Four sitting governors are among the candidates currently running for president.

While they're out on the campaign trail stumping and fundraising, they also have their own states to run.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson talks with former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder about the challenges of doing both things well. Gov. Wilder briefly sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1991, while he was governor.

Interview Highlights

Does running for president distract a governor from running their state?

"Totally — and so much so that I announced that I was running in September and announced that I was withdrawing in December."

"Virginia is a one term governorship. One term of four years — you have nothing else. Consequently, even those people who supported me strongly for governor thought that it would not be good for me to divert my attention, to give anything other than fullest attention to the affairs of the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I had to. I inherited $2.2 billion shortfall. You could imagine what that would be like today. I needed to make certain that we could weather that storm. As a Democrat it was expected that I would be raising taxes and that I was liberal and that consequently that would be the way out. We balanced the budget. We didn't raise taxes a dime. I established a rainy day fund, put it in the state Constitution, every governor since that time has had to rely upon it and has done so."

What about those that have run successfully — is it a mistake for a governor to run for president?

"Not at all. As a matter of fact, I thought that a governor would win in 1992 and as a matter of fact, he did — Bill Clinton did. Look at it this way — people coming from Congress and coming from the Senate haven't been a success."

What about President Obama (who came from the Senate)?

"Very, very fortunate. To the extent that he inherited a situation that was absolutely great for him. He was running against the Iraq War. He was running against the stagnation of the economy. And those two things, particularly when you consider that Hillary had not positioned herself sufficiently from the Iraq War, and she paid a price for that. ... I was one of the earlier supporters of Barack Obama because I thought he had all of the materials, the ingredients, the smarts. And he had served long enough in the legislatures of the Senate in Illinois and in the Senate to not be jaded by the spirit of Washington. I think he is a remarkable exception."

Will the states whose governors are running for president suffer?

"They don't have to. In my case, they would have, because I thought ... that I couldn't run on a part time basis. I don't see how you could do it part time. You've got to be out there pretty much full time."