2026 United States state legislative elections

The 2026 United States state legislative elections will be held on November 3, 2026, for 88 state legislative chambers in 46 states. Across the fifty states, approximately 60% of upper house seats and 92% of lower house seats will be up for election. Additionally, six territorial chambers will be up in four territories and the District of Columbia. These elections will take place concurrently with other state and local elections, including gubernatorial elections in multiple states.

Background

The 2026 state legislative elections will be held as part of the midterm elections during the second presidency of Donald Trump. 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. Democrats performed very well in the 2025 elections, making substantial gains in Virginia and New Jersey and performing very well in special elections. Entering 2026, Republicans fully control 23 state governments, Democrats control 16, with 11 states under split control.

Republicans have controlled a sizeable majority of state legislative chambers across the country since the 2010 elections, giving them substantial clout over a number of policy issues, particularly redistricting prior to the 2010 redistricting cycle. Democrats have slowly made gains in chamber control since Donald Trump's first term began, particularly in 2018 and 2022, but the Republican advantage has persisted.

Party switching Eight incumbent state legislators have switched political parties during 2026. StateChamberDistrictLegislatorOld partyNew partySourceHawaiiHouse14Elle CochranDemocraticRepublicanIndianaHouse72Edward ClereRepublicanIndependentNew HampshireHouseBelknap 6RepublicanDemocraticSullivan 6Dale GirardDemocraticRepublicanNorth CarolinaHouse99Nasif MajeedDemocraticIndependent106Carla CunninghamDemocraticIndependentSouth CarolinaHouse57Lucas AtkinsonDemocraticRepublican

Issues State legislative elections have taken on increased prominence in the eyes of national political parties due to the ongoing mid-decade congressional redistricting frenzy taking place across the country, especially in the wake of the Louisiana v. Callais decision, which allowed several Republican-led states in the South to eliminate majority-Black congressional districts. With Republicans gaining a clear advantage for the 2026 elections, Democrats have turned their focus to state legislatures in key states with hopes of regaining the redistricting advantage for the 2028 elections. Affordability and the proliferation of AI data centers have also emerged as key issues in several states.

Campaign To build momentum for the broader national elections, Democrats have recruited substantially more candidates to run for state legislative offices than in previous cycles. This includes contesting every seat in Texas and breaking decades-old recruitment highs in states such as Georgia, Indiana, and North Carolina. Democrats are heavily targeting control of the Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin legislatures, while seeking to gain supermajorities in Oregon and Washington while breaking Republican supermajorites in the Iowa House, Nebraska Legislature, and North Carolina Senate.

Several states had highly contentious primary elections which shifted power in chambers already safely held by one party. In the Indiana Senate, where a majority of the chamber's Republicans rebuked Donald Trump's mid-decade redistricting push as a part of his broader attempts to maintain Republican control of congress after the midterms, six of the defiant members lost renomination, while another two retired. In New York, six new candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America won primaries across both chambers, nearly doubling the size of the party's caucus. Two legislative leaders have also been defeated. Utah Senate President Stuart Adams lost in a race dominated by a contentious planned AI data center, while North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger narrowly lost his primary as well.

Summary tables States Regularly scheduled elections will be held in 88 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly scheduled elections will be held for 6,064 of the 7,383 legislative seats. Most legislative chambers will hold elections for all seats, but some legislative chambers that use staggered elections hold elections for only a portion of the total seats in the chamber. The chambers that are not up for election either hold regularly scheduled elections in odd-numbered years, or have four-year terms and hold all regularly scheduled elections in presidential election years.

Note that this table only covers regularly scheduled elections; additional special elections will likely take place concurrently with these regularly scheduled elections.

State Upper house Lower house Seats up Total % up Term Seats up Total % up TermAlabama353510041051051004Alaska102050440401002Arizona3030100260601002Arkansas1735492/41001001002California204050480801002 Colorado183551465651002 Connecticut363610021511511002 Delaware1121522/441411002 Florida2040502/41201201002 Georgia565610021801801002 Hawaii1325522/451511002 Idaho3535100270701002 Illinois3959662/41181181002 Indiana25505041001001002 Iowa25505041001001002 Kansas040041251251002 Kentucky19385041001001002 Louisiana03904010504 Maine353510021511511002 Maryland474710041411411004 Massachusetts404010021601601002 Michigan383810041101101002 Minnesota67671002/41341341002 Mississippi05204012204 Missouri17345041631631002 Montana25505041001001002 Nebraska2449494colspan=4 Nevada112152442421002 New Hampshire242410024004001002 New Jersey04002/408002 New Mexico0420470701002 New York636310021501501002 North Carolina505010021201201002 North Dakota24475144794504 Ohio173352499991002 Oklahoma24485041011011002 Oregon153050460601002 Pennsylvania25505042032031002 Rhode Island3838100275751002 South Carolina046041241241002 South Dakota3535100270701002 Tennessee173352499991002 Texas1631522/41501501002 Utah152952475751002 Vermont303010021501501002 Virginia04004010002 Washington244949498981002 West Virginia17345041001001002 Wisconsin173352499991002 Wyoming163152462621002 Total11841973604959541392

Territories Regularly scheduled elections will be held in 6 of the 9 territorial legislative chambers in the United States, for 84 of the 192 territorial legislative seats; the territory of Puerto Rico does not hold legislative elections in mid-term years, as does the American Samoa Senate.

State Upper house Lower house Seats up Total % up Term Seats up Total % up TermAmerican Samoa 0 18 0 4 21 21 100 2District of Columbia 7 13 54 4 colspan=4 Guam 15 15 100 2 colspan=4 Northern Mariana Islands 6 9 67 4 20 20 100 2Puerto Rico 0 28 0 4 0 53 0 4US Virgin Islands 15 15 100 2 colspan=4 Total439844419444

Electoral 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.

Early predictions see a slightly more competitive state legislative landscape than at this point in previous election cycles, with most of the competitive being Republican-held. Democrats hope to capitalize on a potential wave election to win control of these chambers and break Republican supermajorities in others.

Ratings are designated as follows: "Tossup": No advantage "Tilt": Advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean" "Lean": Slight advantage "Likely": Significant, but surmountable, advantage "Safe": Near-certain chance of victory

National results

+Lower house results by partyPartySeatsbeforeChambersbeforeSeatsafter+/-Chambersafter+/-Republican2,971 28Democratic2,419 19Independent 20 0Progressive 3 0 Total 5,413 49 5,413 — 49 —

+Upper house results by partyPartySeatsbeforeChambersbeforeSeatsafter+/-Chambersafter+/-Republican 1,123 29Democratic 845 20Independent 3 0Progressive 1 0Forward10 Total 1,973 50 1,973 — 50 —

State summaries

Alabama

All of the seats of the Alabama Legislature are up for election. Both chambers have been controlled by the Republican Party since 2011. The Senate election originally would have taken place under slightly different maps from the 2022 election after a federal judge overturned two Montgomery-area districts over vote dilution concerns, creating an additional majority-Black district there. This decision was stayed after the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision, which significantly weakened the part of the Voting Rights Act that was used to justify the original decision, returning the elections to the original maps.

Alabama Senate Party Leader Before After Change Republican Garlan Gudger 27 Democratic Bobby Singleton 8 Total 35 35

2026 United States state legislative elections

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