Elections for the Arizona State Senate will take place in 2024. The general election is on Nov. 5, 2024. The primary was July 30, 2024. The filing deadline was April 1, 2024. Arizona is one of 44 states holding legislative elections for 85 of 99 state legislative chambers.
All 30 seats in the state Senate are up for election. Republicans currently have a 16-14 majority. Democrats need to win two seats to win a majority. The last time Democrats controlled the chamber was in 1992. Republicans could increase their majority by winning one or more seats, but they cannot lose any seats and still maintain their majority.
A 15-15 split has not occurred since the 2001-2002 session. According to Governing’s Elizabeth Daigneau, the chamber split control at the time by “selecting moderate Republican Randall Grant as senate president and by giving Democrats preferential treatment in obtaining choice committee chairmanships.”
Arizona is one of 10 states that has a divided government, since Democrats control the governorship while Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature. The outcome of the Senate elections alone cannot change Arizona’s trifecta status because Republicans also control the House. Arizona was a Republican trifecta from 2009 to 2023. The last time the state was a Democratic trifecta was in 1966.
According to the Arizona Mirror’s Jim Small, “Democrats are portraying their Republican opponents as ‘extreme’ and aligned with MAGA politics, while Republicans are casting their challengers as socialists who are too radical for Arizona.”
The general elections will take place against the backdrop of the Arizona Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling regarding abortion. At the time of the ruling, Arizona had two conflicting abortion laws—an 1864 territorial law banning abortion and a 2022 law with a 15-week ban. The court ruled that the 1864 law took precedent. NPR’s Ryland Barton wrote, “Democrats are taking aim at GOP lawmakers who voted against repealing the ban.” The Senate voted to repeal the law 16-14.
According to NPR’s Ben Giles, Republicans “view immigration as a key issue here in Arizona, where voters do feel like there is a problem at the border with the number of border crossings that are happening day to day here in Arizona.” NBC News’ Adam Edelman wrote that the Republican State Leadership Committee has released “ads on behalf of Republicans in three competitive districts that attacked Democrats on those issues.”
Ballotpedia identified seven battleground districts. As of Oct. 27, CNalysis identified one as Lean Democratic, one as Tilt Democratic, two as Likely Democratic, two as Toss-Up, and one as Very Likely Republican. Incumbents are running in six races, while one is in an open district, meaning an incumbent is not running. Click here to read more about the battleground elections. Two incumbents lost in the primaries. Click here to learn more.