The 2025 United States state legislative elections were held on November 4, 2025, for two state legislative chambers in two states. Across the fifty states, 3 percent of all lower house seats were up for election, with no upper house having regularly scheduled elections. These elections take place concurrently with several other state and local elections, including the 2025 gubernatorial elections.
Democrats expanded their majorities in the Virginia House of Delegates and the New Jersey General Assembly, gaining a supermajority in the latter, in the November general election. They also flipped seven legislative seats across the country in special elections throughout the year while generally outperforming districts' partisan lean in other races. Several other special elections determined partisan control of legislative chambers, though each party held their respective seats in these, resulting in no change of control. This is the first time that no state legislative chamber has changed partisan control since 2015.
Background The 2025 state legislative elections were the first held during the second presidency of Donald Trump following his victory in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans had seen very modest coattails in the 2024 legislative elections, flipping a net of just over 50 seats from the Democrats and breaking Democratic trifectas in two states, but establishing no new trifectas of their own. Entering 2025, Republicans fully controlled 23 state governments, Democrats controlled 15, while 12 states were under split control. Only two states held regularly-scheduled legislative elections in 2025: New Jersey, which Democrats fully controlled, and Virginia, where Democrats controlled the legislature but not the governorship.
Party switching
Seven incumbent state legislators switched political parties during 2025, four leaving the Democratic Party and three leaving the Republican Party. In March, Daniel Thatcher, a moderate Republican Utah Senator left the party and joined the Utah Forward Party. Florida Senate Democratic leader Jason Pizzo announced he was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent in April 2025, citing the party's recent decline in power the state. He later announced an Independent run for governor of Florida. In May, Robin L. Webb, the last remaining rural Democratic member of the Kentucky Senate, left the party and joined the Republican supermajority. In June, Maine state senator Rick Bennett left the Republican Party and became an Independent, while simultaneously announcing a bid for governor of the state. In August, Maine state representative W. Edward Crockett left the Democratic Party and became an Independent for the same reason. In September, Republican Oregon State Representative Cyrus Javadi switched political parties and joined the Democratic supermajority. Later in September, South Dakota State Representative Peri Pourier left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party.
StateChamberDistrictLegislatorOld partyNew partySourceFloridaSenate37DemocraticIndependentKentuckySenate18DemocraticRepublicanMaineSenate18RepublicanIndependentHouse112W. Edward CrockettDemocraticIndependentOregonHouse32RepublicanDemocraticSouth Dakota House27DemocraticRepublicanUtahSenate11RepublicanForwardVermontHouseChittenden-15ProgressiveIndependent
Issues Affordability emerged as the defining issue of all the 2025 elections, beyond the state legislative level. While this worked in Republicans' favor in 2024, when Democrats held power, voters shifted their blame towards Republicans as the issue persisted amid Donald Trump's second term in office. Democrats particularly homed in on the cost of electricity amid rate hikes tied to the construction of artificial intelligence data centers. The election also took place during the 2025 government shutdown, caused by disagreements over federal healthcare subsidies, which particularly affected Virginia.
Summary table Regularly scheduled elections are to be held in two of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly scheduled elections are to be held for 180 of the 7,383 legislative seats. This table only covers regularly scheduled elections; additional special elections will take place concurrently with these regularly scheduled elections.
State Lower house Seats up Total % up TermNew Jersey 80 80 100 2Virginia 100 100 100 2
Election predictions Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive chambers. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the party, the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state (reflected in part by the state's Cook Partisan Voting Index rating). The predictions assign ratings to each chambers, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that election.
Most election predictors use: "Tossup": No advantage "Tilt": Advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean" "Lean": Slight advantage "Likely": Significant, but surmountable, advantage "Safe" or "Solid": Near-certain chance of victory
State PVI Chamber Lastelection State NavigateResult New Jersey General Assembly D 52–28 | D 57–23 Virginia House of Delegates D 51–49 | D 64–36
National results Democrats performed extremely well in the off-year elections, flipping 25 Republican-held legislative seats out of the 118 that were up, while losing none of their own. They gained 18 across the regularly-scheduled elections in Virginia and New Jersey and an additional 7 through special elections. These gains came amid electoral victories across the country, both at the statewide level and at the local level, for the Democratic Party. In contested special elections, Democrats performed 13 percentage points better on average than they did in the 2024 presidential election. No state legislative chambers changed partisan control, but Democrats gained a supermajority in the New Jersey General Assembly while breaking Republican supermajorities in the Mississippi Senate and Iowa Senate.
Multiple sources have compared the results to those from the 2017 elections, where Democrats made gains in both regular and special elections as a precursor to the blue wave 2018 election. These gains were attributed to the declining approval ratings of Republican President Donald Trump, as well as a focus on affordability. Democrats are attempting to maintain this electoral momentum into the 2026 elections, where they are targeting control of state legislative chambers in battleground states across the country, as well as attempting to break Republican supermajorities in several other states.
State summaries New Jersey
All of the seats of the New Jersey General Assembly were up for election in 2025. Democrats had controlled the chamber since the 2001 elections. Democrats gained a supermajority in the chamber, flipping five seats for their largest majority since 1973.
New Jersey General Assembly Party Leader Before After Change Democratic Craig Coughlin 52 57 5 Republican John DiMaio 28 23 5 Total 80 80
Virginia
All of the seats of the Virginia House of Delegates were up for election in 2025. Democrats had controlled the chamber since the 2023 elections. Democrats won in a landslide, gaining 13 seats, greatly expanding their majority, their largest since 1987. The most immediate effect of this victory was the survival of Democratic plans to pass a constitutional amendment to allow them to redraw the state's congressional districts amidst a flurry of mid-decade redistricting across the country. The amendment needs to pass the legislature in two consecutive legislative sessions before being sent to voters.
Virginia House of Delegates Party Leader Before After Change Democratic Don Scott 51 64 13 Republican Terry Kilgore 49 36 13 Total 100 100
Special elections
There were 93 state, 1 territorial, and 1 informal legislative special elections held in 2025. Four seats flipped parties in vacancy-related special elections: Georgia's 121st House District, Iowa's 1st and 35th Senate Districts, and Pennsylvania's 36th Senate District flipped from Republican to Democratic. Special elections called due to court-ordered redistricting in Mississippi allowed Democrats to break the Republican supermajority in the Mississippi Senate as well, gaining two seats, and gain one seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives. Many Democratic special election candidates have outperformed Kamala Harris' 2024 performance in their respective districts, often by 10 percentage points or more, but almost all featured turnout less than half of that of the 2024 election.
Democrats have additionally maintained their narrow control of the Minnesota Senate, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Virginia Senate, and Virginia House of Delegates, through special election victories, as well as reaffirming the tie in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Their gains in the Iowa Senate and Mississippi Senate allowed them to break the Republican supermajorities in those chambers as well.
Alabama District Incumbent This race Chamber No. Representative Party Firstelected Results Candidates Senate 5 Greg Reed Republican 2010 Incumbent resigned January 1, 2025, to join Governor Kay Ivey's administration.New member elected June 24, 2025.Republican hold. House 11 Randall Shedd Republican 2013 Incumbent resigned February 17, 2025, to become director of constituent affairs for Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger.New member elected August 26, 2025.Republican hold. House13Matt Woods Republican2022 Incumbent resigned June 27, 2025, to join the State Senate.New member elected September 30, 2025, after the general election was cancelled.Republican hold.House12Corey Harbison Republican2014Incumbent resigned April 16, 2025, to focus on time with his family.New member elected October 28, 2025.Republican hold.
California District Incumbent This race Chamber No. Representative Party Firstelected Results Candidates Assembly 32 Vince Fong Republican 2016 Incumbent resigned May 24, 2024, to become a U.S. representative.New member elected February 25, 2025.Republican hold. Senate 36 Janet Nguyen Republican 2022 Incumbent resigned November 30, 2024, to join the Orange County Board of Supervisors.New member elected February 25, 2025.Republican hold. Assembly 63 Bill Essayli Republican 2022Incumbent resigned April 1, 2025, to become U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.New member elected August 26, 2025, after no one received over 50% of the vote on June 24, 2025.Republican hold.
Connecticut
District Incumbent This race Chamber No. Representative Party Firstelected Results Candidates House 40 Christine Conley Democratic 2016 Incumbent resigned January 7, 2025, after being nominated to the Workers' Compensation Commission.New member elected February 25, 2025.Democratic hold. Senate 21 Kevin C. Kelly Republican 2010 Incumbent resigned January 8, 2025, after being nominated to the Connecticut Superior Court.New member elected February 25, 2025.Republican hold. House 113 Jason Perillo Republican 2007 Incumbent resigned February 28, 2025 to join the State Senate.New member elected April 22, 2025.Republican hold.
Delaware District Incumbent This race Chamber No. Representative Party Firstelected Results Candidates Senate 1 Sarah McBride Democratic 2020 Incumbent resigned January 2, 2025, to become a U.S. representative.New member elected February 15, 2025.Democratic hold. Senate 5 Kyle Evans Gay Democratic 2020 Incumbent resigned January 21, 2025, to become Lieutenant Governor of Delaware.New member elected February 15, 2025.Democratic hold. House 20 Stell Parker Selby Democratic 2022 Incumbent resigned June 24, 2025, due to long-term absence following a stroke.New member elected August 5, 2025.Democratic hold.
Florida