Though the CIO role is non-political, new governors usually lead to a new CIO — especially when the governor is from a different party.
Nov. 3 will bring gubernatorial elections to 36 states and three territories.
Those races include 18 incumbents who want to keep their jobs. Twenty-one incumbents are not seeking re-election or cannot because of term limits.
Primaries are still happening, but candidates, advisers and public agency tech professionals are gaming out the possibilities of new administrations, both for policy and personnel.
A wave of new CIOs is plausible, according to a Government Technology analysis.
Data from the Cook Political Report indicates that 20 states might have a new governor next year, whether from the same party or not. More specifically, seven states have a shot at a new governor from a different party.
Even if a new governor comes from the same party, the incumbent CIO might decide to leave, notes Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).
“They decide they are done,” he told Government Technology, and often “go into the private sector.”
Government Technology previously found that about 12 state CIOs leave their job each year, with 75 percent remaining after one year.
The past few months have brought their share of CIO departures.
Michigan CIO Laura Clark left state government to join Michigan State University, for instance — higher education being another common destination for state CIOs. More recently, California CIO Liana Bailey-Crimmins announced her retirement after nearly four years on the job and a career that lasted almost four decades.
Expect more retirements after the midterm elections, as CIO is usually not a job for the young. One estimate covering nearly 70,000 public- and non-public-sector CIOs in the U.S. found the average age of the CIO stands at 51.
The vast majority of CIOs — 81 percent — are men, and about 80 percent of CIOs are white. The lure of the private sector is strong, with 48 percent of CIOs preferring that over public service.
Historically, state CIOs have come from the private sector, Robinson said, but, more recently, those jobs have been filled by people with experience at the lower ranks of state government.
“We have several states right now where the deputy became the CIO,” he said, a group that includes NASCIO President J.R. Sloan, who took over as Arizona CIO in 2020. Minnesota made a similar move in March.
According to the Government Technology analysis, as of early March, the states with the highest chance to gain new governors from new parties — a virtual guarantee of CIO change — are Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.
The states most likely to have a new governor from the same party are Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wyoming.
No matter who they are, new CIOs in 2027 will take up a job that is rapidly changing, according to Robinson.
CIOs are becoming strategic business leaders, not just people who run IT, he said, and that means they are driving more “strategic decisions and take more risks about certain things.”
Particularly important for the successful CIO in 2027 is building and keeping relationships with lawmakers and other members of state government. That holds especially true as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence get further into the mainstream, and data centers attract more controversy.
Robinson said that in the past three years more than 1,000 AI-related proposals and bills have gone before state lawmakers, underscoring his point about how CIOs have broad responsibilities.
“This is an exciting area, and there are a lot of things going on,” he said. “There are lot of opportunities.”
A state CIO, of course, is also not the easiest gig. Robinson and NASCIO do what they can — the group has run workshops and offered resources to new state CIOs and emerging leaders, hoping to keep the talent pipeline running smoothly.
He recalled talking to one participant after a session for new CIOs, during which they learned about budgeting and testifying before lawmakers and a host of other duties.
“If I had known I had to do all this,” the person joked to Robinson, “I would have never done this.”
