Key facts
- Democrats broke Republican supermajorities in 10 states, according to Chaz Nuttycombe, executive director of State Navigate.
- Nuttycombe predicts about 76% of the US population will live under a Democratic governor once uncalled races finish.
- Democrats will control the Texas state house for the first time since 2002, the report said.
- Democrats have not won full control of government in Arizona in 60 years, the report said.
- Greta Neubauer, set to lead Wisconsin's state assembly after a 53-seat Democratic majority, said redistricting is under consideration.
- Democrats are on course for at least 54 Senate seats and 237 House seats, the report said.
Democrats gained 258 state legislative seats across the United States in the November 3, 2026 midterm elections, created six new governing trifectas, claimed 11 legislative chambers from Republicans and broke Republican supermajorities in 10 states, according to Chaz Nuttycombe, executive director of the state legislature-focused nonprofit State Navigate.
Ballots were still being counted, the report said. Nuttycombe predicted about 76% of the country's population will live under a Democratic governor and about half will be represented by a Democratic state lawmaker. The party also won gubernatorial elections in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas, putting it in control of a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010, according to the report.
"This was the most significant night for state legislative power since the seismic Republican wave in 2010," said Mandara Meyers, executive director of the States Project, which supported Democratic candidates for state legislative office. The leaders of the Democratic Governors Association, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, said in a statement that "More Democratic governors mean better lives for the millions of Americans who live in our states."
Greta Neubauer, set to lead Wisconsin's state assembly after Democrats won a 53-seat majority, said on a November 4 call with reporters that the caucus will consider congressional redistricting, along with expanding Medicaid or other public health care options and access to free school meals. "We have gerrymandered maps in Wisconsin," she said.
In North Carolina, where Republicans took full control of state government in 2010, Democrats won back a majority in the legislature's lower chamber and narrowed the gap in the Republican-controlled state senate, with counting in tight races continuing. Tiffany Reynolds-Richardson, executive director of Lillian's List, which endorsed seven female candidates who helped Democrats take the state house, said Republicans "are gonna have to play ball now."
Nuttycombe attributed the result largely to the economy and dissatisfaction with Donald Trump, estimating that accounts for "probably about 80%, 85%" of the wave, with the rest tied to attitudes toward state government and incumbency.