Ballotpedia Coffee Club: Trifectas
State government trifectas
A state government trifecta is when one party controls the state legislature and governorship. At Ballotpedia, we began tracking this type of single-party rule in 2012 as a measure of how much power a party holds in a state. Trifectas can be an important political goal because it allows parties to more easily enact their policy goals.
As of August 2020, 77.6% of the U.S. population lives under a trifecta government with 15 states controlled by a Democratic trifecta and 21 states controlled by a Republican trifecta. Check out the map below to see the trifecta status of your state.
Achieving or holding a trifecta can be an important policy goal for a party. Taking redistricting for example, in 34 of the states conducting legislative elections in 2020, the legislatures will a significant part in the subsequent redistricting process. In eight of next year's gubernatorial elections, the winner will have veto authority over state legislative or congressional district plans approved by legislatures. A party that wins trifecta control of a state in which redistricting authority rests with the legislature will direct the process that produces the maps that will be used for the remainder of the decade.
In 2010, ahead of the last redistricting cycle, we tracked an increase in the number of trifectas, as shown in the chart below.
Learn more
- State government trifectas
- Trifectas and redistricting
- Historical and potential changes in trifectas
