Election results, 2025: State legislative races decided by fewer than 100 votes
None of the 180 state legislative seats up for election in 2025 were decided by fewer than 100 votes. The two races with the closest vote margin were New Jersey Assembly District 2 and Virginia House District 34, with 193-vote and 257-vote margins, respectively.
Two of the country's 99 state legislative chambers held regularly-scheduled elections in 2025. Elections in those two chambers represented 180 of the country's 7,386 state legislative seats (2.4%). This was the fewest seats up for election in an odd-numbered year since 2011.
In 2023, one (0.17%) of the 578 state legislative races was decided by fewer than 100 votes.
| State legislative races decided by fewer than 500 votes, 2025[1] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Party | Office | Votes for winning candidate | Votes for second-place candidate | Difference? | Did the district flip? | Partisan control after election | |
| Maureen Rowan | Democrat | New Jersey General Assembly District 2 | 39,484 | 39,291 | 193 | Yes |  57-23
| |
| Tony Wilt | Republican | Virginia House of Delegates District 34 | 14,592 | 14,335 | 257 | No | 64-36
| |
Analysis
State by state
Because no races were decided by fewer than 100 votes in 2025, the chart and map below show the states where state legislative races decided by fewer than 500 votes took place.
| State legislative chambers with races decided by fewer than 500 votes, 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber | Chamber average district population (2020 Census) | Races decided by fewer than 500 votes | Partisan control of chamber after elections | |||
| New Jersey General Assembly | 116,181 | 1 |  Democratic 57-23
| |||
| Virginia House of Delegates | 86,545 | 1 | Democratic 64-36
| |||
Population buckets
The chart and graph below show the population size of the districts where state legislative races decided by fewer than 500 votes took place.
| Population size of state legislative races decided by fewer than 500 votes, 2025
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population bucket | Seats decided by fewer than 500 votes | Percentage of seats decided by fewer than 500 votes | Percentage of all state legislative seats | |||
| 0-25,000 | 0 | 0% | 26.3% | |||
| 25,000-50,000 | 0 | 0% | 24.0% | |||
| 50,000-75,000 | 0 | 0% | 15.0% | |||
| 75,000-100,000 | 1 | 50% | 8.3% | |||
| 100,000+ | 1 | 50% | 26.5% | |||
District populations
Virginia House District 34 had a population of 87,521, according to the 2020 census.[2] There were an average of 86,545 in each of Virginia’s 100 House districts, making it the state with the 12th-highest average population per state representative. Virginia's average of 216,364 people per state senator was the 11th-highest.
New Jersey Assembly District 2 had a population of 232,900, according tot he 2020 census.[3] There were an average of 116,181 people per state representative, the 7th-highest in the nation based on the 2020 census. The state's average of 232,362 people per state senator was 9th-highest.
Election analysis
Hundreds of elections took place in 2025 across the United States, including primary and general elections at the state and local levels and special elections at the federal, state, and local levels. You will find Ballotpedia's research and curation on 2025 elections in the United States below.
- Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection report
- Incumbent win rates by state
- Incumbents defeated in state legislative elections
- Minor-party candidates who won more than the margin of victory
- State government trifectas
- State government triplexes
- State legislative races decided by fewer than 100 votes
- State legislative seats that changed party control
- State legislative veto-proof majorities
- Partisan balance of mayors of the 100 largest cities by population
See also
- Election results, 2023: State legislative races decided by fewer than 100 votes
- Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2025
- Ballotpedia Email Updates
- Contact us
Footnotes
- ↑ No races were decided by fewer than 100 votes in 2025, but two were decided by fewer than 500 votes.
- ↑ Census Reporter, "State House District 34, VA," accessed February 25, 2026
- ↑ Census Reporter, "Assembly District 02, NJ," accessed February 25, 2026
