Your Governor Is Being Graded Every Week. Here Is How to Read the Report Card.

Who actually checks whether a governor is any good?

Be honest. If I asked you right now whether your governor is doing a good job, what would you base your answer on? A campaign ad. A clip that made you mad. Maybe a vague sense that gas costs too much. That is not your fault. Nobody hands you a report card for the person running your state, even though that person has more to do with your commute, your kid's school, and your grocery bill than almost anyone in Washington.

I'm Brooke Scovens, this is my first column here, and that missing report card is exactly the thing this site builds. Every Monday, US Political Rank publishes the Governor Performance Rankings: all 50 governors, scored on 263 separate metrics each, which works out to 13,150 graded items every single week (US Political Rank, Governor Performance Rankings, week of June 29, 2026). My job in this column is to translate what those numbers mean for you, and to push back when anyone, in either party, tries to talk past them.

What 263 metrics look like at your kitchen table

Forget the spreadsheet for a second. The 263 metrics boil down to questions you already ask. Are there jobs here, and do they pay enough to live on? Are people moving into your state or packing up and leaving it? When you call 911, does help come, and do you feel safe letting your kid bike to the park? Can a normal family afford a house, day care, and the electric bill in the same month?

Then come the questions you would ask if you had time. Is the state budget honest or held together with tape? Are the schools teaching kids to read? Can you see a doctor without driving two hours? Do the roads and bridges get fixed? Does the governor answer questions in public, or hide? What do the people who actually live there say? Each governor gets scored on all of it, against a maximum of 1,653 points, and the score is shown as a simple percentage (US Political Rank, governors data, June 29, 2026). Party is not one of the 263 things measured. A ribbon-cutting is not either. Results are.

Three real governors, three real numbers

Here is what the board says this week, and remember these are the actual live scores, not my opinions. Utah's Spencer Cox, a Republican, sits at number 1 with 1,150 of a possible 1,653 points, or 69.6 percent (US Political Rank, week of June 29, 2026). Read that number again. The best-graded governor in America is pulling a 69.6. On this scale nobody gets an A, because no state has cheap housing, great schools, safe streets, and a clean budget all at once. Even Cox's own report card shows cost of living as his weakest column, which any family shopping for a house in Salt Lake City could have told you.

North Carolina's Josh Stein, a Democrat, ranks 19th at 50.9 percent, the highest-scoring Democrat on this week's board (US Political Rank, week of June 29, 2026). And at the very bottom, ranked 50th, is California's Gavin Newsom at 16.0 percent. You do not have to like or dislike any of these men to find that spread useful. It tells you the grading actually spreads people out instead of clustering everyone politely in the middle.

Now, the fair question you should ask me: this week's top ten are all Republicans, so is the ruler bent? Look for yourself. The full scoring data is public at the site's own feed, every governor, every category, every week (US Political Rank, governors data API, June 29, 2026). The same 263 questions get asked of Cox and Newsom alike, and Democrats like Stein land ahead of plenty of Republicans, including Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma at 42.6 and Tate Reeves of Mississippi at 38.1. When a score surprises you, the move is to open the categories and see which numbers did it, not to assume someone put a thumb on the scale. That habit will serve you with every ranking anyone ever shows you, including ours.

Why this particular week matters

Two things happened while you were buying hot dog buns for the Fourth, and both of them flow straight into these grades. On Wednesday, July 1, a new fiscal year quietly began in 46 states (National Association of State Budget Officers, Budget Processes in the States). That means the budgets governors signed this spring are now the law your state lives under. Every gimmick, every honest reserve fund, every school funding line item just went live, and the budget and fiscal columns on the board will reflect it in the weeks ahead.

Then on Thursday, July 2, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the country added just 57,000 jobs in June, less than half the roughly 115,000 economists expected, while the share of adults working or looking for work fell to 61.5 percent, the lowest since March 2021 (BLS, Employment Situation, June 2026; CNBC, July 2, 2026). That is a national number, but jobs are graded state by state on this board, and a national slowdown never lands evenly. Some states will shrug it off. Some will not. The economic scores over the next month will tell you which governor is which, and with 36 governorships on the ballot this November, those columns are about to become campaign ammunition; you can see how the races themselves stack up in the 2026 governor races ranking.

Exactly what to watch Monday

The board refreshes Monday, July 6 (US Political Rank, Governor Performance Rankings, next update July 6, 2026). Here is your homework, and it takes five minutes. Find your own governor first, then check whether the number moved from last week and which category moved it. Watch whether Cox holds the top spot; his lead over second-place Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire is 6.5 points, which is real but not untouchable. Watch the budget and fiscal column now that the new fiscal year is live in 46 states. And watch the bottom five, because in a year when 36 states elect governors, a last-place grade stops being trivia and starts being a campaign issue. The whole board sits on one page at the USPR Leaderboard. Your governor gets graded Monday morning whether you look or not. Look.