The following is a list of Governors of the state of Minnesota and Minnesota Territory. The governor serves as head of the executive branch of the state's government and is charged with ensuring the faithful execution of the state's laws. He or she is empowered to name state commissioners and department heads and to approve or veto bills passed by the legislature. The governor also serves as commander-in-chief of the state's military and navy forces.

Henry H. Sibley was elected the first governor in a statewide election held on October 13, 1857 and took office following Minnesota's entry into the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858. At the time, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected on separate ballots to terms lasting two years. Prior to 1886, statewide elections were held on odd years. Because of this change (the result of an 1883 state constitutional amendment), Lucius F. Hubbard's second term as governor lasted three years. With the passage of a 1958 state constitutional amendment, the terms of governor and lieutenant governor increased to four-years in 1963. A 1972 state constitutional amendment provided for the joint election of the governor and lieutenant governor starting in 1974.

Minnesota (ⁱ/mɪnɨˈsoʊtə/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Minnesota is the 12th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the U.S. states. Nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"), the center of transportation, business, industry and education and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.

Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. After service in World War II, from 1948 to 1953 he was president of the University of Pennsylvania. In popular culture his name has become most identified with his fame as a perennial candidate for other offices, most notably and frequently President of the United States.

Stassen, the fourth of five children, was born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, to Elsie Emma (née Mueller) and William Andrew Stassen, a farmer and several times mayor of West St. Paul. He was of Norwegian, German and Czech ancestry. He graduated from high school at age 14. At the University of Minnesota Stassen was an intercollegiate debater, captain of the champion university rifle team in 1927, and received bachelor's and law degrees in 1929. After opening a law office with Elmer J. Ryan in South St. Paul that year, he was elected District Attorney of Dakota County in 1930 and 1934, then elected Governor of Minnesota in 1938. Stassen was seen as an "up and comer" after delivering the keynote address at the 1940 Republican National Convention. There he worked to help Wendell Willkie win the Republican Party (GOP) nomination for the presidency.

Tom Horner (born July 23, 1950) is a Minnesota politician and a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota. He was a candidate in the 2010 election for Governor of Minnesota.

Horner received his bachelor's degree from the University of St. Thomas. In 1978, he worked as press secretary for Republican U.S. Senate candidate and future Senator David Durenberger. After Durenberger was elected, Horner served as Durenberger's press secretary and chief of staff.

After serving in Washington, Horner returned to Minnesota, where he co-founded Himle Horner Inc., a public affairs firm. He also served as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas, where he taught courses on communication and public affairs.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, Horner announced that he would run for Governor, seeking the endorsement of the Independence Party. Horner, who had previously identified as a Republican, said he was running because both Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and Republican candidates had become too extreme in their views. Horner was endorsed by his former boss, Durenberger, as well as former congressman and gubernatorial candidate Tim Penny.

Thomas Earl "Tom" Emmer, Jr. (born March 3, 1961) was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2005 until 2011 and the Republican nominee for governor in the 2010 election. He represented District 19B, which includes portions of Wright and Hennepin Counties and the cities of Otsego, Albertville, St. Michael, Rockford, Delano, Montrose, and Waverly. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up in Edina, Minnesota.

Emmer attended St. Thomas Academy, an all-male, Catholic, military, college-preparatory high school, located in Mendota Heights near Saint Paul. He then attended Boston College followed by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1984. He also played hockey for both schools. He received a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1988.

Prior to his election to the House, Emmer served as a member of the Independence and Delano City Councils.

In 2004, incumbent Republican State Representative Dick Borrell, of Minnesota's 19B House District, decided to retire. Emmer decided to run and defeated Democrat Lori M. Schmidt, an attorney, 60%-40%. In 2006, he won re-election to a second term with 61% of the vote. In 2008, he won re-election to a third term with 61% of the vote. In 2010, he decided to retire in order to run for Governor of Minnesota.