The Governor of Michigan is the chief executive of the U.S. State of Michigan. The current Governor is Rick Snyder, a member of the Republican Party.

From statehood until the election of 1966, governors were elected to two-year terms. Elections are held in November and the governor assumes office the following January, except in the case of death or resignation. From statehood until 1851, elections were held in odd-numbered years. A new state constitution was drafted in 1850 and took effect in 1851. As part of the process bringing the constitution into effect, there was a single one-year term of governor in 1851. Thereafter elections were held on even years.

The constitution adopted in 1963 changed the governor's term to four years, starting in 1967. Since then, gubernatorial elections have been offset by two years from U.S. Presidential elections (e.g., Presidential elections were in 2000 and 2004, gubernatorial elections were in 1998 and 2002). The winner of the gubernatorial election takes office at noon on January 1 of the year following the election.

Michigan (ⁱ/ˈmɪʃɨɡən/) is a state located in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". Michigan is the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and the largest city is Detroit. Michigan was admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837 as the 26th state.

Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is one of the leading U.S. states for recreational boating. The state has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles (9.7 km) from a natural water source or more than 85 miles (137 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline. It is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River.

Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The Upper Peninsula is economically important due to its status as a tourist destination. There is also a variety of natural resources to be found there, including a sizable amount of iron ore.

Richard Dale "Rick" Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, and Governor of Michigan. A member of the Republican Party, he assumed office as the 48th governor of Michigan on January 1, 2011. From 2005 to 2007, Snyder served as the chairman of the board of Gateway, Inc., based in Irvine, California. Previous to his election as governor, he was chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based venture capital firm Ardesta LLC. Snyder has been mentioned as a possible pick to be the Republican Party candidate for Vice President of the United States in 2012. Snyder's business executive background and positive style have been cited as assets, with his accomplishments seen as strengthening the case for electing Mitt Romney as President.

Snyder was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, the son of Helen Louella "Pody" and Dale F. Snyder. Snyder earned his B.G.S., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of Michigan by age 23. When he was 16, he took a business class at Kellogg Community College on weekends. By his senior year of high school, Snyder earned 23 college credits. Snyder visited the admissions office of the University of Michigan in November 1975 and spoke with the admissions director, who recommended that Snyder attend Michigan and create his own degree.

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-born American politician, educator, author and political commentator who served as Attorney General and 47th Governor of the U.S. state of Michigan. A member of the Democratic Party, Granholm became Michigan's first female governor on January 1, 2003, when she succeeded Governor John Engler. Granholm was re-elected on November 7, 2006, and was sworn in for her second and, due to term limits, final term on January 1, 2007. She has been mentioned as a potential Supreme Court justice for President Barack Obama. She was a member of the transition team for the presidency of President Obama before he assumed office on January 20, 2009. After leaving office, Granholm took a position at the University of California at Berkeley and, with her husband Daniel Mulhern, coauthored A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Future, released in September 2011. Since leaving office, Granholm became host of The War Room with Jennifer Granholm on Current TV.

Mark Schauer (born October 2, 1961) is the former U.S. Representative for Michigan's 7th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

He was previously a member of the Michigan Senate, where he served as the Minority Leader, and the Michigan House of Representatives.

Schauer was defeated for reelection in 2010 by Tim Walberg in a rematch of their 2008 race. His term ended January 2011.

Schauer was born in Howell, Michigan, the son of Robert and Myra Schauer. He was valedictorian of his high school class and graduated summa cum laude from Albion College in 1984, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Phi Beta Kappa and the Gerald R Ford Institute for Public Policy at Albion College.

Schauer worked as an urban planner for the Calhoun County Planning Department, 1984–1987, while he completed a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. A few years after graduating in 1987, he accepted a position in program development for the Community Action Agency in Battle Creek. Shortly afterwards, the director left for another position and Schauer was selected to run the CAA, which then consisted of 200 employees, had a 21-member board of directors and offered a broad range of programs for the poor, including home weatherization, a foster grandparent program, food assistance and the local Head Start Program for children.