Kentucky state legislative special elections, 2020

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In 2020, four special elections were called to fill vacant seats in the Kentucky General Assembly in 2020. Click here to read more about the special elections.

Senate special elections called:

House special elections called:

How vacancies are filled in Kentucky

See also: How vacancies are filled in state legislatures


If there is a vacancy in the Kentucky General Assembly, a special election must be held to fill the vacant seat. The governor must call for an election if the General Assembly is not in session. The presiding officer in the house where the vacancy happened must call for an election if lawmakers are in session.[1] All nominating petitions must be filed at least 56 days before the election.[2]

DocumentIcon.jpg See sources: Kentucky Rev. Stat. § 118.730-§118.770


About the legislature

The Kentucky General Assembly consists of the lower House of Representatives and the upper State Senate. The boxes below show the partisan composition of both chambers directly before and after the November 2018 general election. For the most up-to-date numbers on partisan composition in this legislature, see here (Senate) and here (House).

Kentucky State Senate
Party As of November 6, 2018 After November 7, 2018
     Democratic Party 11 10
     Republican Party 27 28
Total 38 38


Kentucky House of Representatives
Party As of November 6, 2018 After November 7, 2018
     Democratic Party 37 39
     Republican Party 62 61
     Vacancy 1 0
Total 100 100

Special elections

Click [show] to the right of the district name for more information:

January 14, 2020

February 25, 2020

June 23, 2020

Historical data

There were 723 state legislative special elections that took place from 2010 to 2019. Kentucky held 19 special elections during the same time period; nearly two per year on average. The largest number of special elections in Kentucky took place in 2012, 2013, and 2016 when four special elections were held.

The table below details how many state legislative special elections were held in a state in a given year.

Special elections throughout the country

See also: State legislative special elections, 2020

In 2020, 55 state legislative special elections were held in 26 states. Four special elections were canceled in New York due to the coronavirus pandemic. Between 2011 and 2019, an average of 77 special elections took place each year.

Breakdown of 2020 special elections

In 2020, special elections for state legislative positions were held for the following reasons:

  • 23 due to appointment, election, or the seeking of election to another position
  • 5 due to a resignation related to criminal charges[9]
  • 18 due to retirement
  • 13 due to the death of the incumbent

Impact of special elections on partisan composition

The partisan breakdown for the special elections was as follows:

The table below details how many seats changed parties as the result of a special election in 2020. The number on the left reflects how many vacant seats were originally held by each party, while the number on the right shows how many vacant seats each party won in the special elections. In elections between 2011 and 2019, either the Democratic Party or Republican Party saw an average net gain of four seats across the country. Between 2018 and 2019, Democrats had a net gain of six seats.

Note: This table reflects information for elections that were held and not the total number of vacant seats.

Partisan Change from Special Elections (2020)
Party As of Special Election After Special Election
     Democratic Party 21 27
     Republican Party 38 32
     Independent 0 0
Total 59 59

Flipped seats

In 2020, eight seats flipped as a result of state legislative special elections.

Seats flipped from D to R

Seats flipped from R to D

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, "Kentucky Revised Statutes," accessed February 10, 2021 (Statute 118.730)
  2. ↑ Kentucky General Assembly, "Kentucky Revised Statutes," accessed February 28, 2025 (Statute 118.770)
  3. ↑ Jaclyn Beran, "Telephone conversation with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office," November 21, 2019
  4. ↑ LEX 18, "Republican senator who endorsed Beshear resigns office," November 1, 2019
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 WKMS, "Beshear Sets Special Election Date For Two Kentucky House Seats," December 30, 2019
  6. ↑ Twitter, "Dennis Keene on Twitter," December 16, 2019
  7. ↑ WKYT, "Gov.-elect Beshear fills 10 central administration positions in his administration," December 9, 2019
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Oldham Era, "Ernie Harris retiring as state senator after 25 years," April 10, 2020
  9. ↑ Arkansas State Rep. Mickey Gates (R) was expelled by a vote of the House membership.
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