2019 State Legislative Elections
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2019 elections
Louisiana •Mississippi •New Jersey •Virginia 2019 special elections

On November 5, 2019,Democrats won majorities in theVirginia State Senate and theVirginia House of Delegates, while holding their majority in theNew Jersey General Assembly. The victories in Virginia made the state a Democraticstate government trifecta.Republicans held their majorities in theMississippi State Senate and theMississippi House of Representatives.

Seven of the country's99 state legislative chambers held regular elections in 2019. These seven chambers represented 538 of the country's 7,383 state legislative seats (7.3%). This page contains information about regularly scheduled state legislative elections;click here to read about state legislative special elections in 2019.

Heading into the November 2019 general elections,Republicans held six of the seven chambers and 292 of the 538 seats (54.3%).Democrats held one chamber and 240 seats (44.6%).^[1] Overall, Republicans controlled 61 of 99 legislative chambers (61.6%) and 3,863 of 7,383 state legislative seats (52.3%). Democrats controlled 37 chambers (37.4%) and 3,467 seats (47.0%).^[2]

Click on the links below to navigate to election pages for each chamber.

• Louisiana House of Representatives elections, 2019
• Louisiana State Senate elections, 2019
• Mississippi House of Representatives elections, 2019
• Mississippi State Senate elections, 2019
• New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2019
• Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2019
• Virginia State Senate elections, 2019

General elections inMississippi,New Jersey, andVirginia took place onNovember 5, 2019. Louisiana also held a primary election on October 12, where candidates could win an election outright. In cases where no candidate won the primary outright, general elections inLouisiana took place onNovember 16, 2019.Louisiana andMississippi held gubernatorial elections in 2019 as well.

These were the final elections in each of these state legislatures before the 2020 redistricting process. The legislators elected in 2019 will be responsible for the redistricting scheduled to occur after the 2020 census.

ABallotpedia analysis oftrifecta vulnerability in 2019 found the following:

• Louisiana (Divided government) had a slight chance of becoming a Republican trifecta and a low chance of becoming a Democratic trifecta.
• Mississippi (Republican trifecta) was a moderately vulnerable Republican trifecta.
• New Jersey (Democratic trifecta) was a non-vulnerable Democratic trifecta.
• Virginia (Divided government) had a moderate chance of becoming a Democratic trifecta and a moderate chance of remaining under divided government.

Read the analysis here.

Keep reading to learn more about:

• Flipped chambers
• Change in seats
• Trifecta status
• Elections by state
• Battleground chambers
• State legislative special elections in 2019
• Competitiveness
• Historical competitiveness data
• Odd-year elections since 2009
• Impact of term limits
• Context of state legislative elections since 2010

Flipped chambers in the 2019 elections

This table lists state legislative chambers where party control changed as a result of the November 5, 2019, elections.

Flipped state legislative chambers, 2019 elections
State	Chamber	Pre-election control	Post-election control
Virginia	Senate	Republicans	Democrats
Virginia	House	Republicans	Democrats

Change in seats

Across the chambers holding legislative elections in 2019, Democrats gained one seat and Republicans gained 12 seats. The charts below show the total change and the change broken down by chamber type. The "other/3rd parties" category includes vacant seats.

Change in state legislative partisan composition, 2019 elections
Total	Before	After	Net
Democrats	236	237	+1
Republicans	286	298	+12
Other/3rd parties	16	3	-13
Total	538	538	--

Change in state senate partisan composition, 2019 elections
Total	Before	After	Net
Democrats	51	49	-2
Republicans	76	82	+6
Other/3rd parties	4	0	-4
Total	131	131	--

Change in state house partisan composition, 2019 elections
Total	Before	After	Net
Democrats	185	188	+3
Republicans	210	216	+6
Other/3rd parties	12	3	-9
Total	407	407	--

State government trifectas

See also:Gubernatorial and legislative party control of state government

Heading into the 2019 state legislative elections, Mississippi was a Republican trifecta, New Jersey was a Democratic trifecta, and Louisiana and Virginia were both under divided government. Kentucky was also a Republican trifecta but only held a gubernatorial election. The 2019 elections resulted in one additional Democratic trifecta and one fewer Republican trifecta—Virginia became a Democratic trifecta, while Kentucky became under divided government.

Atrifecta is when one political party holds these three positions in a state's government:

• Thegovernorship
• A majority in thestate senate
• A majority in thestate house

The concept of thetrifecta is important in state lawmaking because in many states, the governor, senate majority leader, and house majority leader play decisive roles in the legislative process.

Heading into the 2019 elections,36 states were controlled by a trifecta. States with a trifecta included:

• 14 Democratic trifectas
• 22 Republican trifectas

As a result of the 2019 elections, there were 21 Republican trifectas and 15 Democratic trifectas.

Elections by state

Elections are being held for seven legislative chambers in the following four states:

• Louisiana (State House and State Senate)
• Mississippi (State House and State Senate)
• New Jersey (State House only)
• Virginia (State House and State Senate)

State legislative special elections were also held in 2019.Click here to read more.

Elections summary

State legislative chambers up in 2019
Chambers	Seats up	Post-election partisan control	Term length	Term limits?
Louisiana Senate	All 39	27-12	4 years	Yes (3 terms)
Louisiana House	All 105	68-35	4 years	Yes (3 terms)
Mississippi Senate	All 52	36-16	4 years	No
Mississippi House	All 122	75-46	4 years	No
New Jersey General Assembly	All 80	52-28	2 years	No
Virginia Senate	All 40	21-19	4 years	No
Virginia House	All 100	55-45	2 years	No

Louisiana

Louisiana's state legislators serve four-year terms. Both chambers have term limits which prevent a state legislator from serving for more than three terms, or twelve years, in a particular chamber. Louisiana legislators assume office at noon on the second Monday in January after their election.^[3][4]

TheLouisiana State Senate and theLouisiana House of Representatives last held elections in 2015.

• Candidate filing deadline: August 8, 2019
• Jungle primary election: October 12, 2019
• General election:^[5] November 16, 2019

State Senate

See also:Louisiana State Senate elections, 2019

Louisiana State Senate Party Control

State House

See also:Louisiana House of Representatives elections, 2019

Louisiana House of Representatives Party Control

Mississippi

Mississippi's state legislators serve four-year terms. Mississippi legislators assume office the Tuesday after the first Monday of January.^[10]

TheMississippi State Senate and theMississippi House of Representatives last held elections in 2015.

• Candidate filing deadline: March 1, 2019
• Primary election: August 6, 2019
• Primary runoff election: August 27, 2019
• General election: November 5, 2019

State Senate

See also:Mississippi State Senate elections, 2019

Mississippi State Senate Party Control

State House

See also:Mississippi House of Representatives elections, 2019

Mississippi House of Representatives Party Control

New Jersey

New Jersey's state representatives are elected to two-year terms. New Jersey legislators assume office at noon on the second Tuesday in January following the election.^[15]

TheNew Jersey General Assembly last held elections in 2017. TheNew Jersey State Senate did not hold elections in 2019. Senators began four-year terms after being elected in2017.

• Candidate filing deadline: April 1, 2019
• Primary election: June 4, 2019
• General election: November 5, 2019

State House

See also:New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2019

New Jersey General Assembly Party Control

Virginia

Virginia's state senators are elected to four-year terms and state representatives are elected to two-year terms. Virginia legislators assume office the second Wednesday in January after the election.^[16][17]

• Candidate filing deadline: March 28, 2019
• Primary election: June 11, 2019
• General election: November 5, 2019

State Senate

See also:Virginia State Senate elections, 2019

Virginia State Senate Party Control

State House

See also:Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2019

Virginia House of Delegates Party Control

Battleground chambers

See also:Battlegrounds

Ballotpedia tracked three state legislative battleground chambers in 2019—theLouisiana House of Representatives,Virginia State Senate, andVirginia House of Delegates.

Party control of eight seats in the Louisiana state House was on the ballot in the November 16, 2019, general election. Had Republicans won all seven races where they were on the ballot, the party would have won asupermajority in the chamber.

Heading into the election, Republicans held a two-seat majority in both Virginia chambers. The Virginia State Senate has had a 2-seat or smaller majority (including several years as a tied chamber) since 2007. In the Virginia House of Delegates, Democrats picked up 15 seats in 2017, and only a Republican win in a tiebreaker of random chance in District 94 kept Republicans from losing control of the chamber.

Battlegrounds were chambers that we anticipated would be, overall, more competitive than other chambers and have the potential to see significant shifts in party control in the 2019 general elections.

Criteria for identification as a battleground chamber included the majority party's share of seats, the number of competitive races, and more.Read the complete list of criteria here.

The columns in the chart below list the following information:

• Seats up in 2019: This was the number of seats in the chamber that were up for election in 2019.
• Margin: This was the difference in seats between the majority and minority parties.
• Majority share of seats: This was the percentage of the chamber's total seats controlled by the majority party.
• Last time party control changed?: This was the election where the party in power before the 2019 elections took control of the chamber.

State legislative special elections

See also:State legislative special elections, 2019

In 2019, special elections for state legislative positions were held for the following reasons:

• 47 due to appointment, election, or the seeking of election to another position
• 21 due to a retirement
• 6 due to the death of the incumbent
• 1 due to a resignation related to criminal charges
• 2 due to an election being rerun

Impact of special elections on partisan composition

The partisan breakdown for the special elections was as follows:

• 39Democratic seats
• 38Republican seats

The table below details how many seats changed parties as the result of a special election in 2019. 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 2018, either the Democratic Party or Republican Party saw an average net gain of four seats across the country. Between 2017 and 2018, Democrats had a net gain of 19 seats.

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

Flipped seats

In 2019, eight seats flipped as a result of state legislative special elections.

Seats flipped from D to R

• Minnesota State Senate District 11 (February 5)
• Connecticut State Senate District 6 (February 26)
• Connecticut House of Representatives District 99 (February 26)
• Kentucky State Senate District 31 (March 5)
• New Jersey State Senate District 1 (November 5)

Seats flipped from R to D

• Pennsylvania State Senate District 37 (April 2)
• Missouri House of Representatives District 99 (November 5)

Seats flipped from R to I

• Louisiana House of Representatives District 62 (March 30)

Electoral competitiveness

See also:Annual State Legislative Competitiveness Report: Vol. 9, 2019

Ballotpedia's 9th Annual State Legislative Competitiveness Report analyzes all 538 state legislative elections that took place in November 2019. Key findings included:

Only four states hold state legislative elections during odd-numbered years: Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia. This year, both chambers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia were up for election, along with the New Jersey General Assembly. The last time all of these chambers were up for election at the same time was 2015. The table below shows competitiveness statistics for each odd-year election dating back to 2011.

Seats without major party opposition

See also:Major party candidates with major party competition in the November 2019 state legislative elections

When a candidate from only one of either theDemocratic orRepublican parties runs for a state legislative seat, the seat is all but guaranteed to be won by that party. In 2019, 299 state legislative seats do not feature major party competition.

• 158 state legislative elections (29.4 percent of all state legislative elections) did not feature aDemocratic candidate and were likely to be won by aRepublican.In other words, Democrats were contesting 70.6 percent of all state legislative seats.
• 141 elections (26.2 percent of all state legislative elections) did not feature aRepublican candidate and were likely to be won by aDemocrat.In other words, Republicans were contesting 73.8 percent of all state legislative seats.
• In two states, more than half of all candidates did not face major party competition.

Open seats

See also:Open seats in the 2019 state legislative elections

In districts where the incumbent legislator does not file for re-election, the seat is guaranteed to a newcomer.

• 103 state legislative incumbents are not running for re-election.In other words, nearly 20 percent of all state legislative seats won in the 2019 cycle were guaranteed to be held by a newly elected state legislator, the most since 2012.
• 39 Democratic state legislators (37.9 percent of the total) did not seek re-election.
• 62 Republican state legislators (60.2 percent of the total) did not seek re-election.
• Two Independent state legislators did not seek re-election.

Primary competitiveness

See also:2019 primary election competitiveness in state and federal government

As the chart below shows, 2019 has the highest rate of contested primaries in any odd-year election since 2015, and also the highest rate of incumbents contested in primaries. To learn more about competitiveness in state legislative primaries in 2019, visitthis page.

Defeated incumbents

See also:Incumbents defeated in 2019's state legislative elections

As the chart below shows, 2019 only had a higher rate of defeated incumbents than 2013 across the last five odd-year election cycles. The statistics from the five previous cycles are available below.

Historical competitiveness data

In 2010, Ballotpedia began using official candidate lists from each state to examine thecompetitiveness of every state legislative race in the country. Three factors are used in the analysis: the number of incumbents who do not seek re-election, the number of races that featureonly one major party candidate, and the number of incumbents who draw primary challengers.

The following table details the data collected from regularly scheduled state legislative elections between 2010 and 2018. It features the total number of seats up for election, open seats, races that included only one major party candidate, and incumbents who faced primary challengers. The table is organized by even-year elections and odd-year elections because years that have the same number of seats up for elections are similar in terms of their competitiveness.

Odd-year elections since 2009

Four states hold state legislative elections in odd-numbered years: Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia. In the last 10 years, there have been between two and eight state legislative chambers up in an election cycle. Only two chambers--theNew Jersey General Assembly and theVirginia House of Delegates--hold regular elections every two years. The other six chambers hold elections every two to four years, depending on when the last round of redistricting took place.

The chart below details the results of state legislative elections from 2009 to 2017. During that period, two chambers flipped party control--both in 2011.^[18] Partisan changes ranged from a Republican gain of 27 seats in 2011 to a Democratic gain of 18 seats in 2017.

Impact of term limits

See also:Louisiana State Senate elections, 2019 andLouisiana House of Representatives, 2019

In 2019, 47 state legislators were ineligible to run for office because of term limits.Louisiana was the only state holding elections for a term-limited legislature in 2019.

Of the 15 state legislatures with term limits, Louisiana is the only state where term limits were imposed by the state’s lawmakers, rather than through the ballot initiative process. Under Louisiana’s term limits, state lawmakers can serve no more than three four-year terms. The state’s term limits law was enacted in 1995. The first year that term limits impacted the ability of incumbents to run for office was in 2007.

Incumbents

The following table detailed the number of state legislators unable to run for re-election in 2019 due to term limits broken down by party and chamber.

Political context

The 2019 elections occurred in the aftermath of significant Democratic gains in the2018 elections and2017 elections. In the2018 elections, Democrats flipped a net 308 legislative seats and picked up six legislative chambers, reversing some of the Republican gains made from 2010 to 2016.

Changes in chamber partisan control, 2010 to 2018

See also:Partisan composition of state legislatures

Prior to the 2010 elections, Democrats controlled 60 of the country's 99 state legislative chambers, Republicans controlled 37, and two chambers were not controlled by either party. In the six years that followed, Republicans made significant gains and took control of many of the chambers that were previously held by Democrats. After the 2016 elections, Democrats controlled 31 chambers and Republicans controlled 68.

In the2017 and2018 elections, Democrats increased their number of state legislative chambers to 37, and Republicans saw their number of chambers fall to 61. Control of one chamber, theAlaska House of Representatives, was split between the parties.

From 2010 to 2018, there were 61 instances where a state legislative chamber changed partisan control. Of these 61 changes, 40 involved a chamber changing from Democratic to Republican control and 17 involved a chamber changing from Republican to Democratic control. The other four involved chambers that were split between the two parties (Oregon House in 2010 and 2012; Montana House in 2010; Alaska House in 2018).

Most of the changes came during major elections but some also came through special elections (Louisiana House in 2010; Washington Senate in 2017) and party switching (Louisiana House in 2010; Mississippi Senate in 2011). In some cases, the party that gained control did not have a numerical majority but instead controlled the chamber through abipartisan coalition (i.e., Alaska House in 2016). This table does not account for changes in party control or ties in a chamber that lasted for less than one year and were not the result of a regularly scheduled election. An example of this is the brief period of Democratic control in the Virginia State Senate in 2014.^[24]

From 2010 to 2018, 39 chambers switched control: 24 switched control once, 11 switched control twice, one switched control three times, and three switched control four times.

For this chart, a red box indicates that the chamber flipped from Democratic to Republican control, and a blue box indicates that the chamber flipped from Republican to Democratic control.^[25]

The chart below shows how many chambers each party controlledafter the November elections in a given year.

State legislatures and presidents

First two years in office

Heading into the 2019 election, the Republican Party was coming off a substantial loss of seats during a major election for the first time in more than a decade. Republicans across the country collectively lost 345 seats in 2017 and 2018, marking the third time during the last four presidencies that the party of the sitting president--Donald Trump (R) in this case--lost seats during that president's first midterm election. Democrats lost 702 seats duringBarack Obama's (D) first two years in office and 488 seats duringBill Clinton's (D) first two years. OnlyGeorge W. Bush (R) saw a net gain of seats during his first two years with Republicans winning a net 110 seats.

Two-term presidents

It is normal for a party to lose ground in state legislatures when their party controls the presidency for two terms. Between the time of Franklin Roosevelt (D) andGeorge W. Bush (R), the political party of the president lost, on average, 450 state legislative seats while holding the White House. The losses that the Democratic Party sustained underBarack Obama (D), however, were exceptional, rivaled only by the terms ofRichard Nixon (R) andDwight Eisenhower (R), when Republicans lost 800 and 843 seats, respectively.

Trifectas from 2010 to 2018

See also:State government trifectas

A state government trifecta occurs when one political party controls the primary levers of power in a state: the governor's office, the state Senate, and the state House. From 2010 to 2018, the Republican Party increased its number of trifectas and the Democratic Party saw a decline in its trifectas. However, Democrats picked up six trifectas in the 2018 elections, and Republicans lost four trifectas.

This chart shows the number of trifectas each party held heading into elections from 2010 to 2018, and the number of trifectas following the 2018 elections.

Analysis of state elections

See also:Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2019

In 2019, eight states held elections for executive, legislative, or judicial seats, including elections for seven of the nation's 99 state legislative chambers and for three gubernatorial seats.

Footnotes

v • e 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 2024 State legislative elections (2024) •State legislative special elections (2024) •Primary dates and filing requirements •2024 Session Dates 2023 State legislative elections (2023) •State legislative special elections (2023) •Primary dates and filing requirements •2023 Session Dates Historical elections 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