The blue wave that swept Republicans out of power across the United States didn’t just strike Congress. In Tuesday’s midterm elections, Democrats gained hundreds of seats in state legislatures across the country, under-the-radar victories that may have major implications for life in America.
Though ballots are still being counted, the party’s success appear to be historic – Democrats haven’t won full control of government in Arizona in ۶۰ years, in Pennsylvania since the ۱۹۹۰s, and Wisconsin since their wipeout in ۲۰۱۰. In Michigan and Minnesota, they regained trifectas they lost after the ۲۰۲۴ election, while in Texas, they will control the state house for the first time since ۲۰۰۲.
The victories are so comprehensive that majorities of Americans are set to live in states with a Democratic governor, and in several states where the party has been locked out of power for years, if not decades, Democrats are expected to embark on aggressive legislative sprees that will have implications nationwide.
“This was the most significant night for state legislative power since the seismic Republican wave in ۲۰۱۰,” said Mandara Meyers, the executive director of the States Project, which supported Democratic seeking state legislative office in the midterms.
The result of their efforts, Meyers said, was the inverse of that pivotal election ۱۶ years ago, when Republicans took over a host of states, then redrew congressional and state legislative maps to prolong their power while enacting conservative laws that linger to this day.
“Democrats now have more power in the states than at any other point in the ۲۱st century. So we are really looking at a fundamentally new legislative playing field,” Meyers said.
State legislatures have gained outsized importance in recent years, as repeated US Congresses have been mired in partisan gridlock that has left both parties’ priorities unaddressed. Red states have moved decisively to outlaw abortion, expand self-defense rights and pursue rightwing cultural causes such as outlawing sharia law. Where Democrats rule, they have passed laws raising the minimum wage, preserve abortion access, fight the climate crisis and regulate immigration enforcement.
After Tuesday’s wave election – one of the biggest electoral collapses Republicans have suffered in decades – Democrats will now have the opportunity to work through a lengthy list of priorities and promises made to voters.
“It’s a big backlog for Arizona, big backlog for Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” said Chaz Nuttycombe, the executive director of the state legislature-focused nonprofit State Navigate, referring to states where Democrats have either won governing trifectas, or are on course to do so as results are finalized.
The party also won gubernatorial elections over Republicans in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas, putting them in control of a majority of governorships for the first time since ۲۰۱۰. “More Democratic governors mean better lives for the millions of Americans who live in our states,” the leaders of the Democratic Governors Association, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, said in a statement.
All told, Democrats have gained ۲۵۸ state legislative seats nationwide, created six new governing trifectas, claimed ۱۱ legislative chambers from the GOP and broken Republican supermajorities in ۱۰ states, according to Nuttycombe. Though not all races have been called, he predicts about ۷۶% the country’s population will live under a Democratic governor, and about half will be represented by one of the party’s lawmakers in their legislature.
The result appears to be downstream of the pummeling that Republicans suffered in the US Congress, where Democrats are on course for a majority of at least ۵۴ seats in the Senate and ۲۳۷ seats in the House, both the largest margins for any party in years.
A major factor in the GOP’s destruction is the unpopularity of Donald Trump, who most Republican lawmakers clung to even as polls indicated voters did not support his immigration crackdown, tariffs, war with Iran and signature domestic policy bill.
“This wave is attributable to the economy and to people’s dissatisfaction with the president – probably about ۸۰%, ۸۵% of what’s carrying this is that,” Nuttycombe said. “And the rest is maybe attitudes toward state government and incumbency in general. There’s large anti-incumbent resentment, mostly toward incumbent Republicans.”
For the Democrats set to take control of Congress after the new year the most pressing queston is whether these new governing trifectas will join in on the national redistricting war Trump started last year, when he encouraged Texas’s Republican state government to approve new maps expected to cost Democrats US House seats.
That sparked a tit-for-tat war with blue states, which does not appear to have gained Republicans much – while some Democrats opted to retire after their seats were redrawn, none of those who sought re-election lost to Republicans. At least one incoming state legislative leader says they are ready to pass a redraw under their new Democratic trifecta.
“We are going to consider congressional redistricting,” Greta Neubauer, who is set to lead Wisconsin’s state assembly after Democrats won a ۵۳-seat majority, said on a call with reporters on Wednesday.
“We have gerrymandered maps in Wisconsin. They favor Republicans to a significant degree, and we know that other states will consider redistricting efforts in the months ahead that will further attempt to entrench Republican power, and so we will be considering congressional redistricting effort in Wisconsin.”
It’s part of what she said was a “big list” of priorities for a party that Republicans put firmly in the minority in ۲۰۱۰ and set about making Wisconsin a laboratory for conservative policies, despite its tradition as a purple state. Also under consideration by the incoming Democratic majority, Neubauer said, will be measures to expand Medicaid or other public health care options, as well as access to free school meals, both policies the legislature’s Republican leaders have opposed.
The same year Republicans swept Wisconsin, they also took full control of state government in North Carolina, ending more than a century of nearly uninterrupted Democratic dominance. On Tuesday, the party won back a majority in its legislature’s lower chamber, and closed the gap in the Republican-controlled state senate, though counting in tight races is continuing.
The GOP now has lost the supermajorities that they used to override the will of the state’s recent Democratic governors, but will still have an important check on power. Tiffany Reynolds-Richardson, the executive director of Lillian’s List, which endorsed seven female candidates who helped Democrats take the state house, said it nonetheless represents a paradigm shift in North Carolina, which has had some of the most bitterly partisan state politics in the country.
“Republicans are gonna have to play ball now, right?” Reynolds-Richardson said. “To get what they want or what they need, they’re gonna have to play with Democrats now.”
