Before becoming president, Jimmy Carter represented his home state of Georgia. He was a member of the Georgia Senate from 1963 until 1967, and held office as the Governor of Georgia from 1971 until 1975.
Johnson was a tailor before he entered politics. As a politician he was an alderman, a mayor, TN state representative, a TN state senator, governor of TN, a US Congressman, a US senator and vice-president before becoming president.
Illinois
He was previously a senator from Illinois.
texas
He was the governor of California before he ran for president.
Barack Obama lived in Illinois before becoming president. He first became a senator of Illinois before president of the US.
He was a lawyer. He also held various positions in the Massachusett's state government, eventually he became governor of that state.
Jefferson Davis represented Mississippi in the U.S. Congress before he was elected President of the Confederacy.
He was a lawyer and a newspaper/magazine article writer.
He ran his plantation and served as a major general in the years just before he became president. Before that he was a lawyer and prosecuting attorney and justice on the state supreme court.
He was born in Hawaii but lived most of his life in the Chicago area of Illinois.