Does anyone know who the longest serving Governor in United States history was?
Everyone can name U.S. Representatives and Senators who have spent decades in office, but I can hardly think of any Governors who have much more than ten years in office. Why might this be (personally, I think it’d be a fun job: you’d get to give out pardons, award the Governor’s Cup, veto legislation)?
And last of all, has a state ever called it’s chief executive something other than Governor? I mean, aside from assorted terms of derision like “horse’s ass.”
Some cities have a mayor, others have a city manager; has a state sent a President to the Governor’s Mansion?
The chief executive of New Hampshire was titled “president” until 1792. The last president of New Hampshire was Josiah Bartlett (whose fictitious descendant and almost-namesake, who spells his surname with a single “t,” serves as President of the United States on “The West Wing”):
George Clinton, nicknamed the “Old Incumbent”, was governor of New York for 21 years (1777-1795; 1801-1804), before serving two terms as Vice-President of the United States (1805-1812). Don’t know if that’s the record or not.
In the 20th century, George Wallace was Governor of Alabama from 1962 to 1966, 1970 to 1978, and 1982 to 1986, and also ran the state from 1966 to 1968 with his wife as a front, making around 17 and a half years in power. Rhoads of Ohio also lasted forever in the Governorship, serving from 1962 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1982.
Boy, those Clintons will do anything to hold on to power! 
Zev Steinhardt
Bill Clinton is certainly up there in the number of times elected as governor - 6 two-year terms. He lost his first reelection bid, then served elected five times.
The National Governors Association website has all sorts of fun governor trivia:
So George Clinton seems to be the winner and term limits in most states may let him keep that title.
In addition to being governor, George Clinton ran Parliament and also had a term described as “Funkadelic”.
My favorite piece of US Governor trivia is the case of James and Miriam Ferguson of Texas,often referred to as Pa and Ma.
“Pa” was such a crook, he was impeached by his own party and tossed out of office. So “Ma” was elected in 1924 and 1932. You got to love those Texas voters.
George Clinton, as noted, holds the records for both consecutive (18 years) and overall (21 years) gubernatorial service. It’s no joke that he’d do anything to stay in office. When the election of 1792 went against him, he had returns from three opposition counties thrown out on a ridiculous technicality. He was rewarded for his talents with two terms as Vice President, and died in that office.
Bill Clinton was elected five times as Governor of Arkansas, in 1978, 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1990. His infamous predecessor Orval Faubus won six two-year terms. That isn’t the record, however. Between the Revolution and the Civil War, the New England states had one-year terms for their governors. That made it easy to rack up a huge number of election victories in a hurry. The record is held by one Arthur Fenner, who won 16 consecutive one-year terms as Governor of Rhode Island between 1790 and 1805.
Long-serving governors in recent times have included Nelson Rockefeller (15 years, consecutive) and the aforementioned James Rhodes (16 years, non-consecutive). More than half of the states have gubernatorial term limits, although, unlike the 22nd Amendment, they usually restrict only consecutive and not non-consecutive service.
New York was awfully progressive. One Nation Under a Groove, cool…
They tore the roof off the sucker…
Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication
Way cool