“When you’ve got governors with stratospheric approval ratings for their handling of the crisis and ratings that are 20 and 30 points higher than the president’s and you have governors from states like California and New York and Illinois leading the crisis response — all big-name, major-league governors — you’re going to see that leadership reflected in polls for the presidency in future election years,” said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist. “This is the kind of stuff that gets forged and built into your resume.”

In their responses to the virus’ spread, governors across the country are issuing stay-at-home orders, closing businesses and marshaling mammoth health care efforts in their states. People who do not follow politics are tuning into livestreams of their governors for the first time — and learning the names of governors of other states.

The novel coronavirus "is really right in the wheelhouse of governors. … This is one where they really are center stage, and it’s not a surprise that you’re seeing good reviews for governors because this is what they do every day,” said Jim Hodges, a former Democratic governor of South Carolina. “Things like this give them a chance to shine and for people to become household names. … I do think it is a moment in which a number have stepped forward in a way to burnish their credentials as national leaders.”

Nowhere is that more obvious than in New York, where New York Gov. Cuomo’s favorability rating rocketed to 71 percent — up 27 percentage points from last month. Trump has mused that Cuomo would be a tougher rival than Biden.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is also getting an introduction to a national audience. Doctors are closely watching California — where Newsom issued the nation’s first coronavirus-related statewide stay-at-home mandate — and are cautiously optimistic that efforts there might help suppress a surge in infections.

Trump’s criticism of Whitmer, the Michigan governor, may have done more to boost her national profile than the Democratic response she gave to his State of the Union speech earlier this year. As they’ve feuded over the federal government’s lagging coronavirus response, Trump’s dismissal of Whitmer as “the woman in Michigan” has inspired T-shirts memorializing the phrase — a “nevertheless, she persisted” for the coronavirus era.

Recent election cycles have been agonizing for current and former governors who aspire to be president — a class of politicians who once ascended regularly to the White House but whose stars have faded in a Washington-centric world.