The

governor of Maryland The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

is the

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...

of the U.S. state of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

and is commander-in-chief of the state's

military forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinc ...

. The governor is the highest-ranking official in the state, and the constitutional powers of Maryland's governors make them among the most powerful governors in the United States. Since the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

(1775–1783), Maryland has had four state

constitutions A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these prin ...

that have specified different terms of office and methods of selection of its governors. Under the constitution of 1776, governors were appointed by the General Assembly legislature to one-year terms and could be reelected for two additional terms.Dozer, Donald Marquand (1976). ''Portrait of the Free State: A History of Maryland''. Cambridge, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers. . An 1838 constitutional amendment allowed the direct election of governors to 3-year terms, although the governors came from rotating election districts of regions. The terms were lengthened to four years in the 1851 Constitution and election districts were abolished in the 1864 version. Since then, under the current heavily amended

Maryland Constitution of 1867 The current Constitution of the State of Maryland, which was ratified by the people of the state on September 18, 1867, forms the basic law for the U.S. state of Maryland. It replaced the short-lived Maryland Constitution of 1864 and is the fourt ...

governors have been elected by the entire state of Maryland for a four-year term. Maryland governors are limited to two consecutive terms, making former two-term governors eligible to run after four years out of office.

Thomas Sim Lee Thomas Sim Lee (October 29, 1745 – November 9, 1819) was an American planter and statesman of Frederick County, Maryland. Although not a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation or the U.S. Constitution, he ...

, Daniel Martin, and

Robert Bowie Robert Bowie (March 1750 – January 8, 1818) served as the 11th Governor of the state of Maryland in the United States, from 1803 to 1806, and from 1811 to 1812. He was the third child born to Captain William Bowie and Margaret Sprigg, at ...

have served non-consecutive terms as Governor of Maryland.

Albert C. Ritchie Albert Cabell Ritchie (August 29, 1876 – February 24, 1936) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat, he was the 49th governor of Maryland from 1920 to 1935. Ritchie was a conservative who campaigned for, but did not win, the presid ...

holds the record of Maryland's longest-serving governor with almost 15 years of service (1920–1935). Maryland has never yet had a female governor although four have been nominated by their parties since 1974. One woman,

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend (born July 4, 1951) is an American attorney who was the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Maryland in 2002. She was the first female lieutenant ...

, served as

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

under Parris Glendening from 1995 to 2003. The current governor is Republican

Larry Hogan Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr. (born May 25, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 62nd governor of Maryland since 2015. A moderate member of the Republican Party, he was secretary of appointments under Maryland governor Bo ...

, who took office on January 21, 2015.

Governors

Succession

References

External links

Governors of Maryland
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maryland, List Of Governors Of Lists of state governors of the United States * Governors

Governors

Succession

See also

References

External links