The lieutenant governor of Maryland is the second highest-ranking official in the

executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a State (polity), state. In poli ...

of the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

in the United States. The officeholder is elected on the same ticket as the

governor of Maryland The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

and must meet the same qualifications. The current lieutenant governor is

Boyd Rutherford Boyd Kevin Rutherford (born April 1, 1957) is an American politician, businessman and attorney serving as the ninth lieutenant governor of Maryland since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Rutherford was nominated by President George W. Bu ...

History

The position was first created by the

Maryland Constitution of 1864 The Maryland Constitution of 1864 was the third of the four constitutions which have governed the U.S. state of Maryland. A controversial product of the Civil War and in effect only until 1867, when the state's present constitution was adopted, ...

. Under that system of government, the lieutenant governor served as

president of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for e ...

and would assume the office of governor if the incumbent should die, resign, be removed, or be disqualified. The state's present constitution, adopted in 1867, abolished the lieutenant governorship. However, the position was re-established by a constitutional amendment ratified on November 3, 1970.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the 1970 amendment, the lieutenant governor "shall have only the duties delegated to him by the governor." Maryland's lieutenant governorship is thus weaker than the office in several, but not all, other states that have one. For instance, in many states, including Texas, the lieutenant governor is the president of the state's Senate and in California the lieutenant governor assumes ''all'' of the governor's powers when the governor is out of the state. In both of those states, as in some others, the lieutenant governor is elected independently of the state's governor. In practice, Maryland's lieutenant governor attends cabinet meetings, chairs various task forces and commissions, represents the state at ceremonial functions and at events with or without the governor, and advises the governor. If the governor dies, resigns or is removed from office (via impeachment conviction), the lieutenant governor becomes governor. A vacancy in the lieutenant governorship is filled by a person nominated by the governor and confirmed by a majority vote of the General Assembly voting in joint session.

List of lieutenant governors

;Parties

Lieutenant governors under the Maryland Constitution of 1864

Lieutenant governors under the Maryland Constitution of 1867

Constitution amended November 4, 1970, to create the office of Lieutenant Governor.

Living former lieutenant governors

, there are five living former lieutenant governors of Maryland, the oldest lieutenant governor of Maryland being

J. Joseph Curran, Jr. J. Joseph Curran Jr. (born July 7, 1931) is an American lawyer and the longest serving elected Attorney General (1987 to 2007) in Maryland history, and previously the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1983 to 1987. His son-in-law, M ...

(served 1983–1987, born 1931). The most recent and most recently serving lieutenant governor to die was Samuel W. Bogley (served 1979–1983, born 1941), on March 10, 2022.

References

*Maryland State Archives. (October 20, 2017). ''Maryland Manual On-Line: A Guide to Maryland Government''.
Lieutenant Governor
. Retrieved August 15, 2020. {{Lists of lieutenant governors by U.S. state

Lieut A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often s ...

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