List of longest-serving governors of U.S. states

Terry Branstad is the longest-serving governor in American history, with a tenure of 22 years, 4 months, and 13 days, as governor of Iowa

This list contains the 50 governors of states in the United States who have served for the longest years, consecutively or otherwise. Pre-statehood territorial and colonial governors are not included. ^[1]

By time in office

#	Governor	State	Time in office	Took office	Left office	Party
1	Terry Branstad [2]	Iowa	8,169 days	January 14, 1983	January 15, 1999	Republican
				January 14, 2011	May 24, 2017
2	George Clinton	New York	7,641 days	July 30, 1777	June 30, 1795	Democratic-Republican
				July 1, 1801	June 30, 1804
3	George Wallace	Alabama	5,848 days	January 14, 1963	January 16, 1967	Democratic
				January 18, 1971	January 15, 1979
				January 17, 1983	January 19, 1987
4	Jerry Brown	California	5,847 days	January 6, 1975	January 3, 1983
				January 3, 2011	January 7, 2019
	Bill Janklow	South Dakota	5,847 days	January 1, 1979	January 6, 1987	Republican
				January 7, 1995	January 3, 2003
6	Jim Rhodes	Ohio	5,840 days	January 14, 1963	January 11, 1971
				January 13, 1975	January 10, 1983
	Jim Hunt	North Carolina	5,840 days	January 8, 1977	January 5, 1985	Democratic
				January 9, 1993	January 6, 2001
8	Edwin Edwards	Louisiana	5,784 days	May 9, 1972	March 10, 1980
				March 12, 1984	March 14, 1988
				January 13, 1992	January 8, 1996
9	Arthur Fenner	Rhode Island	5,642 days	May 5, 1790	October 15, 1805	Country
10	Albert Ritchie	Maryland	5,475 days	January 14, 1920	January 9, 1935	Democratic
11	Nelson Rockefeller	New York	5,466 days	January 1, 1959	December 18, 1973	Republican
12	Rick Perry	Texas	5,144 days	December 21, 2000	January 20, 2015
13	Tommy Thompson	Wisconsin	5,142 days	January 5, 1987	February 1, 2001
14	Cecil Andrus	Idaho	5,132 days	January 4, 1971	January 23, 1977	Democratic
				January 5, 1987	January 2, 1995
15	John Taylor Gilman	New Hampshire	5,119 days	June 5, 1794	June 6, 1805	Federalist
				June 3, 1813	June 6, 1816
16	Jim Thompson	Illinois	5,118 days	January 10, 1977	January 14, 1991	Republican
17	Robert D. Ray	Iowa	5,112 days	January 16, 1969	January 14, 1983
18	William Milliken	Michigan	5,093 days	January 22, 1969	January 1, 1983
19	George W. P. Hunt	Arizona	5,090 days	February 14, 1912	January 1, 1917	Democratic
				December 25, 1917	January 6, 1919
				January 1, 1923	January 7, 1929
				January 5, 1931	January 2, 1933
20	William Livingston	New Jersey	5,077 days	August 31, 1776	July 25, 1790	Federalist
21	James Fenner	Rhode Island	4,749 days	May 6, 1807	May 1, 1811	Democratic-Republican, Law and Order
				May 5, 1824	May 4, 1831
				May 2, 1843	May 6, 1845
22	Isaac Halstead Williamson	New Jersey	4,650 days	February 6, 1817	October 30, 1829	Democratic-Republican
23	John Kitzhaber	Oregon	4,428 days	January 9, 1995	January 13, 2003	Democratic
				January 10, 2011	February 18, 2015
24	William Carroll	Tennessee	4,395 days	October 1, 1821	October 1, 1827	Democratic-Republican, Democratic
				October 1, 1829	October 12, 1835
25	Arch A. Moore Jr.	West Virginia	4,391 days	January 13, 1969	January 17, 1977	Republican
				January 14, 1985	January 16, 1989
26	Butch Otter	Idaho	4,390 days	January 1, 2007	January 7, 2019
27	Bruce King	New Mexico	4,386 days	January 1, 1971	January 1, 1975	Democratic
				January 1, 1979	January 1, 1983
				January 1, 1991	January 1, 1995
28	Arthur B. Langlie	Washington	4,384 days	January 15, 1941	January 10, 1945	Republican
				January 12, 1949	January 16, 1957
	G. Mennen Williams	Michigan	4,384 days	January 1, 1949	January 1, 1961	Democratic
	Michael Dukakis	Massachusetts	4,384 days	January 2, 1975	January 4, 1979
				January 6, 1983	January 3, 1991
	John Engler	Michigan	4,384 days	January 1, 1991	January 1, 2003	Republican
32	Thomas E. Dewey	New York	4,383 days	January 1, 1943	December 31, 1954
	Robert E. Smylie	Idaho	4,383 days	January 3, 1955	January 2, 1967
	Orval Faubus	Arkansas	4,383 days	January 11, 1955	January 10, 1967	Democratic
	John A. Burns	Hawaii	4,383 days	December 3, 1962	December 2, 1974
	Cal Rampton	Utah	4,383 days	January 4, 1965	January 3, 1977
	Daniel J. Evans	Washington	4,383 days	January 13, 1965	January 12, 1977	Republican
	George Ariyoshi	Hawaii	4,383 days	December 2, 1974	December 1, 1986	Democratic
	Edgar Herschler	Wyoming	4,383 days	January 6, 1975	January 5, 1987
	Richard Lamm	Colorado	4,383 days	January 14, 1975	January 13, 1987
	Mario Cuomo	New York	4,383 days	January 1, 1983	December 31, 1994
	Roy Romer	Colorado	4,383 days	January 13, 1987	January 12, 1999
	George Pataki	New York	4,383 days	January 1, 1995	December 31, 2006	Republican
	Jay Inslee	Washington	4,383 days	January 16, 2013	January 15, 2025	Democratic
45	William L. Guy	North Dakota	4,382 days	January 4, 1961	January 2, 1973	Democratic–Nonpartisan League
46	Bill Clinton	Arkansas	4,366 days	January 9, 1979	January 19, 1981	Democratic
				January 11, 1983	December 12, 1992
47	William A. Egan	Alaska	4,351 days	January 3, 1959	December 5, 1966
				December 7, 1970	December 2, 1974
49	John Marshall Stone	Mississippi	4,305 days	March 29, 1876	January 2, 1882
				January 13, 1890	January 20, 1896
49	Jonathan Trumbull Jr.	Connecticut	4,267 days	December 1, 1797	August 7, 1809	Federalist
50	John Sevier	Tennessee	4,193 days	March 30, 1796	September 23, 1801	Democratic-Republican
				September 23, 1803	September 20, 1809

References

1. "The Top 50 Longest Serving Governors in US History (Updated)". 29 May 2017.
2. "Terry Branstad Is Now The Longest-Serving Governor In American History". The Huffington Post (archived). Associated Press. December 14, 2015. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2015.