--- title: America Will Have a Record 17 Women Governors in 2027, as Women Lose Seats in the Senate description: At least 17 women will serve as US governors in 2027, a record. Every first from the 2026 midterms, and why women lose seats in the Senate. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-05T08:30:00.041Z updated: 2026-11-05T08:30:00.047Z canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/women-governors-2027-record image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-29583141.webp categories: Female leadership, Culture & Society content_type: Analysis region: United States publication: Rich Woman Magazine schema_type: Article --- When America's new governors are sworn in next January, at least 17 of the 50 states will be led by a woman, according to the latest count from the [Center for American Women and Politics](https://cawp.rutgers.edu/blog/results-women-congressional-and-statewide-executive-candidates-election-2026) (CAWP) at Rutgers University. That is the highest number in American history. The previous record of 14 was set in 2025, and 14 women hold the office today. The figure could still reach 18. In Kansas, Democrat Cindy Holscher led Republican Ty Masterson by 50.3 per cent to 49.7 per cent with about 98 per cent of the vote counted, according to The Associated Press, and she has claimed victory. The race had not been called by Wednesday evening. In Alaska, Republican Bernadette Wilson was running second behind Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins with about three quarters of the vote counted. Our [election night report](https://richwoman.co/article/midterms-2026-democrats-win-what-it-means-for-women) covers how Democrats won both chambers of Congress. This piece is the running count of the women who will hold power from January, and we will update it as the last races are called. ## Record Number of Women Governors in 2027 Fifteen women won races for governor on 3rd November, 12 Democrats and three Republicans. With two Democratic women governors who were not on the ballot this year, that makes at least 17, or 34 per cent of all governors, up from 28 per cent today. Six of the winners were women already in office and re-elected. Eight won open seats. One beat a sitting governor: in Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Greg Abbott. No woman governor lost her seat. The gain belongs almost entirely to one party. Democratic women will hold at least 14 governorships, against a previous record of 10. Republican women governors fall from four to three. ## First Black Woman and First Native American Woman Governors Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, won the race for governor of Georgia, according to a race call by The Associated Press. She defeated Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care executive, and becomes the first Black woman elected governor of any American state. She is also the first woman to lead Georgia and the first Democrat to win the office in more than two decades. All 83 of the state's previous governors were white men. In New Mexico, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo, beat Republican Gregg Hull, the former mayor of Rio Rancho, to become the first Native American woman to serve as a governor. In 2018 she was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress, and in 2021 she became the first Native American cabinet secretary. 'I stand before you as the first Native American woman elected governor,' Haaland told supporters on election night. Her running mate, Stephanie Garcia Richard, was also elected, which makes New Mexico the first state to choose an all women of colour ticket for governor and lieutenant governor. ## Four States Elect Their First Woman Governor Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio and Tennessee all elected a woman governor for the first time on Tuesday. - **Minnesota:** Amy Klobuchar, who has represented the state in the US Senate since 2007, will be its first woman governor. - **Ohio:** Dr Amy Acton, the state's former health director, is the first woman elected governor. Nancy Hollister held the office briefly through succession, from 31st December 1998 to 11th January 1999. - **Tennessee:** Republican Marsha Blackburn will be the state's first woman governor. - **Georgia:** Bottoms completes the four. In Texas, Hinojosa will be the first Latina governor and the third woman to lead the state, after Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson in the 1920s and 1930s and Ann Richards from 1991 to 1995. When the new governors take office, 14 states will still never have had a woman in the job. In eight states, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia, women will serve as governor and lieutenant governor at the same time. ## Fewer Women in the US Senate The Senate is where women lost ground. Twenty-seven women serve in the Senate today, a record set this year. From January there will be at least 23, according to CAWP. Two women are still in Senate races too close to call, one Democrat and one Republican, so even if both win, the number falls. Two women senators lost their seats: Republican Susan Collins in Maine, who had held hers for nearly 30 years, and Darline Graham in South Carolina, who took the seat after the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham. The women who won still set records: - **Peggy Flanagan** of Minnesota, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, will be the first Native American woman in the Senate. - **Juliana Stratton** of Illinois joins Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, so three Black women will sit in the Senate at the same time for the first time. - **Illinois** becomes the first state represented by two women of colour, Stratton and Tammy Duckworth. - **Dr Annie Andrews**, a Charleston paediatrician, is the first woman elected to the Senate from South Carolina. - **Julia Letlow** will be the first Republican woman to represent Louisiana in the Senate. ## Women in the House Could Reach a New High At least 116 women have won seats in the House of Representatives so far, 100 Democrats and 16 Republicans. Fifty more women are still in 39 races that have not been called, and nine of those contests have only women on the ballot. CAWP describes a new high for women in the House as very likely. The current record is 127, set in 2024. Democratic women have already set their own record of at least 100 House seats, against 95 before, and won at least 10 of the seats that changed hands from Republicans. Across Congress as a whole, at least 139 women have won so far, against 152 serving today. That number will rise as counting finishes. ## Republican Women Fall Behind The other side of the record is a sharp fall for Republican women. Even once the outstanding races are counted, there will be fewer Republican women in the House, in the Senate and in statewide office than there are today. Five Republican women in the House lost their seats on Tuesday. CAWP director Debbie Walsh welcomed the rise in women governors, an office she described as 'a level long perceived as a glass ceiling for women in politics'. She also pointed out that women's gains are tied to the fortunes of the Democratic Party, which recruits far more women candidates than the Republican Party does. Below governor, the picture is the same. At least 101 women will hold statewide elected executive offices such as attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state in 2027, a record. At least 18 of them will be Black women, against a previous high of 11. ## A Century of Women Governors Bottoms was elected almost exactly 102 years after America chose its first women governors. On 4th November 1924, voters in Wyoming elected Nellie Tayloe Ross and voters in Texas elected Miriam Ferguson. Ross was sworn in on 5th January 1925 and became the first woman to serve as a state governor. Both women came to office through their husbands: Ross won a special election after her husband died in office, and Ferguson ran in place of her husband, who had been removed from office. The first woman elected governor in her own right, without following a husband, was Ella Grasso of Connecticut in 1974. Before this week, 53 women had served as governor of a state. ## FAQ **Q: How many women governors are there in the US?** Fourteen women serve as governor of a US state today, 10 Democrats and four Republicans. From January 2027, at least 17 women will hold the office, the highest number in American history and about a third of all 50 governors. Fifty-three women had served as a state governor before the 2026 elections. **Q: Who was the first woman governor in the US?** Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first woman to serve as a state governor when she was sworn in on 5th January 1925, after winning a special election that followed her husband's death. Miriam Ferguson of Texas was elected on the same day and took office later that month. Ella Grasso of Connecticut, elected in 1974, was the first woman to become governor without succeeding her husband. **Q: How many women governors has Texas had?** Texas has had two women governors: Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson, who served two separate terms in the 1920s and 1930s, and Ann Richards, who served from 1991 to 1995. Gina Hinojosa, elected in November 2026, will be the third and the first Latina to lead the state. **Q: How many Republican women governors are there?** Four Republican women serve as governor today. From January 2027 there will be at least three, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, while the number of Democratic women governors rises to at least 14.