WASHINGTON — It’s not unusual for popular, term-limited governors to try to keep their political careers going by running for the Senate. It’s much less common for senators to eye the governor’s mansion in their home states.
But this election cycle could potentially see three sitting senators running for governor — something that hasn’t happened in modern history.
GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach, opted against seeking a second Senate term and launched his 2026 bid for Alabama governor Tuesday. That came after Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who has served in the Senate for 16 years and briefly ran for president in 2020, announced his gubernatorial campaign last month. And in Tennessee, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn has said she is seriously considering a bid for governor.
Plus, on the other side of the Capitol, there are at least a dozen current members of the House who are already running or weighing a run for governor.
For members of Congress, trading the partisan gridlock of Washington — and the status of being one of 100, or one of 435 — for the top executive post in their home states can prove extremely alluring.
“Being in the Senate is an honor, and it’s a good job, it’s important. But I just think anybody you talk to who’s been a governor and a senator is going to tell you, being governor is really the best job,” said Republican Sen. John Hoeven, who served as North Dakota governor from 2000 to 2010 before winning a Senate seat.
“You’re the CEO. You set your agenda. You can work to effectuate it,” he added. “For all those reasons, I think that’s why people, given a choice, would want that job first.”
In making his announcement on Fox News this week, Tuberville said the best way he can help Alabama — and the country — is from the governor’s mansion.
“I’m a football coach. I’m a leader. I’m a builder. I’m a recruiter, and we’re going to grow Alabama,” Tuberville said. “We’re going to bring manufacturing to the state. We’re going to stop this illegal immigration. We’re going to make education better again, and we’re going to do everything possible to make sure our kids — when they graduate in this great state, the Yellowhammer State — that they stay in this state and work.”
Former governors club
Historically, it’s been much more common for sitting or former governors to run for the Senate, in part because governors often face term limits. According to an analysis by the political site Ballotpedia, 54 governors or ex-governors have run for the Senate since 1986. Senators only face re-election every six years and are not bound by term limits.
There are currently a dozen sitting senators who have served as governors of their states: Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both New Hampshire Democrats; Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats; John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.; Angus King, I-Maine; Jim Justice, R-W.V.; Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Jim Risch, R-Idaho; Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; and Hoeven of North Dakota.
Informally, they make up a former governors club, a bipartisan group that periodically gets together for dinner.
“There’s a camaraderie there, no question,” Hoeven said. “By nature, governors are more bipartisan because you got to work with your legislators to get something done. You got to work with both sides.”
He described serving in the Senate as being in a roomful of lawyers, while being governor is like being CEO of a company.
“As a senator — Republican or Democrat — you’re more of an advocate for your point of view, whereas as governor, you’ve got to bring people together,” Hoeven said.
By contrast, just more than a dozen sitting or former senators have run for governor since 1986, Ballotpedia found.
In 2024, then-Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican and former business executive, successfully ran for governor in Indiana, while former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, another Republican, won the governor’s race in New Hampshire. And in 2018, two former senators ran for governor: Republican Mike DeWine, a Republican, won in Ohio, while Democrat Mark Begich lost in Alaska. In 2015, then-Sen. David Vitter, a Republican, lost the governor’s race in Louisiana.
The last time there were at least three current or former senators running for governor was 2010, with then-Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and former Sens. Lincoln Chafee, I-R.I., and Mark Dayton, D-Minn., all winning their races. Then-Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, lost her gubernatorial prim to incumbent Rick Perry that year.
Why governors run for the Senate
Eric Ostermeier, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota, cited several factors that might explain why more governors tend to run for Senate, rather than the other way around.
Most plainly, he said, there are twice as many senators as there are governors, giving politicians more chances to get elected to the Senate than to a governor’s mansion.
Additionally, it may be easier for governors to successfully run for Senate because they’ve spent their careers focused on local and state-level politics, and tend to be popular. Those who’ve spent their political careers in Washington may be more polarizing to voters.
“Once a politician is elected to D.C., it can be much more challenging for that senator, for example, to shed their association with the national party,” Ostermeier said. “It’s more difficult to come back home and run for governor with clean partisan hands or, or [to] present yourself as a type of Democrat [or Republican] that is different than the national party.”
Ostermeier pointed to two former governors-turned-senators — Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who was once governor of Massachusetts, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat who served West Virginia as governor and later in the Senate — as figures who tried to buck their party in the Senate and were often met with criticism.
Manchin, who at the tail end of his career left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent, once quipped to GQ in a 2018 interview: “My worst day as governor was better than my best day as senator.”
But governors often make prime recruits for Senate campaigns. Even this year, rgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision not to run for Senate was seen as a blow to his party’s chances of winning a competitive Senate race next year. And Democrats are holding out hope that former Gov. Roy Cooper and current Gov. Janet Mills will enter Senate races in North Carolina and Maine, respectively.
According to Ostermeier’s analysis, since 2000, there have been eight U.S. senators who later went on to be elected governor, while 20 governors went on to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
And, he added, of the 12 senators since 1990 who have gone on to win gubernatorial races in their states, half of them have had a break between the end of their Senate terms and the start of their gubernatorial campaigns.
It’s “like a cooling off period,” Ostermeier said. “They were able to disassociate themselves” from their national party.
The House springboard to governor
The House has proven to be a much more common springboard to the governor’s mansion, and that’s been no exception this election cycle.
Two New Jersey Democrats, Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer, are competing in next month’s gubernatorial prim in the state. In the other major 2025 race this fall, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger is the Democrats’ de facto nominee in Virginia.
A bevy of sitting House members have already launched 2026 campaigns for governor, including Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa; Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; and John James, R-Mich.
And several more on considering gubernatorial bids, such as Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; Michael Lawler, R-N.Y.; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Nancy Mace, R-S.C.; John Rose, R-Tenn.; and Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.
“I’ve never met a former governor who doesn’t miss being a governor,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who briefly looked at a possible gubernatorial bid last year after incumbent Doug Burgum said he wouldn’t seek re-election. A House member, Republican Kelly Armstrong, ended up winning.
Unlike members of Congress, Cramer said, governors don’t have to hop on planes or trains to Washington each week and can spend more time with their families.
“You can sleep in your own bed every night,” he said.
