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Daily Brew: May 10, 2019

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May 10, 2019

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Today's Brew highlights an analysis of the state legislative seats which switched parties in 2018 + U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) announces he won’t run for re-election  
The Daily Brew

Welcome to the Friday, May 10 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. 508 state legislative seats changed party control in the 2018 general elections
  2. Wyoming Sen. Enzi (R) is the fourth U.S. Senator to announce retirement this cycle
  3. Runoff election for a seat on the Los Angeles school board to be held Tuesday

508 state legislative seats changed party control in the 2018 general elections

Partisan control of 508 state legislative seats changed as a result of the 2018 general elections. That accounts for 8.4% of the 6,073 seats that were up for election in 87 of the 99 chambers. Of the 508 seats that changed party control, 391—77.0% of the total —were Republican seats that flipped to Democrats and 93—18.2%—were Democratic seats that flipped to Republicans.

At least one seat changed party control in every state that held regularly-scheduled state legislative elections. New Hampshire had the most seats change control, 77, followed by Maine with 26 and Pennsylvania, which had 22. The map below shows the number of state legislative seats that changed party control by state in the November 2018 elections.



Democrats saw a net gain of 308 seats as a result of the November elections, while Republicans lost a net number of 294 seats. Third party and independent legislators lost a net of 14 seats.

Control of six state legislative chambers flipped to Democrats, including both chambers of New Hampshire's General Court, the state senates of Colorado, Maine, and New York, and the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Democrats had a net gain of state legislative seats in 35 states and Republicans a net gain in four. In six states—Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wisconsin—the two major parties gained the same number of state legislative seats.

Additionally, 15 state legislative seats changed party control during special elections in 2018. Eleven were Republican seats won by Democrats while the remaining four were Democratic seats won by Republicans. Six of the Republican-held seats that flipped to Democrats in special elections flipped back to Republicans in November.

Currently, Republicans control 52.3% of all state legislative seats, while Democrats hold 47.0 percent. Republicans have a majority in 61 chambers, Democrats hold the majority in 37 chambers, and the Alaska House of Representatives is operating under a shared power agreement.

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Wyoming Sen. Enzi (R) is the fourth U.S. Senator to announce retirement this cycle

Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi (R) announced last weekend that he would not run for re-election in 2020. Enzi was first elected to the Senate in the most recent open-seat U.S. Senate race in the state in 1996 and was re-elected three time—in 2002, 2008, and 2014. Prior to serving in the Senate, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 1996 and the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1987 to 1991. In his most recent re-election in 2014, Enzi defeated his Democratic opponent by 54.8 percentage points.

Enzi is the fourth U.S. senator to announce that he won’t run for another term ahead of the 2020 elections. Democrat Tom Udall (N.M.) and Republicans Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Pat Roberts (Ks.) are also not seeking re-election. Six U.S. House members—three Democrats and three Republicans—have announced that they will not seek re-election next year. In the 2018 cycle, three U.S. Senators and 52 members of the U.S. House did not seek re-election. Those retiring members were comprised of 37 Republicans and 18 Democrats.

Here are the number of U.S. Senators who did not seek re-election over the last five congressional election cycles:


In 2012, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) also did not seek re-election.

In 2018, Ballotpedia designated 10 U.S. Senate primaries as battleground elections. Eight of those were for Democratic-held seats, and two for Republican-held seats. Two of three 2018 Republican open-seat primaries for the U.S. Senate—in Arizona and Utah—were designated as battleground primaries.

Ballotpedia designated the Republican primary for Wyoming’s 2018 open-seat governor’s race as a battleground election. Six GOP candidates ran for a chance to replace term-limited Gov. Matt Mead (R) in what was the most expensive Republican gubernatorial primary in state history. State Treasurer Mark Gordon finished first with 33% of the vote and Foster Friess, who donated $2.2 million to his campaign, was second with 26 percent. Click here to read our coverage of that election.

Runoff election for a seat on the Los Angeles school board to be held Tuesday

On Tuesday, a special runoff election will take place for a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education between former board member Jackie Goldberg and former vice president of the Board of Public Works Commissioners Heather Repenning. The candidates were the top two finishers in a 10 candidate field in the general election held on March 5, with Goldberg receiving 48% of the vote and Repenning 13 percent.

Goldberg has been endorsed by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D) and the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Repenning received endorsements from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, Mayor Eric Garcetti (D), and the Los Angeles Times editorial board.

The special election has drawn $2.8 million in satellite spending. A teachers’ union-sponsored satellite group has spent $1.3 million in support of Goldberg and an SEIU Local 99 group has spent $875,000 supporting Repenning.

In recent years, LAUSD elections have been characterized by divisions between candidates supported by teachers’ unions and those supported by advocates of charter schools. LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the United States and had 224 independently operated charter schools in 2017, more than any other school district in the nation.

The district’s elections in 2017 flipped the LAUSD board from a 4-3 majority of members supported by UTLA to a 4-3 majority of members supported by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Former District 5 member Ref Rodriguez, who resigned in 2018 and whose seat is up for election, was a member of the latter group. His departure left the board equally split between members supported by those two organizations.

As noted above, the UTLA endorsed Goldberg, and the CCSA did not endorse a candidate. Both Goldberg and Repenning say they support holding charter schools to the same standards as public schools, but they differ in the degree of emphasis they place on charter school policy and other issues in their campaigns. Goldberg has made charter school accountability a key plank of her campaign. Repenning has described herself as a coalition builder and has emphasized other issues.


See also

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