The governor of Arizona is the

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. As the top elected official, the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

is the head of the

executive branch The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

of the Arizona state government and is charged with faithfully executing state laws. The governor has the power to either approve or

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

bills passed by the

Arizona State Legislature The Arizona State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Senate. Composed of 90 legislators, the ...

; to convene the legislature; and to grant

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

s, with the exception of cases of

impeachment Impeachment is a process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In Eur ...

. The governor is also the 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. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

. Arizona is one of the few states that currently does not have a governor's mansion or other

official residence An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...

. Twenty-four people have served as governor over 28 distinct terms. All of the repeat governors were in the state's earliest years, when

George W. P. Hunt George Wylie Paul Hunt (November 1, 1859 – December 24, 1934) was an American politician and businessman. He was the first governor of Arizona, serving a total of seven terms, along with President of the convention that wrote Arizona's con ...

and

Thomas Edward Campbell Thomas Edward Campbell (January 18, 1878 – March 1, 1944) was the List of Governors of Arizona, second governor of the state of Arizona, United States. He was the first United States Republican Party, Republican and first native-born governor ...

alternated as governor for 17 years and, after a two-year gap, Hunt served another term. One governor,

Evan Mecham Evan Mecham ( ; May 12, 1924 – February 21, 2008) was an American businessman and the List of governors of Arizona, 17th governor of Arizona, serving from January 5, 1987, until his Impeachment by state and territorial governments of the United ...

, was successfully impeached, and one,

Fife Symington John Fife Symington III (born August 12, 1945) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 19th governor of Arizona from 1991 until 1997. Symington, who is a member of the Republican Party, resigned from office in 1997 following ...

, resigned upon being convicted of a felony. The longest-serving governor was Hunt, who was elected seven times and served just under fourteen years. The longest single stint was that of

Bruce Babbitt Bruce Edward Babbitt (born June 27, 1938) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 47th United States secretary of the interior from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as the List of governors of Arizo ...

, who was elected to two four-year terms after succeeding to the office following the death of his predecessor,

Wesley Bolin Harvey Wesley Bolin (July 1, 1909 – March 4, 1978) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 15th governor of Arizona between 1977 and 1978. His five months in office mark the shortest term in office for any Arizona gover ...

, serving nearly nine years total. Bolin had the shortest tenure, dying less than five months after succeeding as governor. Arizona has had five female governors, the most in the United States, and was the first—and until 2019 (when

Michelle Lujan Grisham Michelle Lujan Grisham ( ; born October 24, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the List of governors of New Mexico, 32nd governor of New Mexico since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Lu ...

succeeded

Susana Martinez Susana Martinez (born July 14, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who served as List of governors of New Mexico, 31st governor of New Mexico from 2011 to 2019. A Republican Party (United States), Republican, she served as chair of the ...

in neighboring

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

) the ''only''—state where female governors served consecutively. The current governor as of January 2, 2023, is Democrat

Katie Hobbs Kathleen Marie Hobbs (born December 28, 1969) is an American politician serving since 2023 as the 24th governor of Arizona. A member of the Democratic Party, she was secretary of state of Arizona from 2019 to 2023 and a member of the Arizona Le ...

List of governors

Confederate Arizona

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

between April 2 and April 5, 1860, a convention of settlers from the southern half of

New Mexico Territory The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of '' Nuevo México'' becomi ...

drafted a provisional constitution for "Arizona Territory", three years before the United States would create such a territory. This proposed territory consisted of the part of New Mexico Territory south of 33° 40' north. On April 2, they elected a governor,

Lewis S. Owings Dr. Lewis S. Owings (September 6, 1820 – August 20, 1875) was an American politician, physician, and businessman from Tennessee who served as the 2nd Governor of Arizona Territory (Confederate), in exile, from 1862 to 1865. He had previo ...

. The provisional territory was to exist until such time as an official territory was created, but that proposal was rejected by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

at the time. On March 16, 1861, soon before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

broke out, a convention in Mesilla voted that the provisional territory should secede from the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Unio ...

and join the

Confederacy A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

. Lewis S. Owings remained on as the provisional governor of the territory. The Confederacy took ownership of the territory on August 1, 1861, when forces led by Lieutenant Colonel

John R. Baylor John Robert Baylor (July 27, 1822 – February 6, 1894) was a US Indian agent, publisher and editor, politician, and a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the Confederate States Army.

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...

was formally organized in the Confederacy on January 18, 1862. On March 20, 1862, Baylor issued an order to kill all the adult

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

and take their children into slavery. When

Confederate President The president of the Confederate States was the head of state and head of government of the unrecognized breakaway Confederate States. The president was the chief executive of the federal government and commander-in-chief of the Confederate Ar ...

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

learned of this order, he strongly disapproved and demanded an explanation. Baylor wrote a letter December 29, 1862, to justify his decision, and after this was received, Davis relieved Baylor of his post and commission, calling his letter an "avowal of an infamous crime". By that time, the Confederate government of Arizona Territory was

in exile In Exile may refer to: Film and television * ''In Exile'' (film) or ''Time Runner'', a 1993 science fiction film * ''In Exile'' (TV series), a 1998 UK sitcom Literature * "In Exile" (short story), an 1892 short story by Anton Chekhov *''In Exile'' ...

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, as the territory had been effectively lost to Union forces in July 1862; no new governor was appointed.

Territory of Arizona

was formed on February 24, 1863, from

, remaining a territory for 49 years.

State of Arizona

The state of Arizona was

admitted to the Union Admission to the Union is provided by the Admissions Clause of the United States Constitution in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1, which authorizes the United States Congress to admit new states into the Union beyond the thirteen states that a ...

on February 14, 1912, the last of the contiguous states to be admitted. The state constitution of 1912 called for the election of a governor every two years.AZ Const. art 5, § 1 The term was increased to four years by a 1968 amendment.Ralph E. Hughes v. Douglas K. Martin
(PDF), (Arizona Supreme Court 2002-08-20). “Nelson involved two allegedly conflicting amendments both approved by voters in the 1968 election, to Article 5 of the Arizona Constitution. ... The other amendment, proposition 104, extended the term of offices of the executive department, including the office of state auditor, from two years to four years.” The constitution originally included no term limit, but an amendment passed in 1992 allows governors to succeed themselves only once; before this, four governors were elected more than twice in a row. Gubernatorial terms begin on the first Monday in the January following the election. Governors who have served the two term limit can run again after four years out of office. Arizona is one of the few states which does not have a

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 ...

. Instead, in the event of a vacancy in the office of governor, the secretary of state, if elected, succeeds to the office. If the secretary of state was appointed rather than elected, or is otherwise ineligible to hold the office of governor, the next elected and eligible person in the line of succession assumes the office. The state constitution specifies the line of succession to be the Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction, in that order. If the governor is out of the state or impeached, the next elected officer in the line of succession becomes acting governor until the governor returns or is cleared. In either case, any partial term counts toward the limit of two consecutive terms. The line of succession has reached beyond the secretary of state only once, when Attorney General

became governor upon the death of

Rose Mofford Rose Mofford (née Perica; June 10, 1922September 15, 2016) was an American civil servant and politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 18th governor of Arizona from 1988 to 1991. Her career in state government spanned 51 years, beginn ...

had been appointed secretary of state to replace Bolin after Bolin succeeded to the governorship. Bolin had become governor when

Raúl Héctor Castro Raúl Héctor Castro (; June 12, 1916 – April 10, 2015) was a Mexican American politician, diplomat and judge. In 1964, Castro was selected to be United States Ambassador to El Salvador, U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, a position he held until ...

resigned to accept appointment as ambassador to Argentina. Mofford later became acting governor after

was impeached by the House of Representatives, and succeeded to the governorship when Mecham was removed from office after his conviction by the Senate. Starting with the 2026 election cycle, Arizona will have a lieutenant governor, pursuant to a 2022 amendment to the constitution. Nominees will be chosen by each party's gubernatorial nominee, with the governor and lieutenant governor then chosen by general election voters on a joint ticket. If the offices of governor and the lieutenant governor become vacant at the same time, the amended law provisions of the state constitution are that the secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer or the superintendent of public instruction will assume the office of governor and then appoint the lieutenant governor pending state legislative approval.

Timeline

Notes

References

;General * * * * * * * * * * * * ;Constitution * ;Specific

External links

Office of the Governor of Arizona
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arizona, List Of Governors Of Lists of state governors of the United States

Governors A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Political history of Arizona