Gubernatorial lines of succession in the United States

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The following is the planned order of succession for the governorships of the 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and the five organized territories of the United States, according to the constitutions (and supplemental laws, if any) of each.^[1] Some states make a distinction whether the succeeding individual is acting as governor or becomes governor.

From 1980 to 1999, there were 13 successions of governorships. From 2000 to 2019 this number increased to 29.^[2] The only instance since at least 1980 in which the second in line reached a state governorship was on January 8, 2002, when New Jersey Attorney General John Farmer Jr. acted as governor for 90 minutes between Donald DiFrancesco and John O. Bennett's terms in that capacity as president of the Senate following governor Christine Todd Whitman's resignation.^[3] In 2019, Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico Wanda Vázquez Garced became governor when both the governor and secretary of state resigned in Telegramgate.

From 1945 to 2016, 39 of those who succeeded to the governorship ran for and won election to a full term.^[4]

^ "States' Lines of Succession of Gubernatorial Powers" (PDF). National Lieutenant Governors Association. May 2011.
^ "Chart of Gubernatorial Successions" (PDF). National Lieutenant Governors Association. June 2018.
^ Staff. "N.J.'S LINE OF SUCCESSION / A SIMPLE FIX", The Press of Atlantic City, November 11, 2002. Retrieved June 22, 2012. "Thanks to an unusual set of circumstances and a flaw in the state constitution, New Jersey had five different governors over eight days at the beginning of the year. Even for New Jersey, this was pretty bizarre."
^ "Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball » Stepping Up: How Governors Who Have Succeeded to the Top Job Have Performed Over the Years". centerforpolitics.org. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 2019-11-23.