Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Flag of Pennsylvania
Incumbent Austin Davis since January 17, 2023
Residence	State House
Term length	Four years, renewable once
Inaugural holder	John Latta
Formation	1873
Salary	$157,765 (2014)
Website	ltgovernor.state.pa.us

The lieutenant governor is a constitutional officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lieutenant governor is elected for a four-year term in the same year as the governor. Each party picks a candidate for lieutenant governor independently of the gubernatorial primary. The winners of the party primaries are then teamed together as a single ticket for the fall general election. The lieutenant governor presides in the Pennsylvania State Senate and is first in the line of succession to the governor; in the event the governor dies, resigns, or otherwise leaves office, the lieutenant governor becomes governor. The Lieutenant Governor casts tie breaking votes in the State Senate.

The office of lieutenant governor was created by the Constitution of 1873. As with the governor's position, the Constitution of 1968 made lieutenant governors eligible to succeed themselves for one additional four-year term. The position's only official duties are serving as president of the state senate and chairing the Board of Pardons and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council. Lieutenant governors often work on additional projects and have a full schedule of community and speaking events.

Until 2019, Pennsylvania was the only state that provided an official residence, State House at Fort Indiantown Gap, for its lieutenant governor. Constructed in 1940 and previously the governor's "summer residence", it became available for Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor in 1968 when the current governor's residence was completed in Harrisburg. It was transferred to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs after legislation to do so passed in 2019.

Austin Davis is the current lieutenant governor, having taken office on January 17, 2023.

List of lieutenant governors

Parties

      Democratic (11)       Republican (24)

#	Image	Name	Term	Governor(s) served under	Party
1		John Latta	1875–1879	John F. Hartranft	Democratic
2		Charles Warren Stone	1879–1883	Henry M. Hoyt	Republican
3		Chauncey Forward Black	1883–1887	Robert E. Pattison	Democratic
4		William T. Davies	1887–1891	James A. Beaver	Republican
5		Louis Arthur Watres	1891–1895	Robert E. Pattison	Republican
6		Walter Lyon	1895–1899	Daniel H. Hastings	Republican
7		John P. S. Gobin	1899–1903	William A. Stone	Republican
8		William M. Brown	1903–1907	Samuel W. Pennypacker	Republican
9		Robert S. Murphy	1907–1911	Edwin Sydney Stuart	Republican
10		John M. Reynolds	1911–1915	John K. Tener	Republican
11		Frank B. McClain	1915–1919	Martin Grove Brumbaugh	Republican
12		Edward E. Beidleman	1919–1923	William Cameron Sproul	Republican
13		David J. Davis	1923–1927	Gifford Pinchot	Republican
14		Arthur H. James	1927–1931	John Stuchell Fisher	Republican
15		Edward C. Shannon	1931–1935	Gifford Pinchot	Republican
16		Thomas Kennedy	1935–1939	George Howard Earle III	Democratic
17		Samuel S. Lewis	1939–1943	Arthur James	Republican
18		John Cromwell Bell Jr.	1943–1947	Edward Martin	Republican
19		Daniel B. Strickler	1947–1951	James H. Duff	Republican
20		Lloyd H. Wood	1951–1955	John S. Fine	Republican
21		Roy E. Furman	1955–1959	George M. Leader	Democratic
22		John Morgan Davis	1959–1963	David L. Lawrence	Democratic
23	.	Raymond P. Shafer	1963–1967	William Scranton	Republican
24		Raymond J. Broderick	1967–1971	Raymond P. Shafer	Republican
25		Ernest P. Kline	1971–1979	Milton Shapp	Democratic
26		William Scranton III	1979–1987	Dick Thornburgh	Republican
27		Mark Singel	1987–1995	Robert P. Casey	Democratic
28		Mark S. Schweiker	1995–2001	Tom Ridge	Republican
29		Robert C. Jubelirer	2001–2003	Mark S. Schweiker	Republican
30		Catherine Baker Knoll	2003–2008	Ed Rendell	Democratic
31		Joseph B. Scarnati III	2008–2011	Ed Rendell	Republican
32		Jim Cawley	2011–2014	Tom Corbett	Republican
33		Mike Stack	2015–2018	Tom Wolf	Democratic
34		John Fetterman	2019–2023	Tom Wolf	Democratic
35		Austin Davis	2023–present	Josh Shapiro	Democratic

List of acting lieutenant governors

• Jake Corman – From May 17, 2022, to May 23, 2022, Corman served as acting lieutenant governor while Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman had a pacemaker implanted and recovered.
• Kim Ward – John Fetterman resigned as lieutenant governor to serve in the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2023, Ward served as acting lieutenant governor until January 17, 2023, when Lieutenant Governor-elect Austin Davis was sworn in.

Vice-presidents of Pennsylvania

From 1777 to 1790 the executive branch of Pennsylvania's state government was headed by a Supreme Executive Council consisting of a representative of each county and of the City of Philadelphia. The Vice President of the Council—also known as the Vice-President of Pennsylvania—held a position analogous to the modern office of lieutenant governor. Presidents and vice-presidents were elected to one-year terms and could serve up to three years—the full length of their regular term as Counsellor. Ten men served as Vice-President during the time of the Council's existence.

• George Bryan 1777–1779
• Matthew Smith 1779
• William Moore 1779–1781
• James Potter 1781–1782
• James Ewing 1782–1784
• James Irvine 1784–1785
• Charles Biddle 1785–1787
• Peter Muhlenberg 1787–1788
• David Redick 1788
• George Ross 1788–1790