In the 37 states that have held primaries so far this year, 136 state legislative incumbents—3.4% of all incumbents seeking re-election—have lost. That’s less than at this point in 2022, when 174, or 4.6%, of incumbents had lost in primaries. Four of the 136 defeated incumbents were legislative leaders: three Republican state senators and one…
Delaware has 13 contested state legislative primaries this year, one less than in 2022 when 14 state legislative primaries were contested. Of the 13 contested primaries, 10 are for Democrats and three are for Republicans. For Democrats, this is one less than in 2022 when there were 11 Democratic primaries. The three Republican primaries are…
Wyoming has 54 contested state legislative primaries on August 20, 2024, the most the state has had since Ballotpedia began tracking in 2010. All contested primaries are Republican primaries, marking a record high for Republicans and a record low for Democrats. About 35.1% of all possible state legislative primaries are contested, the highest percentage since…
Lawmakers in 18 states considered bills this year that change who may vote in at least some statewide primaries or caucuses. Only one of these bills, Louisiana’s HB 17, was adopted. That bill changes Louisiana’s unique primary system and creates closed primaries for elections for Congress and several state offices, including the state supreme court, beginning…
In Arizona, a campaign for a ballot initiative that would eliminate partisan primaries submitted signatures on July 3, 2024. Make Elections Fair, the campaign sponsoring the initiative, submitted 584,124 signatures to state officials. At least 383,923 signatures must be verified for the initiative to make the ballot. The initiative would amend the Arizona Constitution to…
There were 29 Republican primaries for the Ohio House of Representatives on March 19, 2024. An incumbent ran in 19 of those primaries. Five incumbents lost in the primaries, the most since at least 2012. The 2024 elections took place in the context of a conflict within the House Republican caucus over the election of…
California has 58 contested state legislative primaries this year. This is the second-highest number and percentage of contested primaries since 2014. All 58 contested primaries are top-two primaries where the top-two vote getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. This number is down from 60 in 2022. Twenty-seven incumbents face primary challenges, representing…
Louisiana has 79 contested state legislative primaries this year, a 14% decrease from 2019. Louisiana holds top-two primaries, where all candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate does, the top-two vote recipients from the primary advance to…
So far this year, seven state legislative incumbents—five Democrats and two Republicans—have lost to primary challengers. As of June 21, there were two incumbents in uncalled races. Across the two states that have held primaries, 3.7% of incumbents running for re-election have lost, slightly fewer than in 2021 (3.9%). These totals include data from both legislative…
The statewide primary election for Kentucky is on May 16, 2023. The filing deadline to run passed on Jan. 6. Candidates are running in elections for the following offices: Governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor of public accounts, and commissioner of agriculture Kentucky State Senate District 28 (special) The Democratic and Republican…