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Democrats romped in state elections. What will they do with their newfound power?
Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcom Kenyatta, a Democrat, speaks Wednesday at a party celebrating Democratic control of state government in Harrisburg. Across the country, Democrats flipped hundreds of state legislative seats, won control of several GOP-held chambers, broke veto-proof supermajorities and won a majority of governorships. (Photo by Whitney Downard/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
The blue wave that swept across Tuesday’s midterm election will deliver Democrats new power over state government, giving them the opportunity to advance long-sought policy changes.
Democrats flipped hundreds of seats, won control of several GOP-held chambers, broke veto-proof supermajorities and won a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010.
Democratic lawmakers from multiple states pledged to use their new statehouse power to attack rising prices, protect reproductive rights, pass new gun safety measures and grow the housing supply.
The changed landscape also gives state Democratic leaders more power to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump, said Marc Farinella, senior advisor to the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.
That may mean opposing Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, Farinella said, or bolstering state funding of Medicaid and food stamps, both of which have faced significant federal cuts under Trump.
Legislating will prove much easier in states with newly won Democratic trifectas, where the party controls both chambers and the governor’s office. Those states include Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But newly divided governments in other states — Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, Texas — could result in gridlock.
Following the midterms, state legislatures will see their biggest leadership shakeup in years, as the National Conference of State Legislatures expects nearly half of state chambers to have new leaders next session.
“None of us have ever been in a majority, so it’s a big learning curve,” said Arizona state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, assistant House minority leader. She said Democrats, who will control Phoenix for the first time in 60 years, are connecting with their counterparts from other states, such as Colorado, that have swung from red to blue.
The Pennsylvania state Senate flipped to Democratic control for the first time since 1978, handing the party a resounding trifecta after Gov. Josh Shapiro sailed to reelection.
Already, Shapiro and Democratic state lawmakers have pledged to revive a slew of policies that had previously passed the state House but died in the Republican-controlled Senate. Those include raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, codifying abortion rights, passing a law to allow survivors of sexual abuse to sue their abusers and increasing funding for mass transit.
“I think here in Pennsylvania we made very, very clear at the state level and the federal level that we are rejecting Donald Trump’s policies and we want to see costs come down,” Shapiro said Wednesday. “And now you’ve got an opportunity to see that happen in Harrisburg and in Washington.”
At the same time, Farinella said, this week’s “historically forceful rebuke of Trump and his agenda” will prompt an as yet undetermined response from Republicans. After a decade of near-total control by Trump and the MAGA movement, the decisive GOP losses could free some Republicans to return to more centrist policies, he said.
“To me, it’s the big outstanding question coming out of the election,” Farinella said. “How will the congressional Republicans and how will the Republicans in state legislatures now feel about the latitude they have or don’t have in terms of their own policy preferences?”
Progress or gridlock?
In New Hampshire, Democrats pulled off a stunning upset, flipping control of both the state House and Senate.
Though Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte won reelection, Democrats appear to have secured veto-proof supermajorities.
Democratic state Rep. Christal Lloyd said she plans to focus on addressing federal cuts to Medicaid through state funding and address education funding to help alleviate growing local property tax burdens. But she said Democrats won’t just rush to push through progressive bills.
“We want to make lasting changes, positive changes, and we want to write good legislation that helps our constituents and helps their lives,” Lloyd told Stateline. “And it’s up to us to live up to the trust that the voters put in our hands.”
While the governor won her race, her power will be greatly diminished by legislative supermajorities.
“If she tries to veto anything, we’ve got the supermajority,” Lloyd said. “But that’s not to say we won’t work with the other side. We’re going to negotiate where possible.”
Democrats will also wield new power in Concord after winning total control of the state executive committee, a unique-to-New-Hampshire body that serves as a check on the governor, approving or rejecting state contracts and vetting gubernatorial nominees.
That body has pledged to immediately focus on funding Planned Parenthood and holding the scandal-ridden state Supreme Court accountable.
“There is no rubber stamp for the governor,” said state Rep. Luz Bay, a Democrat newly elected to the council.
In other states, the new legislative mix may produce gridlock.
In North Carolina, Democrats already controlled the governor’s office and on Tuesday night they flipped control of the state House, though Republicans held onto the state Senate with a two-seat margin. It’s possible some Republican senators will join Democrats to approve legislation, said Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
But he wouldn’t count on it.
“I think the greater possibility really is that we see very little, that we just see stalemate coming out of Raleigh and if you’re a Republican, maybe that’s not so bad,” Cooper told NC Newsline on Wednesday.
The GOP has already ticked off many of the items on its legislative wish list since gaining power in 2011, he said. And Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has seen a dozen of his vetoes overridden by the GOP-controlled legislature.
“If less happens in Raleigh and you’re a conservative Republican, I’m not sure you’re that upset about that,” Cooper said. “It’s the Democrats who still wouldn’t be able to act.”
In Texas, where Democrats hadn’t won a statewide office since 1994, they swept all statewide offices and flipped control of the state House. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged to declare a “high-cost emergency” in Texas and to issue executive orders to suspend the state gas and diesel taxes and to freeze electricity rates.
But Senate Republicans, who held the upper chamber Tuesday, have promised to oppose her.
“Texas stands as long as the Texas Senate Republican caucus holds the line,” Republican state Sen. Charles Schwertner posted on X Tuesday night. “We will.”
Focusing on pocketbooks
In Arizona, Democratic lawmakers say they’re focused squarely on affordability.
“In Arizona, lots of people have lost their SNAP (food stamp) benefits, and lots of people are having a really hard time affording their rent and their mortgages,” said Gutierrez.
She said her caucus will aim to ban grocery stores from using dynamic pricing to gouge consumers; control rent hikes; and try to make homes more affordable by placing restrictions on corporate property purchases, which can drive up prices. Arizona Democrats also want to constrain a state program that allows K-12 students to receive public funding to pay for private school tuition.
In Missouri, Republicans are questioning their legislative agenda after losing 16 House seats in their worst performance since the Watergate scandal. The GOP maintained its majority but lost its supermajority status.
“We’re in a total reassessment,” Rep. Darin Chappell, who was selected as the House majority leader, told The Missouri Independent.
Other Republican lawmakers said they needed to focus more on voters’ affordability priorities and less on legislative pet projects. “People have been speaking loud and clear that they want us to focus on issues that affect their pocketbooks,” said state Rep. Israel Baeza, a Republican.
Major Republican losses in Utah deprived the GOP of a legislative supermajority for the first time since 1993. While Republicans maintain total control of state government, this week’s “blue tsunami” could cause leadership shakeups and reshape policy priorities, the Utah News Dispatch reported.
Democratic state lawmakers must act quickly to capitalize on their momentum, said Gaby Goldstein, the founder and president of State Futures, a nonprofit that coordinates hundreds of Democratic lawmakers across the states.
She said states have the ability to immediately alleviate affordability pressures by bringing down the costs of prescription drugs, erasing medical debt and addressing labor issues such as minimum wages.
“These are policies that have a big, immediate impact on people’s lives, and can tell that broader story about why people’s lives are different when Democrats are in power,” she said.
After winning control of both chambers of Congress, Democrats are poised to launch investigations and increase oversight of the Trump administration. But Goldstein said state Democrats must deliver on the affordability promises they made to get into power.
“It needs to result in people’s lives feeling appreciably better if Democrats want to hold on to power in ‘28,” she said. “At the federal level, the story has to roll up from what Democrats have done at the state level because oversight hearings are going to feel good, but they’re not putting any money in your pocket.”
Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
