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Impact of term limits on state legislative elections in 2010
Fourteen state senate chambers and thirteen state house chambers that held general elections on November 2, 2010 included some state legislators who were unable to run for re-election in 2010 because of their state's legislative term limits.
121 state senators were termed-out in 2010. 121 seats was 36% of the 337 total state senate seats up for election in November in the 14 term-limited state senates with elections in 2010.
254 state representatives were termed-out. This represented 20% of the 1,263 total seats up for election in November in the 13 term-limited states with elections in November 2010.
Altogether, 375 current state legislators had to leave office after the November elections because of term limits. This was 23% of the 1,600 state legislative seats up for election in the 14 term-limited states with 2010 elections, and about 6% of the 6,125 state legislative seats that were up for election altogether in 2010, including the non-term-limited states.
- See also: State legislative elections, 2010
State senators
- Main article: Impact of term limits on state senate elections in 2010
43 state senates held general elections in November 2010. In 14 of these states, state senators were subject to term limits. Louisiana was the only state with state senate term limits that did hold not a general election for its state senate in 2010.
121 current state senators were ineligible to run for re-election in November because of term limit laws in their state. This included:
- 54 incumbent Democratic state senators
- 66 incumbent Republican state senators
- 1 nonpartisan state senator.
3 other state senators who would have been ineligible to run in November resigned their posts earlier in 2010.
In 7 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Republicans: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and South Dakota. In 4 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Democrats: Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada and Oklahoma. In 2 states, the axe fell equally on both parties (California and Maine) while Nebraska's senate is officially nonpartisan.
- See also: State senate elections
State representatives
45 state houses held general elections in November 2010. In 13 of these states, state house terms are subject to term limits. (15 states have state legislative term limits, but Louisiana did not hold a state house election in 2010 and Nebraska does not have a state house.)
254 state representatives were ineligible to run for re-election in November because of term limit laws in their state. This included:
- 128 incumbent Democratic state representatives
- 124 incumbent Republican state representatives
- 2 nonpartisan state representatives.
2 other state representatives who would have been ineligible to run in November resigned their posts earlier in 2010.
In 6 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Republicans: Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In 5 of these states, the current majority party was also the Republican Party. The Montana House was evenly split at 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
In 6 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Democrats: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio. In all 6 of these states, the majority party in 2010 was also the Democratic Party.
In 1 state, the axe fell equally on both parties (Maine).
Impact on parties
The Republican Party took more of a hit from term limits in the 2010 state legislative elections than the Democratic Party, both in terms of how many individual incumbent legislators the Republican Party lost (190, versus 182 for the Democratic Party) and in terms of how many state legislative chambers lost more Republicans (13, versus 10 for the Democratic Party).
Incumbents
| Party | # of termed senators | # of termed representatives | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 54 | 128 | 182 |
| Republican | 66 | 124 | 190 |
| Nonpartisan | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Chambers
| Party | Senates with most losses | Houses with most losses | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| Republican | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| Equal D/R losses (or nonpartisan chamber) | 3 | 1 | 4 |
