The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial governor, also served as state governor several years later. State governors are elected to office by popular vote, but territorial governors were appointed to the office by the United States president. The current governor of Minnesota is DFLer Mark Dayton.

Like the U.S. President, the governor has veto power over bills passed by the Minnesota State Legislature. As in most states, but unlike the U.S. President, the governor can also make line-item vetoes, where specific provisions in bills can be stripped out while allowing the overall bill to be signed into law.

The minimum required age of a candidate for the Governor of Minnesota is 25 years (having been a Minnesota resident for one year before the election).

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.

Mark Brandt Dayton (born January 26, 1947) is an American politician, the 40th and current Governor of the state of Minnesota. Dayton previously served as United States Senator from Minnesota from 2001 to 2007 in the 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses. A member of the Minnesota DFL Party, Dayton was Minnesota State Auditor from 1991 to 1995.

Dayton was the DFL nominee in the November 2010 gubernatorial election. He defeated the Republican Party of Minnesota nominee Tom Emmer and Independence Party of Minnesota nominee Tom Horner in the general election, and took office on January 3, 2011.

Dayton was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Gwendolen May (née Brandt) and Bruce Bliss Dayton. He is a great-grandson of businessman George Dayton. Dayton grew up in Long Lake, Minnesota. He attended Long Lake Elementary School (now closed) and The Blake School in Hopkins, from which he graduated in 1965.

In 1969, he graduated cum laude from Yale University, where he played goalie for the varsity hockey team. He also joined Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, whose membership at the time included George W. Bush. Dayton worked as a teacher for two years in New York City, and then as chief financial officer of a social service agency in Boston, Massachusetts. Dayton served as a legislative assistant to Senator Walter Mondale. He ran for the United States Senate in 1982, losing to Republican incumbent David Durenberger.