Has Texas ever had a female governor? The state is part of a broader review of women governors that says 17 states have never had one, even as women hold the office in 14 of the 50 states. That leaves Texas in a mixed historical category: it is discussed in the state-by-state count, but the provided facts do not name which woman served there.
Rebecca Latimer Felton gives the history its sharpest point. She became the first woman senator in 1922, was appointed at age 87, and served for just one day. The same data set says women now hold 27 of the Senate's 100 seats, and 65 women have represented 35 states in the upper chamber.
Minnesota and Tennessee races
The 2026 midterms could add two firsts on the governor side. Minnesota's major-party nominees are Amy Klobuchar and Lisa Demuth, and Tennessee's are Marsha Blackburn and Jerri Green. The winner in each state would become that state's first woman governor, which is why those contests carry unusually direct historical stakes.
That prospect sits alongside a separate Senate record that keeps expanding. More than three-quarters of the 65 women who have represented states in the Senate first took office after 1980, and California has sent four women to the chamber, more than any other state. Dianne Feinstein served from 1992 until her death in 2023, and Barbara Boxer served from 1993 to 2017.
Texas in the state count
The complication is the Texas question itself. The available facts say Texas is one of the states discussed in the women-governors count, but they do not identify the governor by name. That means the state is part of the 17-state list, yet the source material leaves the specific Texas governor unnamed.
Four states have not had either a woman governor or a woman senator: Colorado, Idaho, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Women also hold 14 governorships today, so the map of state executive office is still changing, and the 2026 midterm elections are the next chance for Minnesota and Tennessee to join the list of states with a woman governor.
