1. Mississippi voters to decide gubernatorial, other state executive primaries Tuesday
2. Your July state legislative partisan control update—52.2% Republicans, 47.0% Democrats
3. Quiz: Which states have state Senate districts with a greater population than congressional districts?

Mississippi voters to decide gubernatorial, other state executive primaries Tuesday

Just one state—Mississippi—has an open-seat governor’s race in 2019 as incumbent Phil Bryant (R) is term-limited. The primaries for that race and 10 other state executive offices take place Tuesday.

Three Republicans are seeking their party’s nod to succeed Bryant—Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., and state Rep. Robert Foster. According to campaign finance reports through July 27, Reeves had raised $5 million, Waller $1.2 million, and Foster $179,000. A late July poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy found Reeves leading Waller with 41% support to Waller’s 31% and Foster’s 13%. The poll surveyed 500 likely primary voters and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

In the Democratic primary, Attorney General Jim Hood, Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, and six other candidates are running. Hood has served as attorney general since 2004, and, prior to 2015, he was the only Democratic statewide officeholder in the southeastern United States. Hood has raised $1.6 million and Smith $22,000 through July 27. No other Democratic candidate reported raising more than $1,000 through that date.

The last Democrat to win election as governor of Mississippi was Ronnie Musgrove in 1999.Two of three election forecasters tracked by Ballotpedia rate the general election for governor as “Leans Republican” and the other rates it as “Likely Republican.”

There are also contested Republican primaries for lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and state treasurer and a contested Democratic primary for secretary of state. Both parties have contested primaries for two of three seats on the state’s public service commission.

Candidates must win a majority of votes to get the nomination. If no candidate receives a majority in any race, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff on August 27. The general election is November 5.

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Your July state legislative partisan control update—52.2% Republicans, 47.0% Democrats 

As of the end of July, 52.2% of all state legislators were Republicans and 47.0% were Democrats, which is consistent with previous months this year. The remaining seats were vacant or held by members of other political parties.

There are 7,383 state legislative seats in the country. Republicans held 3,854 of those seats and Democrats held 3,468. Independent or third-party legislators held 34 seats and 27 seats were vacant.

At the time of the 2018 elections, there were 4,023 Republican state legislators, 3,257 Democratic state legislators, 35 independent or third-party state legislators, and 68 vacancies.

The chart below shows the number of state legislative seats controlled by each party as of January of each year:

There are 99 state legislative chambers, as all but one state—Nebraska—has both an upper (state Senate) and lower (state House) legislative body. Republicans hold a majority of seats in 62 state legislative chambers, and Democrats hold the majority in 37. The party that holds a majority of seats in a legislative chamber generally elects the leadership of that chamber and has majorities on various committees. This is currently true for all state legislative chambers except the Alaska House of Representatives, where Republicans have a majority of members but the parties have split control of key leadership positions under a power-sharing agreement.

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#BallotTrivia

Which states have state Senate districts with a greater population than congressional districts?

There are just over 747,000 people in the country for each member of the U.S. House of Representatives, based on 2018 census estimates. This number has risen over the years as the nation’s population has grown and the number of U.S. Representatives has remained at 435.

Two states have state legislative chambers that feature an even larger ratio of population to members. Which states have state Senate districts with a greater population than congressional districts?

A.  California and Florida →
B.  California and New York →
C.  California and Texas →
D.  Florida and Texas →