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.
He was a lawyer and a newspaper/magazine article writer.
Jefferson Davis represented Mississippi in the U.S. Congress before he was elected President of the Confederacy.
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.