Governor of New Hampshire

This article may have too many red links. You can help Wikipedia by writing articles to help lower the number of red links. (January 2025)

Governor of New Hampshire
State seal
Incumbent Kelly Ayotte since January 9, 2025
Government of New Hampshire
Style	Governor (informal) Her Excellency[1] (formal)
Status	Head of state Head of government
Member of	Governor's Council Cabinet
Residence	Bridges House
Seat	Concord, New Hampshire
Term length	Two years, no term limits
Constituting instrument	New Hampshire Constitution of 1776
Precursor	Governor of Strawbery Banke 1630–1641 Governor of Dover 1631–1641 Governor of Massachusetts Bay 1641–1680
Formation	January 21, 1680 (345 years ago) (1680-01-21)
Salary	$113,834 (2013)[2]
Website	Official website

The Governor of New Hampshire is the head of the executive branch of New Hampshire's state government.

Elections for the governor happen every two years. They happen in November of years that end in an even number. New Hampshire and Vermont are the only states that have elections for governor every two years.^[3] Every other state has elections for governor every four years.

In New Hampshire, there are no term limits for governors. This means that the same person can be governor many times in a row. The only person to serve more than three terms since the 18th century was John Lynch. Lynch was elected to his fourth two-year term on November 2, 2010. John Taylor Gilman had been the last governor before Lynch to serve longer than six years. Lynch was governor for 14 one-year terms between 1794 and 1816.

Someone who wants to be governor needs to be at least 30 years old, a registered voter, and to have lived in New Hampshire for at least seven years. ^[4]

1. ↑ "State Constitution > Executive Power – Governor". State of New Hampshire. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
2. ↑ "CSG Releases 2013 Governor Salaries". The Council of State Governments. June 25, 2013. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
3. ↑ Mahnken, Kevin (November 8, 2016). "You're Probably Not Voting for Governor Today. That's Bad News for Democrats". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
4. ↑ "Qualifications for NH state offices". Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2018.