<P> On two different occasions, a record nine out of 50 state governorships were held by women: first, between December 4, 2006, when Sarah Palin was inaugurated as the first female governor of Alaska, and January 14, 2008, when Kathleen Blanco left office as governor of Louisiana, and second, between January 10, 2009, when Beverly Perdue was inaugurated as governor of North Carolina, and January 20, 2009, when Ruth Ann Minner retired as governor of Delaware . </P> <P> The U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, though not states, have also had female chief executives: Governor Sila María Calderón and Mayors Sharon Pratt Kelly and Muriel Bowser, respectively . </P> <P> As of 2018, a total of 22 states have never had a female governor . Those states are: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin . Six of these states (Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah) have never even seen a major party nominate a female candidate in a gubernatorial election, even though eight consecutive female lieutenant governors have served in Minnesota, from 1982 to the present day . </P> <P> There have only been two ethnic minority female governors of states: Susana Martinez of New Mexico (Hispanic) and Nikki Haley of South Carolina (Indian American). All three territorial female governors have been ethnic minority: Sharon Pratt and Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. (both African American), and Sila María Calderón of Puerto Rico (Hispanic). </P>

Has there ever been a female governor of california