Search This Blog

Divided We Stand

Divided We Stand
New book about the 2020 election.

Monday, November 4, 2024

The Stakes of State Legislative Elections

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections.

Robert Gebelhoff and Amanda Shendruk at WP:
National politics getting you down? Are you tired of reading about the same old presidential and Senate races?

Good news: Legislatures in 44 states are also up for election this year, and they feature a bushel of nail-biters. Even more important: What happens in these races will reverberate in American politics for years to come.

Though Republicans enjoy a considerable state-level advantage — they control 28 state legislatures, to Democrats’ 20 — a healthy number of chambers are toss-ups. If Republicans have a good night, they’ll fortify their grip on state governments. But if Democrats outperform expectations, they could cut into the GOP’s 770-seat lead in state legislative seats nationally — and might even break some supermajorities in Republican strongholds.
Why does this matter? Because states are where much of today’s political action happens. Consider some of the top hot-button political issues of the past few years. Congress rarely passes bills on any of these topics, but state legislatures have enacted a flood of laws on them: