Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association

The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association (DLGA) is a Washington, D.C.–based organization founded in 2018, consisting of U.S. state and territorial lieutenant governors affiliated with the Democratic Party. The focus of the group is on electing Democratic lieutenant governors and candidates. The DGLA's Republican counterpart is the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association and it is not affiliated with the nonpartisan National Lieutenant Governors Association.

Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association
Chair	Austin Davis (PA)
Vice Chair	Kim Driscoll (MA)
Founded	2018 (refounded)
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Affiliated	Democratic Party Democratic Governors Association
State lieutenant governors	22 / 50
Territorial lieutenant governors	2 / 5
Website
demlgs.org
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania Austin Davis is the current chair, and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts Kim Driscoll is the current vice chair.

History

2018 re-founding

The position of lieutenant governor has had a reputation for its lack of clear responsibilities or duties beyond being the first in the line of succession to be governor in many states. The DLGA was re-founded by Democratic lieutenant governors in 2018 seeking to change this by forming a national organization backing liberal candidates for the post and then support their members in other elections, as many tend to run for another office. At the time of its founding, there were only 14 Democratic lieutenant governors in office compared to 31 Republicans, who had founded their own organization— the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association— in 2002.^[1] The DLGA sought to function like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by funneling donations to candidates and coordinating messaging in the 2018 election and beyond.

Justin Fairfax of Virginia served as the group's first chair, but resigned in 2019 after being accused of sexual assault.^[2]

By 2020, the number of Democratic lieutenant governors increased from 14 to 24. The group's chair at the time, Kathy Hochul, focused strongly on recruiting and fundraising for candidates.^[3]

Austin Davis of Pennsylvania was elected the group's chair unopposed and Kim Driscoll of Massachusetts as vice chair in December 2024. He celebrated the diversity of the DLGA's membership, which is predominantly women or people of color at 80% in 2024 compared to just 12 women and 4 people of color serving as governors.^[4][5] In 2025, Davis stated that the group would make a major push to support its members running for open gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections in the 2026 United States elections.^[6]

Political donations and campaigns

2024

The DLGA dropped approximately $2 million in the lieutenant gubernatorial election in North Carolina, including a significant campaign to boost the eventual Republican nominee Hal Weatherman in the primary as he was considered a weaker candidate in the general election against eventual winner Rachel Hunt.^[5] It also spent around $1 million boosting lieutenant Governor of Delaware Bethany Hall-Long in the 2024 Delaware gubernatorial election, although she ultimately lost with 36.62% of the vote in the primary to Matt Meyer.^[7]

2025

In June 2025, the DLGA announced it would donate $1 million to Democratic nominee Ghazala Hashmi in the 2025 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election, which it said was the largest donation ever received by a lieutenant governor nominee in the state.^[8]

2026

The DLGA’s political operation announced it would back numerous lieutenant governors in open races, including: Peggy Flanagan for the open Senate seat in Minnesota, Juliana Stratton for the open Senate seat in Illinois, Garlin Gilchrist for the open gubernatorial election in Michigan, and Eleni Kounalakis for the open gubernatorial election in California. It would not endorse Antonio Delgado in New York, who is challenging incumbent governor Kathy Hochul.^[6]

Leadership

The DGLA is led by two elected Democratic lieutenant governors as chair and vice chair respectively as well as an executive director.

List of chairs

Chair	State	Term
Justin Fairfax	Virginia	2018-2019
Kathy Hochul	New York	2020-2021
Garlin Gilchrist	Michigan	2021-2022
Bethany Hall-Long	Delaware	2022-2023
Peggy Flanagan	Minnesota	2023-2024
Austin Davis	Pennsylvania	2024-present

List of executive directors

Executive director	Term
Roshan Patel	2018-2023
Kevin Holst	2023-present

List of current Democratic lieutenant governors

There are currently 20 Democratic lieutenant governors from states who are members of the DLGA, including 2 secretaries of state from Arizona and Oregon which do not have a lieutenant governor position.

Current lieutenant governor		State	Past	Took office	Current Term
	Adrian Fontes	Arizona	List[a]	2023	First term
	Eleni Kounalakis	California	List	2019	Second term
	Dianne Primavera	Colorado	List	2019	Second term
	Susan Bysiewicz	Connecticut	List	2019	Second term
	Kyle Evans Gay	Delaware	List	2025	First term
	Sylvia Luke	Hawaii	List	2022	First term
	Juliana Stratton	Illinois	List	2019	Second term
	David Toland	Kansas	List	2019	Second term
	Jacqueline Coleman	Kentucky	List	2019	Second term
	Aruna Miller	Maryland	List	2023	First term
	Kim Driscoll	Massachusetts	List	2023	First term
	Garlin Gilchrist	Michigan	List	2019	Second term
	Peggy Flanagan	Minnesota	List	2019	Second term
	Tahesha Way	New Jersey	List	2023 (appointed)	First term
	Howie Morales	New Mexico	List	2019	Second term
	Antonio Delgado	New York	List	2022(appointed)	First term
	Rachel Hunt	North Carolina	List	2025	First term
	Tobias Read	Oregon	List[b]	2025	First term
	Austin Davis	Pennsylvania	List	2023	First term
	Sabina Matos	Rhode Island	List	2021	Second term
	Denny Heck	Washington	List	2021	Second term
	Sara Rodriguez	Wisconsin	List	2023	First term

There are currently 2 Democratic lieutenant governors of U.S. territories.

Current lieutenant governor		Territory	Past	Took office	Current term
	Josh Tenorio	Guam	List	2019	Second term
	Tregenza Roach	U.S. Virgin Islands	List	2019	Second term

Notes

1. Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor position, the closest equivalent is the Secretary of State of Arizona.
2. Oregon does not have a lieutenant governor position, the closest equivalent is the Secretary of State of Oregon.