Perry Will Retire with 10th Longest Gubernatorial Tenure in US History

The Texas governor will climb nine more spots on the all-time list with 5,144 days in office under his belt upon his retirement in January 2015

While Rick Perry’s announcement Monday afternoon that he would not seek a fourth full term as governor of the State of Texas will only further speculation of his 2016 presidential plans, it does begin to put a bow on one of the longest gubernatorial tenures in the history of the country.

Perry currently has the 19th longest such tenure at 4,583 days through Monday (12 years, 6 months, 18 days), and will end up at #10 all-time presuming he completes his term as expected on January 20th, 2015.

At that point, Perry will have tallied 5,144 days in office (14 years, 1 month) – besting former Wisconsin Republican Governor Tommy Thompson (currently at #10) by two days.

Along the way, Perry will also pass Jeffersonian-Republican Isaac Williamson of New Jersey, James Fenner (various political affiliations) of Rhode Island, Democrat George Hunt of Arizona, Republican William Milliken of Michigan, Republican Robert Ray of Iowa, Republican James Thompson of Illinois, Federalist John Gilman of New Hampshire, and Democrat Cecil Andrus of Idaho.

Just out of reach for the retiring Perry at #9 on the list is New York Republican Nelson Rockefeller at 5,466 days (14 years, 11 months, 18 days), as well as Democrat Albert Ritchie of Maryland at #8 (5,475 days), Anti-Federalist Arthur Fenner of Rhode Island at #7 (5,642 days), Democrat Edwin Edwards of Louisiana at #6 (5,784 days), Democrat James Hunt of North Carolina and Republican James Rhodes of Ohio tied at #4 (5,840 days), Democrat George Wallace of Alabama at #3 (5,848 days), and Republican William Janklow of South Dakota at #2 (5,851 days).

If Perry had decided to run for reelection, won, and served out his term, he would have recorded 6,600 days in office as Texas’ chief executive (18 years, 0 months, 26 days) – second on the all-time list trailing only current Iowa Republican governor Terry Branstad, who plans to add to his total by running for reelection in 2014.

Climbing up the all-time gubernatorial service list is Oregon Democrat John Kitzhaber at #51 and California Democrat Jerry Brown at #53.

Kitzhaber has served 3,837 days through Monday (10 years, 6 months, 3 days) with Brown at 3,831 (10 years, 5 months, 26 days).

Note: Only post-U.S. Constitutional gubernatorial tenures are studied in this report.

The Top 20 Longest-Serving Governors in U.S. History

* Denotes a governor still in office. Data as of July 8, 2013. Note: Excludes pre-U.S. Constitutional gubernatorial service as well as gubernatorial service in U.S. territories. Data compiled by Smart Politics.

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