia’s governorship, flipping that office from Republican to Democratic [3][4]. Ballotpedia and contemporary reporting note that Spanberger’s victory turned Virginia into a Democratic trifecta and that Sherrill kept New Jersey’s governorship in Democratic hands [4].
4. Discrepancies, timing and what to watch when compiling a full roster
Count discrepancies appear across sources depending on snapshot dates: some trackers update immediately after elections (showing a shift toward 24 Democrats going into 2026), while others present a pre‑election tally for 2025 [6][7]. The National Governors Association maintains an authoritative, updateable roster of sitting governors for each state and is recommended for a state‑by‑state list because many summary pages provide totals but not always a complete, dated roster in a single place [8].
5. What can’t be fully answered from the provided reporting
The supplied documents reliably establish the national total of Democratic governors in 2025 and identify several individual Democratic governors and the two 2025 winners, but they do not provide a single consolidated, dated list of all 23 Democratic governors and their states in-line within these snippets [1][5][2]. For a complete, verifiable state-by-state roster as of a precise date in 2025, the National Governors Association database or the full Ballotpedia roster page should be consulted directly [8][2].