No Democrat “Blue Wave” In State Legislative, Gubernatorial Races
FAIR Take | November 2020
The story this election cycle is not solely about the presidential and Congressional elections. It is also about the state legislative races. The results show that Democrats failed in their quest to pick up additional legislative chambers, despite the tens of millions of dollars they spent to do so.
Buoyed by their win in Virginia in 2019, the Democrats and open borders advocates and organizations planned to funnel tens of millions of dollars into state legislative contests. With the gridlock in Washington, D.C., these groups figured that in order to advance their agenda on immigration and other priorities, they would need to focus on state races. However, their “blue wave” failed to materialize.
During the 2020 election cycle the Democrats targeted nine legislative chambers. Despite spending more than $32 million in state races and holding the fundraising advantage, the Democrats failed to flip control of the state House chambers in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Texas, and Alaska and the Senate chambers in Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. Both the Arizona House and Senate remain too close to call, however, experts believe Republicans will hold onto both chambers. Only the New Hampshire House and Senate changed hands this November – from Democrat to Republican. The Virginia legislature went from Republican to Democrat in 2019 and has since granted driver’s licenses and in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
This year’s election resulted in only one state with divided legislative chambers. The Minnesota Senate remained in Republican hands while the House stayed Democrat. Before the November election, the Republicans in the Minnesota Senate had a two-seat margin. Instead of a coalition governing the Alaska House now it will be controlled by the Republicans. As of right now there are 61 Republican chambers to 37 for the Democrats.
The Democrat losses were not confined to the legislative chambers. Out of the eleven states where the governor was up for re-election, there was only one change. The governorship in Montana went from Democrat to Republican. There are now 27 Republican governors to the Democrat’s 23.
The bad news for the Democrats was that they came up empty handed in their attempts to win in both legislative and gubernatorial races. As a result of those races, Republicans increased their number of trifectas (where both chambers of the legislature and governorship are in the same party’s control) by three. After November’s election, Republicans have 20 trifectas to the Democrats 15. The Republicans gained trifectas in Montana, New Hampshire, and Alaska.
With legislative and gubernatorial control in the states resting with one of the parties, it is likely immigration legislation will mimic whichever party is in control. States like California will continue to get bluer while states like Florida will get deeper red.