Report Authors Discuss First Ever Governors Ranking

Today, the American Legislative Exchange Council released its first ever Governors ranking, the 2020 Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom. The scorecard ranks America’s 50 governors based on policy performance and result, as well as executive leadership before and after the start of the COVID-19 health crisis.

“State executives implement policy and respond to crisis in dramatically different ways. At such a critical decision point, voters need fact-based, nonpartisan data to judge their leaders and hold them accountable. The objective data voters need is all about economics, and it’s all found in this ranking.”

Dr. Arthur B. Laffer

Each governor is awarded an overall rank, a results rank and a policy rank, which is expanded to list the exact criteria used so readers can clearly identify how their state leader stacks up and why. Governors and taxpayers can also use the criteria to determine state policy areas that need improvement, such as tax and spending policy, handling of federal funds from the CARES Act and economic competitiveness data. The 20 variables used to rank the governors equip readers, voters and taxpayers with an objective analysis so they can make an informed opinion.