October’s partisan count of the 7,383 state legislators across the United States shows 52.2% of all state legislators are Republicans and 46.9% are Democrats.
Ballotpedia tallies the partisan balance of state legislatures at the end of every month. The partisan composition of state legislatures refers to which political party holds the majority of seats in each chamber. Republicans hold a majority in 61 chambers, and Democrats hold the majority in 37 chambers. One chamber (Alaska’s state House) has a power-sharing agreement between the two parties.
Altogether, there are 1,972 state senator and 5,411 state representative offices. Republicans held 1,081 state senate seats—up two seats from September—and 2,770 state house seats—down one seat. Democrats held 3,462 of the 7,383 state legislative seats—879 state Senate seats (unchanged from September) and 2,583 state House seats (down two seats). Independent or third-party legislators held 35 seats. There were 35 vacant seats.
At the time of the 2018 elections, 7,280 state legislators were affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties. There were 3,257 Democratic state legislators, 4,023 Republican state legislators, 35 independent or third-party state legislators, and 68 vacancies.
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