Election results, 2022: Results of elected officials seeking other offices
In 2022, 551 officials in Congress and state legislatures ran for a different office than the one to which they were elected. At the congressional level, seventeen members of the U.S. House of Representatives sought election to other offices. Five (29%) of them won election to those positions. Additionally, 534 state legislators ran for other elected positions, with 274, or 51%, successfully winning election to those positions.
No members of the U.S. Senate sought other offices in 2022. That's a decrease from 2020, when eight Senators sought to become the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States.
The 551 elected officials who sought a different office in 2022 represent a 61% increase from 2020, when Ballotpedia tracked 344 officials in Congress and state legislatures who ran for a different office. To learn about the elected officials who sought other offices in 2020, click here.
On this page, you'll find information on elected officials from these levels of government who ran for other offices in 2022:
You can also find information on the state legislators who ran for other offices broken down by party and type of office sought. To read about the methodology used on this page, click here.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives
Seventeen members of the House of Representatives in the 117th United States Congress sought election to a different office in 2022. Five (29%) won election to the offices they sought—four to a statewide office and one to a countywide seat. Eight (47%) were defeated in their party's primary for statewide office and four (24%) advanced from their primaries and lost in the general election.
The 17 U.S. House members who sought other offices in 2022 were more than the 14 members who ran for other offices in 2020, and fewer than the 21 who did so in 2018.
Success rate
The success rate of U.S. House members who ran for other offices in 2022 was lower than in 2020 and 2018. In 2022, 29% of all House members who ran for other offices won election to the offices they sought. That was down from 36% in 2020 and 43% in 2018.
Positions sought by U.S. House members who ran for other offices in 2022
Of the five who won election to the positions they were seeking:
- Three won election to the U.S. Senate
- One was elected Attorney General of his state
- One was elected Mayor of Los Angeles
Of the four who lost in the general election:
- Two lost a general election for the U.S. Senate
- Two lost a general election for the governorship of their state
Of the eight who were defeated in their party's primary:
- Four lost their party's primary for a U.S. Senate seat
- Two lost their party's primary for the governorship of their state
- One lost his party's primary for Attorney General of Texas
- One lost his party's primary for Georgia Secretary of State
The table below lists the U.S. House members who ran for another office in 2022, the office they sought, and the outcome of that election.
U.S. House members who ran for other offices by party
Nine of the House members who ran for other offices in 2022 were Democrats, and eight were Republicans. Both of these numbers were up from 2020, when seven Democrats and seven Republicans ran for other offices. In 2018, ten Democrats and 11 Republicans did.
Success rate by party
Democratic members who sought other offices in 2022 had a higher success rate than their Republican counterparts. Over 33% of the Democratic members who sought other offices (three out of nine) won election to the offices they sought, while 25% of the Republican members who ran (two out of eight), won.
Three Democratic members (33.3%) lost in the primary, and three (33.3%) lost in the general election. One Republican member (12.5%) lost in the general election, and five (62.5%) lost in the primaries.
In 2020, Republican members who sought other offices had a higher success rate than their Democratic counterparts. That year, 43% of the Republican members who ran for other offices (three out of seven) won, while 29% of the Democratic members who ran (two out of seven) won.
Members of state legislatures
Five-hundred and thirty four state legislators ran for other elected positions in 2022, with 273 of them, or 51%, successfully winning election to a new position. Ninety-four of these state legislators (18%) lost in the general election, while 169 (31%) were defeated in their party's primary.
Two-hundred twelve more more state legislators ran for another office in 2022 than in 2020, the previous even election year, when 322 state legislators ran.
Success rate
The success rate of state legislators who sought other offices in 2022 was higher than in 2021, when 25% of state legislators who sought another position (23 out of 91 legislators) won, and 2020, when 49% (157 out of 322) did.
Success rate by chamber
The success rate for state senators seeking other offices was less than that for state representatives in 2022. Fifty of the 121 state senators (41%) who ran for another office were successful, while 27 (22%) lost in the general election, and 44 (44%) were defeated in the primary. Among state representatives, 223 (54%) of those who ran for another office were successful. Sixty-seven (16%) of them lost in the general election and 123 (30%) were defeated in the primary.
| State legislators who ran for other offices in 2022 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber | Won | Lost | Lost in primary | Total | |||||
| State Senate | 50 | 27 | 44 | 121 | |||||
| State House | 223 | 67 | 123 | 413 | |||||
| Total | 273 | 94 | 167 | 534 | |||||
State legislators who ran for other offices in 2022 by party
Among the two major parties, more Republican state legislators sought other offices in 2022 than Democratic ones. Three hundred four Republican state legislators ran for other offices in 2022, while 230 Democratic legislators did. In 2020, the previous even election year, 162 Republican state legislators ran for other offices and 158 Democrats did.
Success rate by party
Democratic state legislators who ran for other offices were more successful than Republicans in 2022. Fifty-six percent (128 out of 230) of Democratic state legislators who ran for another office won election to a new position, while 48% (145 out of 304) of Republican state legislators who ran for another office were successful.
| State legislators who ran for other offices in 2022, by party | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Won | Won (%) | Lost | Lost (%) | Lost in primary | Lost in primary (%) | Total |
| Republican Party | 145 | 48% | 53 | 17% | 106 | 35% | 304 |
| Democratic Party | 128 | 55% | 41 | 18% | 61 | 27% | 230 |
State legislators who ran for other offices, by state
The table below details the results of state legislators who ran for other offices in 2022 and the outcomes of those elections by state.
| State legislators who ran for other offices in 2022, by state | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | State Senators | State Representatives | ||||
| Won | Lost | Lost in primary | Won | Lost | Lost in primary | |
| AK | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||
| AL | 1 | 4 | 2 | |||
| AR | 2 | 8 | 2 | 4 | ||
| AZ | 5 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 12 |
| CA | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| CO | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 2 | |
| CT | 3 | 3 | 1 | |||
| DE | 1 | |||||
| FL | 2 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 4 |
| GA | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 8 |
| HI | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| IA | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | |
| ID | 1 | 6 | 2 | 4 | ||
| IL | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |
| IN | 1 | 1 | ||||
| KS | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||
| KY | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| LA | 2 | |||||
| MA | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| MD | 5 | 4 | 3 | |||
| ME | 3 | 4 | 4 | |||
| MI | 3 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 5 |
| MN | 1 | 10 | 2 | 3 | ||
| MO | 1 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 8 | |
| MS | 1 | |||||
| MT | 3 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 2 | |
| NC | 6 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | |
| ND | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| NE | 3 | 6 | 1 | |||
| NH | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | |
| NM | 1 | 1 | ||||
| NJ | 1 | 1 | ||||
| NV | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | ||
| NY | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | ||
| OH | 2 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 2 | |
| OK | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| OR | 9 | 2 | 2 | |||
| PA | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 3 | |
| R.I. | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| SC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| SD | 1 | 6 | 3 | 6 | ||
| TN | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| TX | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 | ||
| UT | 1 | 1 | ||||
| VA | 1 | 1 | ||||
| VT | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |
| WA | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | ||
| WI | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | |
| WV | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
| WY | 3 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Totals | 50 | 27 | 44 | 223 | 67 | 123 |
Positions sought by state legislators who ran for another offices in 2022
Here is the breakdown of the types of positions sought by state legislators who ran for other offices in 2022:
| Positions sought by state legislators who ran for another office in 2022 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of office | Won | Lost | Lost in primary | Total | |
| U.S. Senate | 0 | 3 | 9 | 12 | |
| U.S. House | 28 | 19 | 47 | 94 | |
| Governor | 1 | 9 | 12 | 22 | |
| State executive offices other than governor | 28 | 18 | 44 | 90 | |
| State Senate | 169 | 34 | 45 | 248 | |
| State House | 22 | 0 | 1 | 23 | |
| Judicial offices | 6 | 1 | 4 | 11 | |
| County offices | 13 | 7 | 5 | 25 | |
| Municipal/school board offices | 6 | 3 | 0 | 9 | |
| Total | 273 | 94 | 167 | 534 | |
Methodology
Ballotpedia identified those officeholders who were declared candidates for a position in the 2022 elections that was different from what they held prior to the November elections. Candidates who resigned their office before the election, either because they were required to by state law to run for another office (resign-to-run laws), or to better focus on their campaign for the new office, were still considered to be an elected official of their previous office for this analysis.
Legislators who ran for other seats in the same legislative chamber in which they served due to redistricting were not included in this analysis.
Candidates who won election by winning their primary outright were considered to have won their general election. Candidates who lost their party's nomination at a convention and candidates who lost in a primary runoff were considered to have lost in the primary.
This analysis doesn't include special elections.
See also
- United States Congress elections, 2022
- United States Senate elections, 2022
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2022
- Election results, 2020: Results of elected officials seeking other offices
- Results of elected officials seeking other offices, 2018
- State legislative elections, 2022
- Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2022
Footnotes
