When Meghan Meehan-Draper first started working at the Democratic Governors Association, “there were more governors named John than there were women governors,” she told reporters last week.
Now, with Govs.-elect Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia poised to take office, there will be 10 female Democratic governors serving next year, along with four Republicans for a total of 14.
“We now have the highest number of Democratic women governors in the history of the United States,” Meehan-Draper, the executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, told NBC News, adding: “That’s almost half the caucus, at this point, of Democratic governors.”
Following last week’s elections, Democratic strategists are already turning toward next year’s gubernatorial elections, during which they hope to keep adding women to state executive roles after Spanberger becomes Virginia’s first female governor and Sherrill becomes New Jersey’s first Democratic woman to serve as governor.
“We have, I think, 18 states where there’s women running for governor in 2026 in our 36 [total] races,” Meehan-Draper said. “So it’s just an exciting opportunity to continue to raise money and spend money on women running for executive office, where we don’t really think anybody else is doing that.”
She pointed specifically to the DGA’s Women Governors Fund, a fundraising initiative started by the group in 2018 which is dedicated to supporting Democratic women running for governor.
This year, Meehan-Draper said, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey chaired the effort and raised $5 million for the fund that was dedicated to supporting Spanberger and Sherrill’s bids for governor.
Since the fund’s inception in 2018, the DGA has raised and spent more than $120 million to support Democratic women running for governor.
“There was tremendous enthusiasm” for the fund this year, Healey, who began her tenure as chair in 2023, told NBC News.
“People and donors were really excited about supporting and getting behind women candidates for governor,” she added.
Healey, who is up for re-election herself in 2026, pointed to Spanberger and Sherrill’s margins of victory as evidence that donors’ enthusiasm paid off and will carry into next year’s races.
“They won big,” she said. “I think a lot of people thought that these races were going to be close. I mean, these races were supposed to be close, and Republicans poured significant money into both of them, but Abby won by 15, Mikie by 13. I mean, these were resounding victories, and you know, that gives us a lot of great momentum going into next year.”
Four female Democratic governors are set to run for re-election next year: Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Healey in Massachusetts, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.
And in other states with open seats that are expected to be competitive, such as Georgia, Maine, Michigan and New Mexico, prominent Democratic women are running in their party’s primaries. In the latter three states, two-term female Democratic governors are barred by term limits from running again.
On the Republican side, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running for re-election next year, and New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte is also widely expected to run for re-election to a second two-year term. In New York, GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik officially launched her campaign for governor last week.
Healey is excited by the prospect of re-electing her party’s female incumbents and adding new Democratic faces to the bench next year.
“We don’t have enough women in these positions. You know, we’re still not at 50/50 and for far too long, our country hasn’t had enough women in leadership positions, period, and certainly we haven’t had many in the corner office,” she said.
For clues about strategy, messaging and policy platforms that Democratic female gubernatorial candidates could use in their campaigns next year, Healey also pointed to Spanberger and Sherrill’s messaging on affordability.
“One thing that we bring as women is a real focus on people’s lives,” she said, adding that women are often the primary caretakers in their families and often also responsible for managing their family budgets.
“I think that there’s been a real appeal in electing women as governors, because [voters] know that women are focused on making people’s lives easier and lowering costs, making life more affordable for people and their families,” the Massachusetts governor added.
