315 state legislative seats changed party hands in the November elections

We’ve been crunching more numbers from November’s elections. With state legislatures in session, let’s take a look back at how the makeup of those chambers changed last November. In the 2020 elections, 315 state legislative seats changed party hands. This number represents a 38% decrease in flipped state legislative seats compared to 2018. There were 5,875 state legislative seats up for regularly scheduled election on Nov. 3.

Of the 315 seats, 215 (68.3%) were Democratic seats that went to Republicans, while 78 (24.8%) were Republican seats that went to Democrats. In 2018, 391 seats (77%) went from Republicans to Democrats, while 93 seats (18%) went from Democrats to Republicans.

Fifty seats flipped party control in New Hampshire in 2020, the most of any state. Forty-nine of those seats flipped to Republicans—48 from Democrats and one from a Libertarian. One seat flipped from Republican to Democrat. West Virginia followed with 19 flips, 18 of which flipped to Republicans—17 from Democrats and one from an independent—and one of which flipped from Republicans to Democrats.

The table at the top shows the total number of flipped seats in both 2020 and 2018 and the number of seats flipped between major parties.

In 2020, Republicans gained a total of 141 seats, Democrats lost 133 seats, and independent and third party candidates lost eight seats. At least one seat flipped parties in every state holding regularly scheduled state legislative elections except Hawaii.

Across all 7,383 state legislative seats, Republicans now control 3,986 seats to Democrats’ 3,315. Independent and third party candidates control 72. Eight seats are vacant, and races for two seats have not yet been called.

Republican gains resulted in flips of two state legislative chambers, both in New Hampshire, the lowest number of chamber flips since 1944, which saw four flips. Republicans now control 61 of the 99 state legislative chambers, and Democrats control 37. Only one state, Minnesota, has a split between control of its legislative chambers with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats controlling the Senate. Control of the Alaska House of Representatives remains to be determined.

The table below shows the number of state legislative seats that changed party hands during the 2020 state legislative elections. Columns show the number of seats that flipped to the given partisan affiliation listed in the top row. Rows show the number of seats that flipped from the given partisan affiliation listed in the leftmost column.

To explore our state-by-state data on state legislative seats that changed party control, click the link below.

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Special election alert

Election officials have scheduled a special election for the District 38 seat in the Virginia State Senate for Mar. 23, 2021. The seat became vacant when A. Benton Chafin (R) died on Jan. 1 from complications related to coronavirus. There is no primary, and the filing deadline is on Jan. 22.

House votes to impeach Trump, 10 Republicans support resolution

The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump (R) on Wednesday by a vote of 232-197. The article of impeachment accused Trump of incitement of insurrection following the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

All 222 Democrats supported the resolution. Ten Republicans also voted to impeach:

• Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)
• Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio)
• Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.)
• John Katko (R-N.Y.)
• Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)
• Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.)
• Peter Meijer (R-Mich.)
• Tom Rice (R-S.C.)
• Fred Upton (R-Mich.)
• David Valadao (R-Calif.)

Among the other House Republicans, 197 voted no and four did not vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the Senate will not reconvene before Jan. 19 to begin the trial.

Trump released a video statement following the vote condemning the violence that occurred on Jan. 6. The video did not directly address the impeachment vote. 

Trump was previously impeached and acquitted of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges on Feb. 5, 2020. No Republican members of the House supported impeachment for those charges. Two Democrats opposed the charge for abuse of power and three opposed the charge for obstruction of Congress.

This is the first time in U.S. history that a president has been impeached twice.

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The other Georgia runoff

Although most of the nation’s focus during the Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs was on the two U.S. Senate seats, there was one other runoff that didn’t receive as much attention. Voters in Georgia also decided the District 4 race for the state Public Utilities Commission (PSC), which resulted in a first for the Peach State. 

Incumbent Bubba McDonald (R) defeated challenger Daniel Blackman (D). McDonald’s victory in the 2020 runoffs marks the first time that both a Democrat and Republican have won in the same statewide runoff election in Georgia. In the two U. S. Senate runoffs, Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff each won.

McDonald received the most votes of any Republican candidate in the runoffs, whereas his opponent, Blackman, received the fewest votes of any Democratic candidate.

Unlike previous runoffs, the PSC runoff in 2020 also had the greatest level of parity compared to the U.S. Senate runoffs. Compared to the previous years where both positions advanced to a runoff (1992 and 2008), the overall turnout in the 2020 PSC runoff was 49,257 votes (1.1%) less than the highest-turnout U.S. Senate race. Historically, runoff elections for PSC have had a lower turnout than those for the Senate when the two appear on the same ballot. 

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