Editing Governor (section)

===United States=== <!--Linked from [[:Category:United States state governor templates]]-->
{{main|Governor (United States)}}

In the [[United States]], the title "Governor" refers to the head of each [[U.S. state|state]] or [[United States insular area|insular territory]]. Governors retain sovereign power over [[executive (government)|executive]] and [[judiciary]], are subordinate to the [[president of the United States]] and laws provided by the [[enumerated powers]] section of the federal constitution, and serve as the political and ceremonial head of the state. Nearly three-fourths of the states (36) hold gubernatorial elections in the same years as [[United States midterm election|midterm elections]] (two years offset from presidential elections). Eleven states hold them in the same years as presidential elections ([[Vermont]] and [[New Hampshire]] hold elections every two years in every even-numbered year), while the remaining five hold them in odd-numbered years (two in the year after a presidential election, three in the year before).

In colonial North America, governors were chosen in a variety of ways, depending on how the colony was organized. In the [[crown colony|crown colonies]] of Great Britain, France, and Spain, the governor was chosen by the ruling monarch of the colonizing power or his designees; in British colonies, the [[Board of Trade]] was often the primary decision maker. Colonies based on a corporate charter, such as the [[Connecticut Colony]] and the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], elected their own governors based on rules spelt out in the charter or other colonial legislation. In [[Proprietary colony|proprietary colonies]], such as the [[Province of Carolina]] before it became a crown colony (and was divided into [[Province of North Carolina|North]] and [[Province of South Carolina|South]]), governors were chosen by the [[Lords Proprietor]] who controlled the colony. In the early years of the [[American Revolutionary War]], eleven of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] evicted (with varying levels of violence) royal and proprietary governors. The other two colonies ([[Connecticut]] and [[Rhode Island]]) had corporate charters; Connecticut Governor [[Jonathan Trumbull]] was governor before and during the war period, while in Rhode Island, Governor [[Joseph Wanton]] was removed from office in 1775 for failing to support the rebel war effort.

Before achieving statehood, many of the fifty states were [[Territories of the United States|territories]]. Administered by the federal government, they had governors who were appointed by the [[President of the United States|president]] and confirmed by the [[United States Senate|Senate]] rather than elected by the resident population.