The idea of voters preferring governors to senators as United States presidents is one of the greatest pieces of wisdom in modern day politics. Only two sitting senators in the United States have been directly elected to the US presidency they included John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Warren Harding in 1920, who were not in office when they were elected.
The truth about this statement is that, although many rose to the presidency through the cabinet or through the vice presidency, the Senate has been and is still a springboard to many of U.S. presidents. The following presidents once served the Senate at one point:
Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, James Buchanan, Martin Van Buren, Harry Truman William Henry Harrison, Franklin Pierce, John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon.
2008 presumptive nominees Included, major parties have so far nominated sitting senators 7 times and 8 times for governors.
The nominees for gubernatorial since 1948 are:
Tom Dewey (N.Y. Gov., 1948)
Adlai Stevenson (Illinois Gov., 1952)
Adlai Stevenson (former Ill. Gov., 1956)
Jimmy Carter (former Ga. Gov., 1976)
Ronald Reagan (former Calif. Gov., 1980)
Michael Dukakis (Mass. Gov., 1988)
Bill Clinton (Ark. Gov., 1992)
George W. Bush (Tex. Gov., 2000)
The nominees who were sitting senators were:
John F. Kennedy (Mass., 1960)
Barry Goldwater (Ariz., 1964)
George McGovern (S.D., 1972)
Bob Dole (Kan., 1996)
John Kerry (Mass., 2004)
Barack Obama (Ill., 2008)
John McCain (Ariz., 2008)
4 out of 8 governors won; which barred something unforeseen that by the end of year 2008, 2 out of 7 senators would have won. This might prove that a governor does better than a senator. Fifty percent of the governors who were nominated during the postwar era became elected and 28% only of the senators were.
It is also argued that governors elected for the last 32 years were because of chance. Jimmy Carter’s in his nomination success in ’76 may be due to him being an unknown and outsider governor. Clinton and Reagan got the nominations, and also the presidency, because they were seen as the most running talented candidates and their fact of being governors being secondary.
A governor is known to head a single state while a senator is the representative of state in the Senate. Each state comprises of two senators, between 1 and 50 representatives in the House, and only a single governor. The governor heads a state’s executive branch in the government while the senators make part in the federal legislative branch thus neither one outranks the other. In the state affairs like the state laws, the governor becomes the top in his state’s chain in command and he is answerable to the President only.
A governor is elected by the people in a state to be the top in leadership of the state. Governors have many powers same as that a president has, but only limited to a state level. They have the powers to pardon criminals who maybe state prosecuted. They sign and veto on bills which are passed by the congress of that state. They also appoint people to hold certain positions, and speak on behalf the state in matters which regards the state.
A Senator, is one of the two elected in every state. A Senator is a representative in the states constituency in making and voting on laws that are made by the congress. Some Senators may also serve in various committees.
Comparing rank. Senators are involved in the federal government whereas the governor is the head of in his state government.
It is also generalized that being a governor in a wealthy state is more prestigious than being a junior senator in a state with very little; however being a Senator from any state is better than being the governor of a poor or sparsely populated state.
Senators rank among themselves in accordance to seniority. The President Pro Tempore of the Senate is becomes the senior senator of the majority party. The Senate is taken as the American version council of elders.
A governor is simply taken as an executive, while A senator is simply a legislator, and not an executive. A governor in the state level is compared to the President in the national level in that both they are heads of the executive branch.
A senator is only a legislator, and not an executive. They are only responsible in representing their state’s people in the process of legislation. They are not constitutionally authorized, to execute the united state laws. A Senator is comparable to a Representative, only that there are two senators per state regardless of the state population. The representatives number is based on the population of the state.
One could constitutionally, argue that the governor being the highest state, authority would be higher in rank. Also, incase a senator leaves office prematurely, the governor can appoint a replacement to hold office until next election.
Considering the above argument, governors makes good presidents for their executive experience in the government ,however, this doesn’t say that senators couldn’t be good executives only that their senator s’ executive experience does not in any way compare to that of governors.