December 2019 breakdown of state legislative party membership: 52.1% Republicans, 46.6% Democrats


December’s partisan count of the 7,383 state legislators across the United States shows 52.1% of all state legislators are Republicans and 46.6% are Democrats, which is consistent with November.

Ballotpedia tallies the partisan balance of state legislatures at the end of every month. This 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 senate and 5,411 state house offices. Republicans held 1,078 state senate seats—down three seats from November—and 2,768 state house seats—down seven seats from last month. Democrats held 3,444 of the 7,383 state legislative seats—876 state Senate seats (down two seats) and 2,568 state House seats (down 11 seats). Independent or third-party legislators held 36 seats. There were 57 vacant seats—an increase of 23 vacancies since November.

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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Additional reading:
Partisan composition of state houses
State senators
State representatives