Democratic thrashing redraws the map of state power
But newly empowered Democratic state lawmakers will face a challenging political and economic landscape with voters angry at elected officials of all partisan stripes as they face pocketbook woes and government failings.
Key points
- Democrats flipped more than 500 state legislative seats and won control of at least a dozen legislative chambers, establishing new governing trifectas in Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nevada.
- Wisconsin Republicans, for example, swept every statewide office and won control of both legislative chambers that year, clearing the way to enact a far-reaching conservative agenda that remade the state over the ensuing decade.
- The gains represent the most seismic change in state capitals since Republicans shellacked Democrats nationwide in 2010, picking up nearly 700 state legislative seats and flipping 20 chambers.
Veteran Minnesota Republican strategist Gregg Peppin, who worked on state Senate races this cycle, said the results there largely hinged on what voters were most angry about: the state’s massive fraud scandals under Democratic governance, or a deeply unpopular president.
Additional details
- “This is an incredible moment for the state of Wisconsin and the country,” said Wisconsin Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, who’s expected to become speaker next year.
- After Tuesday, they now control a narrow majority of at least 51 state legislative chambers, up from 29 when Trump first took office in 2016, according to the DLCC.
- They used that power in the ensuing years to entrench conservative policies and redraw legislative maps in their favor in wide swaths of the country.
- In New York, Democrats are on track for their biggest state Senate majority since 1846, when they were running against the Whigs.
- Ultimately, Democrats padded their state Senate majority by five seats and won control of the House.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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