State Government Term Limits
Find out the term limits for each state for governors, senate, and house state representatives and learn the pros and cons of term limits.
We recently went through and ranked the US governors based on their amount of constitutional power. One of the factors we took into consideration is the term limits imposed on governors, which vary from state to state.
Why it matters: The differences in term limitations can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Loose term limits that allow for many reelections may prevent new ideas or also allow good leadership to continue.
In this post, we’ll cover the term limits for each state for governors, senate, and house state representatives and go over the pros and cons of term limits.
Term limits for governors range from the 18 states with unlimited terms (AKA no limits) to states where governors can only serve two terms for life.
So here is the breakdown of the governor's term limits:
States where the governor serves two consecutive 4-year terms but is eligible to run again after four years out of office:
States where the governor can only serve two 4-year terms for life:
State where the governor can have unlimited 4-year terms.
The states where the governor is limited to two 4-year terms with a 12-year period:
States where the governor is limited to two 4-year terms with a 16-year period:
States where a governor can have unlimited 2-year terms.
The state where the governor is limited to one four-year term at a time—no consecutive terms:
There are only 16 states that have term limits for their legislature. For the states with term limits, they usually have the same limit for both the House and Senate.
States where the House and Senate representatives can only serve consecutive terms up to eight years, but can run again after a term break:
States where the legislature representatives can only serve four two-year terms (eight-year limit) for life:
States that have a 12-year term limit for life:
The states where legislators can serve 12 consecutive years with the opportunity to return after a term break:
Promote fresh perspectives: New legislators, new perspectives. Limiting term limits will always bring new faces and ideas into state government. In general, an incumbent has a political advantage over challengers in elections, so there is a risk of stagnation and an "incumbency advantage" without term limits.
Enhancing accountability: Term limits can encourage officials to focus on their constituents rather than re-election.
The loss of experience: Limiting terms can cause a lack of experience in the legislature.
The Joint Project on Term Limits (JPTL) reported that in the 2003 session of the Arizona Legislature, the first under-term limits, they found there were more committee chair positions than there were experienced legislators. Rather than appoint inexperienced legislators to chair committees, the speaker of the House reduced the number of committees from 21 to 16 and the president of the Senate reduced the number of committees from 13 to 10.
The Public Policy Institute of California gave another example of inexperienced legislators relying heavily on lobbyist-written bills. “A few new members confessed that in their first year, over 90 percent of their bills were drafted or given to them by lobbyists.”
While national laws, policy-making, and voting take center stage because they affect the entire nation, no one should overlook the power of state-level legislature and laws. From education and healthcare to infrastructure and environmental protection, state policies and legislatures wield significant influence inside (and outside) the state borders.
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