At least seven state legislative incumbents lost their re-election campaigns on Nov. 2, 2021. All seven of those legislators were Democrats—five in Virginia and two in New Jersey.

This brings the total number of incumbents defeated in the 2021 elections to 15. Incumbents ran in 203 of the 220 state legislative elections this year, meaning that 7.4 percent lost at some stage (in a primary or general) to a challenger. That is the highest rate of incumbents losing to challengers in the last six odd-year election cycles. The next highest rate was in 2017 when 7.0 percent of incumbents lost.

There are still 16 uncalled races across the two states, so these figures may change. Among the remaining uncalled races, there are 13 Democratic incumbents: seven in the New Jersey General Assembly, four in the Virginia House of Delegates, and two in the New Jersey State Senate.