How to Use incumbent in a Sentence

incumbent

1 of 2 noun
  • Voters will have the chance to see the incumbent and her opponent in a series of three debates.
  • Incumbents often have an advantage in elections.
  • This was the third time an incumbent has not been in the race.
    — Zachary Smith, cleveland, 14 Nov. 2022
  • There will be more races to be run, more incumbents to replace.
    — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 1 July 2026
  • But that was a jump-ball election, with no incumbent in the race.
    — Steven P. Dinkin, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Nov. 2020
  • Their main duty is to elect a new pope when the incumbent dies or resigns.
    — Grayson Quay, The Week, 7 June 2022
  • Bruce is the incumbent in Zone 3.
    — Idaho Statesman, 15 Oct. 2025
  • The incumbent is seeking a third term.
    — David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Two of them don’t have incumbents running.
    — Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Many who would likely have voted for the incumbent crossed the aisle to vote blue.
    — Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, 8 July 2020
  • Think of it, rather, as a show of reverence for the incumbents.
    — Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Five of the seven incumbents lost their races, some by a landslide.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 6 May 2026
  • Between the current incumbent and me, there is a bit more.
    — Kevin Fixler may 3, Idaho Statesman, 3 May 2026
  • Hill is a four-term incumbent and is seeking a fifth term in this year's election.
    — Ryan Tarinelli, Arkansas Online, 14 Mar. 2022
  • One incumbent held on, while a seventh race remained too close to call.
    — Tiago Ventura, Time, 6 May 2026
  • This time, two of six incumbents will keep their seats – Rankin and Sneed.
    — Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 5 Nov. 2025
  • At this point the incumbents in these districts are strong favorites.
    — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 26 June 2018
  • What's more, the rate of reelection is very high for incumbents.
    — Domenico Montanaro, NPR, 9 Feb. 2026
  • The incumbent is the clear choice in this primary.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Kim Nixon is the incumbent for Zone 4.
    — Idaho Statesman, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Of those, 14 had an incumbent on the ballot.
    — Craig Gilbert, jsonline.com, 26 Aug. 2025
  • There are also two new districts in the mix and six districts with no incumbent.
    — Rémy Numa, Fox News, 1 Mar. 2022
  • The same two men are running for governor, but one of them now is an incumbent with a record.
    — Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 21 June 2022
  • The incumbent that owns the data tends to absorb the new layer rather than be erased by it.
    — Jon Markman, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
  • Paxton and incumbent John Cornyn will face off again in a run off.
    — Luke Fountain, CNBC, 19 May 2026
  • But incumbents weren't the only one who came out on top Tuesday.
    — Daniel Bice, Journal Sentinel, 3 Apr. 2024
  • Patients would feel overwhelmed by the task and the power of the incumbents.
    — Robert Pearl, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
  • What does that mean for incumbents like the United States?
    — Chris Perry, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Three of the competitive seats are held by incumbents, while eight races are wide open.
    — Jon Regardie, Los Angeles Times, 1 May 2026
  • Raman won enough votes to force a runoff in the fall against incumbent David Ryu.
    — NBC News, 14 June 2020

incumbent

2 of 2 adjective
  • All incumbent board members have filed to run.
    — Kate Armanini, Chicago Tribune, 26 May 2026
  • Most incumbent players don’t want to change.
    — Mike Hoffman, Fortune, 28 Sep. 2025
  • With that said, incumbent teams will still hold plenty of leverage.
    — Bryan Toporek, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
  • And two, one of the Rangers’ incumbent starters may find their way into a bullpen role.
    — Shawn McFarland, Dallas News, 2 Aug. 2023
  • In four of those races, there is an incumbent governor who is a woman.
    — Sarah Ewall-Wice, CBS News, 25 Aug. 2022
  • Both ran to replace incumbent Jian Sun, who chose not to run again.
    — Alec Johnson, Journal Sentinel, 4 Apr. 2023
  • But those may be hard states to crack with incumbent senators running.
    — Bill Glauber, Todd Spangler and Ali Schmitz, Detroit Free Press, 8 Feb. 2018
  • In more than 50 years, no incumbent member of the House has faced one.
    — Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 3 Jan. 2026
  • The same logic is now visible on the incumbent side.
    — Azeem Khan, Forbes.com, 23 June 2026
  • Democrats can afford to lose just one of the 23 incumbent seats on the map next year and stay in power.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 9 Aug. 2023
  • New York's incumbent standouts, too, are looking to step up.
    — Alex Kirschenbaum, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Johnson was twenty years younger, and as the incumbent mayor, didn’t seem to be doing a bad job.
    — Cassie Werber, Quartz, 18 July 2019
  • Every six years, incumbent judges are part of a long line of their peers who voters must decide to retain or not.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 1 May 2026
  • Might be incumbent on the defense to force those turnovers for this game to end Wisconsin's way.
    — Jr Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 25 Sep. 2021
  • Just one incumbent president has been defeated in the last four decades.
    — Steve Peoples, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Aug. 2020
  • What does all that mean for the big incumbent studios, labels, and publishers?
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Still, the incumbent senator has maintained a small lead in most surveys.
    — Joey Garrison, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2020
  • The city has also re-elected an incumbent council member and brought a new face to the panel.
    — J.d. Duggan, Twin Cities, 5 Nov. 2019
  • All are running in primaries against incumbent Democrats.
    — Garrett Downs, CNBC, 1 May 2026
  • And the incumbent governor said, in contrast, his progress has been solid.
    — Yereth Rosen, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Oct. 2022
  • But at some point, many of the incumbent figures will have to face the specter of their eventual replacements.
    — Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz, USA TODAY, 29 Apr. 2020
  • And each portrays the other as someone who would lose to the incumbent governor.
    — Steven Lemongello, Orlando Sentinel, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Shaw is one of three incumbent Black judges who lost their primary reelection bids.
    — Molly Smith, San Antonio Express-News, 20 Mar. 2026
  • One of many challenges facing the incumbent president in his quest for re-election.
    — ABC News, 24 Sep. 2023
  • Headcount growth among incumbent firms offset, to a small degree, the headcount decline caused by list churn.
    — Claire Zillman, Fortune, 19 June 2026
  • And oddly enough this time, Musk is copying some of his incumbent rivals, rather than blazing his own trail.
    — Bychristiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 16 Aug. 2023
  • This is the latest in my series of stories about incumbent Dolphins.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 20 Feb. 2026
  • This year, three incumbent council members faced challengers, and there was no bond proposal.
    — Rachel Royster may 5, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 May 2026
  • One of the hardest things to do in politics is to defeat an incumbent governor.
    — CBS News, 11 Nov. 2022
  • The news of Amazon’s entry had a predictable effect on incumbent firms.
    — The Economist, 5 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'incumbent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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