Democrats gain full control of at least 2 state legislatures, 4 state governments in midterms

Democrats flipped Republican-led state legislatures in Minnesota and Michigan in Tuesday's elections and maintained control of the state House and Senate in several states targeted by Republicans. Because Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) also won re-election Tuesday, Democrats now have full control over the governments in Michigan for the first time since 1982, and in Minnesota after a six-year break.

Democratic pickups in the Maryland and Massachusetts gubernatorial races mean the party also gained trifectas — control of the governorship and both houses of the state legislature — in those two states as well. Democrats also appear to have flipped the Pennsylvania House and deprived Republicans of supermajorities in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Republicans appear to have fallen short in their campaigns to end Democratic control of the Colorado and Nevada legislatures, but ended the Democratic supermajority in Oregon's Senate.

"Republicans had everything in their favor: record fundraising and a midterm political environment under a Democratic president, and they have little to show for it," Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee president Jessica Post said Wednesday. "This election should have been a landslide for Republicans — instead Democrats fended off the so-called 'red wave' in the states and gained critical ground for the decade ahead."

Republicans still control a majority of legislatures in the 50 states, and have since flipping 21 chambers in the 2010 Democratic shellacking. Heading in to the 2022 midterms, The New York Times reports, Republicans controlled both legislative houses in 30 states while Democrats held both chambers in 17.

"Last night was a surprisingly good showing for Democrats in statehouses, especially since their gains combat the notion that the president's party always loses ground during midterms," said Wendy Underhill, director of elections and redistricting at the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. But "Republicans continue to absolutely dominate the 50-state landscape, as they have since 2010."

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