How to Use incumbent in a Sentence

incumbent

1 of 2 noun
Definition of incumbentnext
Synonyms for incumbentnext
  • 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
  • The incumbent had served on the council for a dozen years.
    — The Indianapolis Star, 3 May 2023
  • Does the incumbent have a track record of leading projects?
    — Celeste Pewter, Teen Vogue, 3 Nov. 2017
  • That’s part of the challenge of not being the incumbent.
    — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2022
  • One big given is the presence of an incumbent in the race.
    — Craig Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Patients would feel overwhelmed by the task and the power of the incumbents.
    — Robert Pearl, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
  • Many who would likely have voted for the incumbent crossed the aisle to vote blue.
    — Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, 8 July 2020
  • Their main duty is to elect a new pope when the incumbent dies or resigns.
    — Grayson Quay, The Week, 7 June 2022
  • Nine of the twelve incumbents who sought reëlection won.
    — John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2020
  • But that was a jump-ball election, with no incumbent in the race.
    — Steven P. Dinkin, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Nov. 2020
  • Think of it, rather, as a show of reverence for the incumbents.
    — Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Only two of the three incumbents have filed for re-election.
    — Bob Dohr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2020
  • At this point the incumbents in these districts are strong favorites.
    — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 26 June 2018
  • But the challenger agreed with the incumbent on how much the Georgia runoffs matter.
    — Bill Barrow, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Jan. 2021
  • There are also two new districts in the mix and six districts with no incumbent.
    — Rémy Numa, Fox News, 1 Mar. 2022
  • Raman won enough votes to force a runoff in the fall against incumbent David Ryu.
    — NBC News, 14 June 2020
  • Brown was the incumbent and won with 51 percent of the vote.
    — Gordon R. Friedman, OregonLive.com, 15 Dec. 2017
  • And the incumbent will have a huge fundraising advantage.
    — George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 26 Apr. 2021
  • 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
  • Democrats have not lost a single House incumbent so far.
    — Steve Peoples, The Seattle Times, 13 Nov. 2018
  • The first-term incumbent has declined at least two debates.
    — Tim Prudente, baltimoresun.com, 30 Apr. 2018
  • If history is any judge, that's bad news for the incumbent.
    — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2020
  • Curtis Clements, the incumbent, was the only person who filed to run for the seat.
    — Al Gaspeny, Arkansas Online, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Hill is a four-term incumbent and is seeking a fifth term in this year's election.
    — Ryan Tarinelli, Arkansas Online, 14 Mar. 2022
  • Without an incumbent in the race, more contenders are yet expected to join the race.
    — Kaitlin Durbin, cleveland, 4 Jan. 2022
  • The other four council are open as four incumbents faced term limits.
    — Kate Magill, Columbia Flier, 25 May 2018
  • Biden isn’t the first incumbent to face grim polling a year out from Election Day.
    — Jazmine Ulloa, New York Times, 29 Nov. 2023
  • On Wednesday, new members met for the first time with incumbents.
    — Natalie Andrews, WSJ, 14 Nov. 2018
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incumbent

2 of 2 adjective
  • And two, one of the Rangers’ incumbent starters may find their way into a bullpen role.
    — Shawn McFarland, Dallas News, 2 Aug. 2023
  • And each portrays the other as someone who would lose to the incumbent governor.
    — Steven Lemongello, Orlando Sentinel, 10 Aug. 2022
  • In four of those races, there is an incumbent governor who is a woman.
    — Sarah Ewall-Wice, CBS News, 25 Aug. 2022
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • The public’s pessimism is bad for the incumbent governor.
    — Craig Gilbert, Journal Sentinel, 10 June 2022
  • One of the hardest things to do in politics is to defeat an incumbent governor.
    — CBS News, 11 Nov. 2022
  • But the point is, it’s incumbent upon a sports executive to try.
    — Steve Jbara, Forbes, 3 June 2022
  • Still, the incumbent senator has maintained a small lead in most surveys.
    — Joey Garrison, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2020
  • 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
  • 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
  • And the incumbent governor said, in contrast, his progress has been solid.
    — Yereth Rosen, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Oct. 2022
  • Ashford gets the benefit of the doubt as the incumbent starter, having started nine games for the Tigers last season.
    — Tom Green | Tgreen@al.com, al, 28 Feb. 2023
  • It’s going to be incumbent upon us to keep making that call daily and loudly.
    — Fidel Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2022
  • One of many challenges facing the incumbent president in his quest for re-election.
    — ABC News, 24 Sep. 2023
  • The news of Amazon’s entry had a predictable effect on incumbent firms.
    — The Economist, 5 July 2018
  • Plumlee beat out incumbent starter Mikey Keene after weeks of battling back and forth for the top spot in training camp.
    — Jason Beede, Orlando Sentinel, 22 Aug. 2022
  • Two incumbent Democrats are also facing off against each other in the same district, and only one of them can come back.
    — Cayla Harris, San Antonio Express-News, 14 Dec. 2021
  • The stakes are high, and placement in top universities is incumbent almost solely on scores.
    — Kimmy Yam, NBC News, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Our incumbent senator has done nothing as these programs have expired and people are left on their own.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 3 Oct. 2020
  • Williams also beat out incumbent starter N'Kosi Perry for the job.
    — Jeremy Cluff, azcentral, 13 Aug. 2019
  • How far does an incumbent Democrat have to go to lose the endorsement of their party’s leadership?
    — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 25 May 2022
  • Manjarres wrote, adding that many of the same people support the incumbent congressman.
    — Anthony Man, Sun-Sentinel.com, 5 Apr. 2018
  • The stock market typically performs its best when the incumbent party wins an election.
    — Jessica Menton, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2020
  • 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
  • An incumbent president who makes things worse, not better.
    — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 31 Aug. 2020

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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