State legislative elections without a Democratic or Republican candidate, 2025

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Ballotpedia tracked state legislative races without a Democratic or Republican candidate in the 2025 elections. In 2025, there were no legislative races without a Democratic candidate and 18 state legislative races without a Republican candidate.

Click here for historical information comparing state legislative races with only one major party candidate in even-year elections.

In the 50 states, there are 99 state legislative chambers altogether. Two of those chambers held legislative elections in 2025. The general election for state legislative races was held on November 4, 2025.

• Click here for the list of races without a Democratic candidate
• Click here for the list of races without a Republican candidate

Races without Republican candidates

• New Jersey General Assembly

Districts 15 & 28

• Virginia House of Delegates

Districts 3, 4, 5, 19, 24, 25, 38, 54, 55, 80, 81, 85, 88, 91, 93, & 95

Totals over time

Change over time
Date	Number of filing deadlines passed	Races without a Democratic candidate	Races without a Republican candidate
November 4, 2025	2	0	18
October 21, 2025	2	0	18
October 7, 2025	2	0	18
September 23, 2025	2	0	18
September 9, 2025	2	0	18
August 26, 2025	2	0	18
August 12, 2025	2	0	18
July 29, 2025	2	0	18
July 15, 2025	2	0	18
July 1, 2025	2	1	32
June 17, 2025	2	1	32
June 3, 2025	2	5	33
May 20, 2025	2	9	35
May 6, 2025	2	9	35
April 22, 2025	2	0	2

Historical context

Races with and without major party opposition: 2010 - 2024 (even years)

The table below shows state legislative races with and without major party opposition for even-year races between 2010 and 2024. Even-year elections have significantly more state legislative seats up for election than odd-year elections do, making direct comparisons between years like 2023 and 2024 uninformative when it comes to races with and without major party opposition.

Races with and without major party opposition: 2010 - 2022 (even years)
Year	Total races	Races without major party opposition	Races with major party opposition
2024	5,807	2,005 (35 percent)	3,802 (65 percent)
2022	6,278	2,560 (41 percent)	3,718 (59 percent)
2020	5,875	2,048 (35 percent)	3,827 (65 percent)
2018	6,073	2,017 (33 percent)	4,056 (67 percent)
2016	5,923	2,477 (42 percent)	3,446 (58 percent)
2014	6,057	2,606 (43 percent)	3,451 (57 percent)
2012	6,015	2,307 (38 percent)	3,708 (62 percent)
2010	6,125	2,000 (33 percent)	4,125 (67 percent)

Methodology

There are several methodological choices that Ballotpedia made in calculating the number of races without a Democratic or Republican candidate on this page:

• State legislative districts can be either single-member districts (only one seat is up for election in a single district) or multi-member districts (more than one seat is up for election in a single district). Regardless of district type, this page counted races without a Democratic or Republican candidate, not seats. This means that if a multi-member district race with three seats up for election in a single year had a Democratic or Republican candidate file for any one of those seats, the race was counted as having a Democratic or Republican candidate and was not factored into the numbers reported on this page.

• Write-in candidates were not counted as candidates for the purpose of races without a Democratic or Republican candidate. However, if a write-in candidate advanced from a primary to a general election and became a regular candidate on the general election ballot, the race was counted as having a major party candidate.

• Candidates who officially withdrew from a race were not counted as candidates for the purpose of this analysis.

• Candidates who unofficially withdrew from a race but still appeared on the ballot were counted as candidates for the purpose of this analysis. This meant that a race did not count as a race without a Democratic or Republican candidate if an unofficially withdrawn candidate still appeared on the ballot.

• In California and Washington state, which have top-two primary systems, a race was counted as not having a Democratic or Republican candidate if no candidate from a major party advanced from the primary election to the general election.

• The analysis does not include special elections for state legislative seats. It also does not include regular elections for legislative offices in the U.S. territories.

• This analysis only included races in states where the candidate filing deadline had passed. However, Ballotpedia's 2025 analysis of U.S. House races without a major party candidate also included elections in states whose filing deadlines had not passed.

See also

• Competitiveness reports: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
• State legislative elections, 2025
• State legislative special elections, 2025
• State executive official elections without a Democratic or Republican candidate, 2025
• State legislative elections without a Democratic or Republican candidate, 2024

Footnotes

State legislatures

Legislatures

Alabama (H, S) · Alaska (H, S) · Arizona (H, S) · Arkansas (H, S) · California (A, S) · Colorado (H, S) · Connecticut (H, S) · Delaware (H, S) · Florida (H, S) · Georgia (H, S) · Hawaii (H, S) · Idaho (H, S) · Illinois (H, S) · Indiana (H, S) · Iowa (H, S) · Kansas (H, S) · Kentucky (H, S) · Louisiana (H, S) · Maine (H, S) · Maryland (H, S) · Massachusetts (H, S) · Michigan (H, S) · Minnesota (H, S) · Mississippi (H, S) · Missouri (H, S) · Montana (H, S) · Nebraska · Nevada (A, S) · New Hampshire (H, S) · New Jersey (GA, S) · New Mexico (H, S) · New York (A, S) · North Carolina (H, S) · North Dakota (H, S) · Ohio (H, S) · Oklahoma (H, S) · Oregon (H, S) · Pennsylvania (H, S) · Rhode Island (H, S) · South Carolina (H, S) · South Dakota (H, S) · Tennessee (H, S) · Texas (H, S) · Utah (H, S) · Vermont (H, S) · Virginia (H, S) · Washington (H, S) · West Virginia (H, S) · Wisconsin (A, S) · Wyoming (H, S)

2026

State legislative elections (2026) • State legislative special elections (2026) • Primary dates and filing requirements • 2026 Session Dates

2025

State legislative elections (2025) • State legislative special elections (2025) • Primary dates and filing requirements • 2025 Session Dates

Historical elections

2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004 • 2003 • 2002 • 2001 • 2000

Features of state legislatures

How vacancies are filled in state legislatures • States with a full-time legislature • State legislatures with term limits • Comparison of state legislative salaries • When state legislators assume office after a general election • Population represented by state legislators • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures • State legislative sessions • Resign-to-run law • State legislature candidate requirements by state • Official names of state legislatures • State legislative chambers that use multi-member districts • Factors Affecting Competitiveness in State Legislative Elections

State senates

Length of terms of state senators • State senators • Partisan composition of state senates • State senators sorted by year first elected

State houses

Length of terms of state representatives • State representatives • Partisan composition of state houses • State representatives sorted by year first elected

Leadership positions

President of the Senate • President Pro Tempore • Senate Majority Leader • Senate Minority Leader • House Majority Leader • House Minority Leader • State Speaker of the House

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