All 18 state legislative incumbents who do not have general election challengers this November are Democrats. There are 168 incumbents running for re-election. That means 10.7% of the state legislative incumbents running this year in New Jersey and Virginia are guaranteed re-election.
Ballotpedia uses the number and percentage of incumbents in uncontested general elections to help determine the overall competitiveness of an election cycle. A larger number of uncontested general elections indicates less competitiveness because there are fewer opportunities for voters to elect a non-incumbent to office. A smaller number indicates more of those opportunities.
Nineteen percent of Democratic incumbents are uncontested in 2025, up from three percent in 2021. For Republicans, no incumbents are uncontested this year for the first time since Ballotpedia began tracking this data in 2011.
Four Democratic incumbents were uncontested in 2021, meaning 18 in 2025 is a 350% increase. The total number of incumbents in uncontested general elections in 2021 was 11, meaning 18 in 2025 is a 64% increase.
Three of the uncontested Democratic incumbents are from New Jersey, and 15 of the uncontested Democratic incumbents are from Virginia.
State legislative elections will be held in New Jersey and Virginia on Nov. 4, 2025.