2022 The Decennial Reset: This fall, as we see the results of the latest redistricting, Republicans have a leg up in legislative and gubernatorial races. Meanwhile, Democrats are picking their battles wisely.

• Author: Williams, Ben
• Position: ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING

Thousands of people will be elected to state legislatures across the country this fall. As this issue of State Legislatures magazine went to press, primary elections for 3,391 seats (54%) had already occurred, with 2,888 (46%) still to come. Partisan control in legislatures did not change much in the elections of 2018 and 2020, and going into November, Republicans maintain commanding majorities in chamber control.

But this year, voters confront issues not seen in decades--a land war in Europe, persistent inflation and several controversial U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

After November, Republican-controlled chambers in Michigan and New Hampshire could change hands, along with the Democratic-controlled Colorado Senate, Minnesota House and Nevada House and Senate.

Here's a look at what's in store as voters head to the polls.

* In legislative races, Republicans have a leg up.

Of the nation's 7,383 legislators, 3,978 (54%) are Republicans, 3,266 (45%) are Democrats, and 91 (including Nebraska's 49 senators) are nonpartisan, independent or from a third party. Currently, 48 seats are vacant. Democrats controlled a majority of seats nationwide until the 2010 election, when a Republican "tsunami" ended a 40-year run of Democratic dominance.

The national aggregate of individual legislators' party affiliation doesn't matter nearly as much as the number of chambers controlled by each party. Forty-nine states, each with two chambers, make up the nation's 98 partisan chambers, of which 62% (61) are held by Republicans and 38% (38) by Democrats. The unicameral Nebraska Legislature is considered nonpartisan and is not included in the count.

That 61-38 chamber split gives Republicans a huge lead in this year's midterm elections for legislative control. The GOP has been ahead in the chamber count since 2010, when control shifted from Democratic to Republican in 23 chambers, and from Democratic to tied in the Oregon Senate. The exact numbers of chambers held by each party have fluctuated since, but Republican dominance remains unchanged. The 2016 election was the high-water mark for Republican control, when the party held the majority in a whopping 66 chambers. In 2018, the Dems took back seven; in 2020 and 2021, the GOP regained three.

On average, 12 chambers change party in each general election cycle.

Democrats need to net 11 chambers to reach parity this year, or 12 to pass Republicans in chamber control. But with a Democrat in the White House, the...