2014 Election Review: Big gains for Republicans in state legislatures
November 5, 2014
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By Ballotpedia's State Legislative team
The Republican Party's performance in state legislative chambers on November 4 appears to have mirrored its successes on the federal level. In what was a crushing defeat for the Democratic Party, Republican state legislative candidates managed to gain around 300 seats in the 87 chambers holding general elections in 2014. While this year's Republican wave isn't quite as big as the wave in 2010, when around 600 seats turned red, it did strongly counter the Democratic gains from 2012.
Heading into the 2014 elections, Republicans held a majority of state legislative chambers. Fifty-nine chambers, counting the New York State Senate and Washington State Senate, were under Republican control. (Although the New York State Senate and Washington State Senate technically had Democratic majorities, in both states a coalition arrangement between several break-away Democrats and the minority Republicans gave the Republicans effective control of those chambers.) Democrats held effective controlling majorities in 39 chambers: 18 state senates and 21 state houses. Although technically nonpartisan, the Nebraska State Senate was controlled by a Republican majority.[1]
The following table details partisan balance in all 99 chambers.
| Partisan Balance of All 99 Chambers Before and After 2014 Elections | ||||||||
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| Pre-election | Post-election | |||||||
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| State senates | 18 | 31* | 0 | 1 | 14 | 35[2] | 0 | 1 |
| State houses | 21 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 39 | 59* | 0 | 1 | 30 | 68 | 0 | 1 |
*Note: Although Democrats had numerical majorities in both the New York State Senate and Washington State Senate, coalitions gave Republicans control of those chambers.
| Legislatures | ||
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| Dem. | 30 | |
| Rep. | 68 | |
| Ind/Tied | 1 | |
| TOTAL | 99 | |
| UNDECIDED | 0 | |
| Click here for more details. | ||
Chambers that flipped
A total of 11 chambers flipped to Republican control. Nine of them were previously held by Democrats, while Republicans gained an outright majority in two chambers where they previously ruled by coalition. The Republicans will control 68 chambers starting in January 2015. The following chambers flipped:
- Colorado State Senate
- Maine State Senate
- Minnesota State House
- Nevada State Senate
- Nevada State Assembly
- New Hampshire State House
- New Mexico State House
- New York State Senate
- Washington State Senate
- West Virginia State House
- West Virginia State Senate[3]
Battleground chambers
Of the 87 chambers with elections in 2014, Ballotpedia staff identified the top 20 state legislative chambers to watch. In 15 of the chambers, the difference in partisan balance between Democrats and Republicans amounted to 10 percent or less of the seats up for election in 2014. If any of the country's state legislative chambers were to switch party control as a result of the November 2014 elections, those switches were likely to occur in these 15 chambers. An additional five chambers were included for having a small difference in partisan balance even though that difference was greater than 10 percent of the seats up for election. Vacant seats were attributed to the party that previously held the district.
The following table details the 20 chambers on Ballotpedia's list. Competitive districts are defined by a margin of victory of 5 percent or less in 2012. Mildly competitive districts are defined by a margin of victory between 5 and 10 percent.
| 2014 State Legislative Battleground Chambers | ||||||
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| Chamber | Seats up | Partisan difference | % Partisan difference | 2012 Competitive districts | 2012 Mildly competitive districts | Election result |
| Arkansas House | 100 | 3 | 3.0% | 7 | 10 |
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| Washington Senate | 25 | 1 | 4.0% | 1 | 3 |
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| New York Senate | 63 | 3 | 4.8% | 8 | 1 | *
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| Colorado Senate | 18 | 1 | 5.6% | 3 | 3 | *
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| New Mexico House | 70 | 4 | 5.7% | 9 | 6 | *
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| Iowa House | 100 | 6 | 6.0% | 18 | 9 |
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| Iowa Senate | 25 | 2 | 8.0% | 4 | 8 |
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| Kentucky House | 100 | 8 | 8.0% | 4 | 10 |
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| West Virginia House | 100 | 6 | 6.0% | 18 | 9 | *
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| Michigan House | 110 | 9 | 8.2% | 8 | 13 |
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| New Hampshire Senate | 24 | 2 | 8.3% | 5 | 3 |
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| Pennsylvania House | 203 | 17 | 9.4% | 7 | 10 |
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| Minnesota House | 134 | 12 | 9.0% | 17 | 21 | *
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| Nevada Senate | 11 | 1 | 9.1% | 5 | 0 | *
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| New Hampshire House | 400 | 40 | 10.0% | 85 | 33 | *
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| Maine Senate | 35 | 4 | 11.4% | 7 | 7 | *
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| Arizona Senate | 30 | 4 | 13.3% | 1 | 3 |
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| Oregon Senate | 15 | 2 | 13.3% | 0 | 2 |
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| Pennsylvania Senate | 25 | 4 | 16.0% | 3 | 0 |
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| Wisconsin Senate | 17 | 3 | 17.7% | 1 | 1 |
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Note: Chambers marked with * flipped in partisan balance. In addition to the states listed here, the Nevada State Senate flipped to Republican control and the West Virginia State Senate changed from Democratic control to split control, before a Democratic state senator's party switch gave the Republicans control 18-16.
For more details and specifics with race-by-race tracking in state legislatures, visit this page. Or, click one of the states below to navigate to that section.
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New Mexico • New York • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin |
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Omaha.com, "Democrats cut into GOP lead in Nebraska Legislature," accessed May 13, 2014 (dead link)
- ↑ Note: West Virginia was originally tied but State Senator Daniel Hall changed from the Democratic to the Republican Party the day after the election, giving partisan control to the Republicans.
- ↑ Note: The West Virginia State Senate was originally tied but State Senator Daniel Hall changed from the Democratic to the Republican Party the day after the election, giving partisan control to the Republicans.
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