Term-limited state legislative seats twice as likely to change party hands
Contact: Kristen Vonasek, Director of Communications
Tel: (608) 255-0688
E-mail: Media@ballotpedia.org
Ballotpedia analyzes the effects of term limits on state legislative elections
Middleton, Wis. - April 12, 2018: A Ballotpedia analysis of over 20,000 state legislative elections showed term-limited state legislative seats were twice as likely to change party hands as non-term-limited seats.
Ballotpedia looked at the 890 seats in 15 states held by a term-limited legislator from 2010 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2016. Of those, 120, or 13 percent, were replaced by an officeholder from a different political party. Over the same time period, 19,642 non-term-limited state legislative seats were up for election. Of these non-term-limited seats, 1,329 seats, or roughly 7 percent, changed partisan control.
This pattern was true for term-limited seats held by both parties. Seats held by term-limited Democrats changed hands to the Republican Party twice as often as non-term-limited seats, 10.8 percent to 5.5 percent. Democrats were able to flip term-limited seats three-times as often as non-term-limited seats, doing so 2.2 percent of the time compared to 0.7 percent of the time, respectively.
About Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is the online encyclopedia of American politics and elections. Its goal is to preserve and expand knowledge about politics by providing exceptionally high-quality, accurate, and objective information about local, state, and federal politics and policies. Its content includes neutral, accurate, and verifiable information on government officials and the offices they hold, political issues and public policy, elections, candidates, and the influencers of politics. Headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin, Ballotpedia was founded in 2006. It has grown to include over 275,000 professionally authored encyclopedic articles that have garnered over 1 billion page views.
If you’d like more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact Ballotpedia's Director of Communications at media@Ballotpedia.org.
