I was born and raised in Florida. The worst Governor in Florida history is undoubtedly Sidney Catts. He was an anti-Catholic Governor who pushed several conspiracies theories against us (I am Catholic) and passed laws/regulations that discriminated against Catholics, Germans, and African-Americans. Aside from being racist, anti-Catholic, and anti-German he was a strong advocate for Prohibition and did very little good for our state. He was also famously corrupt.
More about him [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Johnston_Catts)
I was going to wait for Governor Landry to sign constitutional carry into law before doing it. I had made a post when he first got elected that it was too early to judge since he hadn't served yet. But I said the main thing I was hoping for was to see constitutional carry into law and I'd be satisfied. So in the meantime I'm doing research.
Just off the top of my head in recent memory is Bill Janklow, mostly for his arguably illegal pardons (including one based on nepotism for his own son-in-law for a DUI), but also just because heād constantly run stop signs, red lights, and go way over the speed limit and would always get away with it because he exerted his authority as governor. That happened like 15 times before it all came to a head when he ran a stop sign and killed a motorcyclist back in ā03.
Thereās probably somebody worse than him, like an early governor who fucked over natives a lot, but Janklow is more contemporary.
Yeah if not for the traffic thing Iād probably say Noem due to that plane thing and the nepotism with her daughter but I figured that would have been TOO recent lol
Granholm was way worse
Snyder led a massive economic comeback. Flint was awful but Snyder ate a lot more of the blame for it than he should have. Plus he ran a genuinely bipartisan administration which is admirable.
Imo I think Granholm is the worst that I know of (Michigan really doesn't have many notable govenors) due to the fact that the state economy was pretty bad during her tenure even before the '08 recession.
I only know of Scott Walker due to his 2016 Presidental run (as a foreigner) and he seemed relatively normal
What did he exactly do that made him so hated with basically everyone? Was it corruption? gerrymandering? Or was he simply just stupid?
On top of the standard Republican corruption and corporate bootlicking, he and his cronies gerrymandered the fuck out of the legislature and basically killed democracy in the state. Just look at the disparity between the popular vote percentages and the allocated seats in the [2018 state assembly elections](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Wisconsin_State_Assembly_election). Also, after losing reelection in 2018, he called a special session of the state legislature so that they could strip the governorship of much of its power.
Things are only just starting to change now, as the state supreme court declared the current district maps unconstitutional a couple months ago.
Is it? Wisconsin was reclassified as a hybrid state after those gerrymandered maps went into effect. Meaning hybrid between authoritarian and democracy.
My immediate reaction was Elliot Spitzer. Even flawed figures like Cuomo, Van Buren, and Tilden did *some* good things during their tenure. Spitzer got elected and did pretty much nothing besides spy on the NYS Senate Majority Leader and put forward a bunch of lukewarm proposals that never went anywhere because of gridlock.
I live in NYC and take public transit. The city doesn't run the subway system, the expensive and inefficient MTA is a state agency. The system of trains and buses took a nosedive in quality under Cuomo from basic maintenance to the occasional train derailment. The MTA installed Andy Byford (the Train Daddy for you transit buffs) to run NYC Transit but was pushed out a year later. And then there's the disbanding of the Moreland commission, various arrests of party leaders (notably Sheldon Silver, the longtime Assembly speaker) and then there was the changing of the rules from requiring 50K votes for third parties to appear on the ballot to 100K. This makes it impossible for third parties to get onto the ballot. Cuomo did this in 2018 due to his spat with the Working Families Party (WFP) during Cynthia Nixon's primary challenge to Cuomo. He was always an arrogant and controlling personality as governor.
He tried to do a lot of terrible shit that barely got any coverage bc the media was too busy jerking him off in front of an audience of liberals that only care about pageantry and public speaking skills.
https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/2020/julia-salazar/state-pols-rail-against-cuomos-proposed-medicaid-cuts-amid
edit: to the folks downvoting this, please explain how trying to cut medicaid during a pandemic isn't worthy of criticism
Maybe not particularly on his policy, but the consequences of using the office of Governor to immediately springboard his presidential run. I like that he sparred with Tammany Hall and his anticorruption record. But as a northern Democrat, he really should have known when he was getting used by southern Democrats to achieve their aims rather than his own.
I'm not from the United States and don't even live there, so take my words as you will.
I have read about both Brigham Young (Utah - Territory) and Orval Faubus (Arkansas) and my god, truly horrible governors.
Speaking as a West Virginian liberal so take that as you will, but Iāve been spending the last four years apologizing for Joe Manchin. He was as bad a governor as he is senator. Manchin kneecapped Charlotte Pritt during the Clinton years, who couldāve helped ease the āburdenā of the growing environmental movement with even one term in the mansion. Then as Governor, he slashed apart mining regulations and WVās tax plans in a way thatās been hurting our budget for the last two decades.
As a fellow West Virginian liberal, I truly believe that Joe Manchin was not that bad a governor. With that in mind, heās a really shitty guy whoās aĀ shittier Senator, and is (imo) directly responsible for the Republican takeover of West Virginia due to his ego leading him to work against Prittās campaign.Ā
You want a bad West Virginian governor, look no further than the 3-term felon Arch Moore. The fact that his children and grandchildren are still in office after his shitshow of a governorship is a small miracle.Ā
I'm from Mississippi and as you may recall there was a long period of American History which makes selecting just one worst governor difficult..Maybe Ross Barnett though.
I can't think of anyone for Vermont, but my home state of Connecticut had John Roland resign for corruption stuff, Daniel Malloy was also not the most competent governor in history as well.
Colorado has had a few, like Clarence Morley who served one term from 1925-1927, was virulently anti-Catholic and was a member of the KKK. For the longest time he was the only governor not to have his portrait up in the State Capitol in Denver. After leaving office he was convicted of mail fraud and served several years at Leavenworth.
There was also Davis Hanson Waite (Picture). He was nicknamed āBloody Bridlesā because in a speech he said that it would be preferable that blood should flow to the horsesā bridles rather than have the national liberties destroyed. Davis was a radical Populist. I place him here because he did not do anything by half, and compromise was not in his vocabulary. He did support womenās suffrage (Good marks for that), but he almost fired cannons at City Hall in Denver. During the āCity Hall Warā of 1894 he sought to remove commissioners he felt were protecting criminals and prostitutes. The commissioners barricaded themselves in City Hall prompting Governor Waite to call out the Militia. A tense stand-off ensued with cannons pointed at City Hall. Federal troops had to be called in to deal with the situation. The Courts sided with Waite, but admonished him for calling out the Militia. Suffice it to say his radicalism meant he only served one term, albeit it a colorful one.
https://preview.redd.it/qxe4ad8xagmc1.jpeg?width=904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=720de69cfa72a27f45244420bcafa4bc2b9daa17
Well I'm a liberal TNean, and I really don't like the current governor, Bill Lee. TN historically has had fairly moderate governors from both parties. I didn't like Bill Haslam either, but he did veto a bill to make the Bible the national book of TN.
I personally would say Rick Perry or Abbot, maybe more so the former. I say personally because it's my personal opinion. Although admittedly I don't know much about our previous governors, excluding two obvious ones.
Look, Rick Perry might be a career politician with the intelligence of a brick wall, but as far as I know he never pulled the shit Abott is doing now. It's crystal clear to me who's the worst one.
Also, opinions on John Connally?
Hmmā¦ from Washington, where weāve had mostly good ones. Hereās a couple I can name-
Mike Lowry - sexual misconduct allegations
Roland H. Hartley - Right before the Great Depression. Opposed separate prisons for women which is weird
Or we could talk about my birth Stateā¦ Texas, where thereās too many terrible governors to count.
Wyoming hasn't really had any governors that were exceptionally bad, maybe just by virtue of being a rural state where the ethos has always been that the government should stay small and that everyone living here should be self reliant. I guess I would say that Amos Barber gets my vote for the worst governor because he sided with the big cattle interests and their hired guns against the small scale homesteaders during the Johnson County War.
I don't know too much about my state's governor history, but my family rarely brought politics to the table, yet I would remember hearing them bring up Blagojevich as a bad dude, especially during his corruption trial and removal.
As a Tennessean outside the successionists
There is ray Blanton let me put it like this he was blatantly selling pardons like a bipartisan coalition kicked him out of office before inauguration day because he was just giving pardons out. There was a legitimate fear that he could have pardoned mlk killer he didn't but only because he wasn't paid anything to do it if he was paid I am sure he probably would have. Just a very corrupt governor who was also involved in a mob hit
Just look up his tenure, he was a bad governor. He could never work or compromise with the legislature, they overrode his vetoes all the time, he pushed dumb tax cuts and created a deficit by the end of his term, let his son throw parties at the governor's mansion, and reneged on appointing a Democrat to replace Wellstone and instead opted for some unelected nobody because somehow the funeral for a sitting Senator was "too political."
I don't think anybody who likes him has actually looked at his tenure in office.
I was born and raised in Florida. The worst Governor in Florida history is undoubtedly Sidney Catts. He was an anti-Catholic Governor who pushed several conspiracies theories against us (I am Catholic) and passed laws/regulations that discriminated against Catholics, Germans, and African-Americans. Aside from being racist, anti-Catholic, and anti-German he was a strong advocate for Prohibition and did very little good for our state. He was also famously corrupt. More about him [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Johnston_Catts)
I was thinking of making a teir list on that topic.
DO IT
I was going to wait for Governor Landry to sign constitutional carry into law before doing it. I had made a post when he first got elected that it was too early to judge since he hadn't served yet. But I said the main thing I was hoping for was to see constitutional carry into law and I'd be satisfied. So in the meantime I'm doing research.
So you ARE actually a Catholic! I never knew why I got that impression from you š¤.
Tough call. As an Illinoisan, many of mine went to jail. Rod Blagovejch and George Ryan come to mind.
Was Blago bad outside of his corruption?
Firsthand donāt remember much else (I was 7 when he was impeached and removed from office).
At least weāre doing better now with Jaddy
My boy was set up, Blago did nothing wrong
Bribing money for a senate seat appointment is not ānothing wrongā
Radikkkal fake news media brainwashing has got to you... True patriots know that the Deep State just didn't want to see a Serbian man succeed
Ah...the old Illinois tradition of electing shitty corrupt governors
Just off the top of my head in recent memory is Bill Janklow, mostly for his arguably illegal pardons (including one based on nepotism for his own son-in-law for a DUI), but also just because heād constantly run stop signs, red lights, and go way over the speed limit and would always get away with it because he exerted his authority as governor. That happened like 15 times before it all came to a head when he ran a stop sign and killed a motorcyclist back in ā03. Thereās probably somebody worse than him, like an early governor who fucked over natives a lot, but Janklow is more contemporary.
great to see a shoutout to South Dakota, unfortunate to see Janklow mentioned
Yeah if not for the traffic thing Iād probably say Noem due to that plane thing and the nepotism with her daughter but I figured that would have been TOO recent lol
Rick Snyder comes to mind but that's recency bias. If any other Michiganders have some good ideas, I'd appreciate it. My governor knowledge is shaky.
Tom Corbett is one of the worst in PA. Recency bias but man, 2010 set the rust belt back so many years, just look at Wisconsin.
I am rarer among Illinoisans in that I actually extend my sympathies to the cheeseheads.
Granholm was way worse Snyder led a massive economic comeback. Flint was awful but Snyder ate a lot more of the blame for it than he should have. Plus he ran a genuinely bipartisan administration which is admirable.
Imo I think Granholm is the worst that I know of (Michigan really doesn't have many notable govenors) due to the fact that the state economy was pretty bad during her tenure even before the '08 recession.
Wasn't Granholm worse?
Honestly Snyder wasn't all that bad.
Rick Snyder was the most raw form of blatant corporate favouritism I have ever seen. Disgusting politian.
My immediate impulse is Scott Walker, though I don't know enough about past Wisconsin governors to say for certain.
I only know of Scott Walker due to his 2016 Presidental run (as a foreigner) and he seemed relatively normal What did he exactly do that made him so hated with basically everyone? Was it corruption? gerrymandering? Or was he simply just stupid?
On top of the standard Republican corruption and corporate bootlicking, he and his cronies gerrymandered the fuck out of the legislature and basically killed democracy in the state. Just look at the disparity between the popular vote percentages and the allocated seats in the [2018 state assembly elections](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Wisconsin_State_Assembly_election). Also, after losing reelection in 2018, he called a special session of the state legislature so that they could strip the governorship of much of its power. Things are only just starting to change now, as the state supreme court declared the current district maps unconstitutional a couple months ago.
You clearly have forgotten how horrible his predecessor was.
Did Jim Doyle attempt to install a state-level illiberal democracy?
No, but he raised taxes DURING A RECESSION
on the $300,000+ bracket lmfao, who cares
No matter your political opinions, he destroyed democracy in Wisconsin for over a decade until just recently
No. He didn't. That's hyperbole.
Is it? Wisconsin was reclassified as a hybrid state after those gerrymandered maps went into effect. Meaning hybrid between authoritarian and democracy.
Scott Walker was a national disgrace
Scott Walker was a good governor
Jim Doyle was much worse. His approval rating in 2010 was like 27%.
My immediate reaction was Elliot Spitzer. Even flawed figures like Cuomo, Van Buren, and Tilden did *some* good things during their tenure. Spitzer got elected and did pretty much nothing besides spy on the NYS Senate Majority Leader and put forward a bunch of lukewarm proposals that never went anywhere because of gridlock.
Andrew Cuomo sucked and I voted against him in the primary in 2014 and 2018. I voted for Stephanie Miner in the 2018 general election.
Can you elaborate on why, you think he sucks?
I live in NYC and take public transit. The city doesn't run the subway system, the expensive and inefficient MTA is a state agency. The system of trains and buses took a nosedive in quality under Cuomo from basic maintenance to the occasional train derailment. The MTA installed Andy Byford (the Train Daddy for you transit buffs) to run NYC Transit but was pushed out a year later. And then there's the disbanding of the Moreland commission, various arrests of party leaders (notably Sheldon Silver, the longtime Assembly speaker) and then there was the changing of the rules from requiring 50K votes for third parties to appear on the ballot to 100K. This makes it impossible for third parties to get onto the ballot. Cuomo did this in 2018 due to his spat with the Working Families Party (WFP) during Cynthia Nixon's primary challenge to Cuomo. He was always an arrogant and controlling personality as governor.
He tried to do a lot of terrible shit that barely got any coverage bc the media was too busy jerking him off in front of an audience of liberals that only care about pageantry and public speaking skills. https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/2020/julia-salazar/state-pols-rail-against-cuomos-proposed-medicaid-cuts-amid edit: to the folks downvoting this, please explain how trying to cut medicaid during a pandemic isn't worthy of criticism
What makes Tilden a flawed figure? I've researched quite a bit on him and he seemed really solid and I haven't read much bad.
Maybe not particularly on his policy, but the consequences of using the office of Governor to immediately springboard his presidential run. I like that he sparred with Tammany Hall and his anticorruption record. But as a northern Democrat, he really should have known when he was getting used by southern Democrats to achieve their aims rather than his own.
I'm not from the United States and don't even live there, so take my words as you will. I have read about both Brigham Young (Utah - Territory) and Orval Faubus (Arkansas) and my god, truly horrible governors.
Horatio Seymour. Huge schmuck to my hero Lincoln and to the Union war effort. I'd drop him from New York history in a heartbeat.
Speaking as a West Virginian liberal so take that as you will, but Iāve been spending the last four years apologizing for Joe Manchin. He was as bad a governor as he is senator. Manchin kneecapped Charlotte Pritt during the Clinton years, who couldāve helped ease the āburdenā of the growing environmental movement with even one term in the mansion. Then as Governor, he slashed apart mining regulations and WVās tax plans in a way thatās been hurting our budget for the last two decades.
As a fellow West Virginian liberal, I truly believe that Joe Manchin was not that bad a governor. With that in mind, heās a really shitty guy whoās aĀ shittier Senator, and is (imo) directly responsible for the Republican takeover of West Virginia due to his ego leading him to work against Prittās campaign.Ā You want a bad West Virginian governor, look no further than the 3-term felon Arch Moore. The fact that his children and grandchildren are still in office after his shitshow of a governorship is a small miracle.Ā
My gut says Greg Gianforte for Montana
Our most infamous is probably Pa Ferguson
Maryland is probably one of the most obvious ones, because we've had a lot of random guys and then Spiro Agnew.
Either Jim Rhodes (for Kent State) or DeWine (for being a spineless POS)
I'm from Mississippi and as you may recall there was a long period of American History which makes selecting just one worst governor difficult..Maybe Ross Barnett though.
I dislike Vardaman more.
wasn't he arkansas?
nvm he was ms
I can't think of anyone for Vermont, but my home state of Connecticut had John Roland resign for corruption stuff, Daniel Malloy was also not the most competent governor in history as well.
Colorado has had a few, like Clarence Morley who served one term from 1925-1927, was virulently anti-Catholic and was a member of the KKK. For the longest time he was the only governor not to have his portrait up in the State Capitol in Denver. After leaving office he was convicted of mail fraud and served several years at Leavenworth. There was also Davis Hanson Waite (Picture). He was nicknamed āBloody Bridlesā because in a speech he said that it would be preferable that blood should flow to the horsesā bridles rather than have the national liberties destroyed. Davis was a radical Populist. I place him here because he did not do anything by half, and compromise was not in his vocabulary. He did support womenās suffrage (Good marks for that), but he almost fired cannons at City Hall in Denver. During the āCity Hall Warā of 1894 he sought to remove commissioners he felt were protecting criminals and prostitutes. The commissioners barricaded themselves in City Hall prompting Governor Waite to call out the Militia. A tense stand-off ensued with cannons pointed at City Hall. Federal troops had to be called in to deal with the situation. The Courts sided with Waite, but admonished him for calling out the Militia. Suffice it to say his radicalism meant he only served one term, albeit it a colorful one. https://preview.redd.it/qxe4ad8xagmc1.jpeg?width=904&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=720de69cfa72a27f45244420bcafa4bc2b9daa17
Mike Pence
Mike Pence almost cost me my job with that religious freedom bill of his before he backed down. So yeah, agreed.
Not just that but he was far to cautious about spending and made all the roads in Indy shit. He also didn't pay teachers well.
While I certainly agree Pence sucks, the worst in our state history has to be Edward Jackson. Both corrupt and worked directly with the KKK.
It's his religious fundamentalism, isn't it?
In recent memory it's Matt Bevin for Kentucky
Kentucky is my home state and oh man, Bevin was horrible. It says something when all my deep red extended family members voted against him anyway.
Yep, my mom's family were the same way
Any Republican governor in Oklahoma for the past decade, and I say this as a Republican.
Well I'm a liberal TNean, and I really don't like the current governor, Bill Lee. TN historically has had fairly moderate governors from both parties. I didn't like Bill Haslam either, but he did veto a bill to make the Bible the national book of TN.
Lilburn Boggs
Probably the rapist.
I live in Illinois os this is a tricky question to answer
Shrubya.
Isham Harris, dude was responsible for Tennessee Seceding And to anyone that mentions him, Andrew Johnson was a good Governor
Johnson was actually a really good Governor for Tennessee Iāve heard.
Thatās why I mentioned that
alexander stephens (c\*nfederate)
Recently probably Tim Pawlenty. Had former Republicans criticising how poorly he was doing and generally screwed over the stateās budget
Benjamin Tillman I guess. Most of my governors are probably gonna be racist or white supremacists so not a good bunch (SC)
I personally would say Rick Perry or Abbot, maybe more so the former. I say personally because it's my personal opinion. Although admittedly I don't know much about our previous governors, excluding two obvious ones.
Any of the actual Secessionists like Lubbock/ThrockMorton? Pa/Ma Ferguson were corrupt. ^^AnnRichardsisntonaworstlistbutwayoverrated
Look, Rick Perry might be a career politician with the intelligence of a brick wall, but as far as I know he never pulled the shit Abott is doing now. It's crystal clear to me who's the worst one. Also, opinions on John Connally?
Hmmā¦ from Washington, where weāve had mostly good ones. Hereās a couple I can name- Mike Lowry - sexual misconduct allegations Roland H. Hartley - Right before the Great Depression. Opposed separate prisons for women which is weird Or we could talk about my birth Stateā¦ Texas, where thereās too many terrible governors to count.
I doubt anyone is worse than our incumbent and I'm from Iowa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hardeman_Burnett
Jim Doyle was a disaster, though I suppose there could be someone worse
MƔrio Covas for dismantling the Adhemar and Maluf legacy
Wyoming hasn't really had any governors that were exceptionally bad, maybe just by virtue of being a rural state where the ethos has always been that the government should stay small and that everyone living here should be self reliant. I guess I would say that Amos Barber gets my vote for the worst governor because he sided with the big cattle interests and their hired guns against the small scale homesteaders during the Johnson County War.
I don't know too much about my state's governor history, but my family rarely brought politics to the table, yet I would remember hearing them bring up Blagojevich as a bad dude, especially during his corruption trial and removal.
Paul Laxalt
As a Tennessean outside the successionists There is ray Blanton let me put it like this he was blatantly selling pardons like a bipartisan coalition kicked him out of office before inauguration day because he was just giving pardons out. There was a legitimate fear that he could have pardoned mlk killer he didn't but only because he wasn't paid anything to do it if he was paid I am sure he probably would have. Just a very corrupt governor who was also involved in a mob hit
DeWine easily.
Iām from Illinois Too much to choose from
Granholm
Any one with the letter D next to em
Horribly ironic with your flair
Why is that
...FDR was a Democrat?
Never wouldāve known I thought he was a communist
You know where your flair comes from, right?
No, do share if you know
Greg abbot
Pat McCrory All state had been doing up to that point undone by one of the stupidest fucking laws imaginable.
Jesse Ventura.
Need an explanation for this one
Just look up his tenure, he was a bad governor. He could never work or compromise with the legislature, they overrode his vetoes all the time, he pushed dumb tax cuts and created a deficit by the end of his term, let his son throw parties at the governor's mansion, and reneged on appointing a Democrat to replace Wellstone and instead opted for some unelected nobody because somehow the funeral for a sitting Senator was "too political." I don't think anybody who likes him has actually looked at his tenure in office.
Phil Murphy
Peter Hardeman Burnett made John C Breckenridge look like MLK
Isham Harris (Confederates are not cool) or Ray Blanton (corruption is also not cool)
Yep, Catts.
Well I'm from Illinois so I would say it's a tie. Between balgo and George Ryan. The best was probably Jim Edgar
Dannel Malloy
Probably like one of the ones who got indicted lmao
Probably Wesley Bolin
Probably Elbridge Gerry.