RED, WIDE & BLUE: Will election results narrow the widening partisan gap?

• Author: Storey, Tim
• Position: ELECTION 2018

Democrats scored significant wins in state legislatures on Nov. 6, beating Republicans handily and notching some key chamber flips. Yet, it was hardly a "thumping," as President George W. Bush described the results of his 2006 midterm elections, or a "shellacking," as President Barack Obama referred to his first midterms.

The GOP was braced for deeper losses given that their control was at all-time highs going into the election and a swing of the pendulum was likely. The party of the president had lost seats in 27 of the 29 midterm elections since 1902. The exceptions: 1934, with America in the teeth of the Great Depression, when FDR's Democrats won big, and 2002, as the nation prepared to go to war after 9/11, when Republicans made gains.

The net gain for Democrats in this two-year cycle will be a little more than 300 seats. That's somewhat modest and well under the average loss of 424 seats for the party in the White House during a midterm. Republicans control 53 percent of the nation's 7,383 legislative seats, but the gap between the two parties narrowed considerably and Democrats now have more seats than at any point since they lost 710 in the 2010 election.

Control Is Key

Seats are important. But what really matters is gaining functional majorities in legislative chambers, and Democrats added seven of those this year.

Democrats took the senates in Colorado, Connecticut (which was previously tied) and Maine, the House in Minnesota and both chambers in New Hampshire. Add to that tally the New York Senate, which had been nominally a majority-Democratic chamber (32-31) but was led by a coalition of a few Democrats and all the Republicans. Democrats surged to 40 seats, ending the GOP-led coalition.

The brightest spot for the GOP was in the Last Frontier. The Alaska House, like the New York Senate, was led by a coalition for the last two years. Republicans gained enough seats to end the Democrats' functional control of the chamber.

Where We Stand

When legislatures convene next year, the GOP will lead 61 chambers to the Dems' 37. That adds up to 98 chambers because Nebraska's single-chamber legislature is officially nonpartisan, though widely acknowledged to be Republican controlled. Democrats control both chambers in 18 states, compared with the Republicans' 30.

This midterm also consolidated partisan control of states more so than any election in over a century. Minnesota is now the only state where the two parties share legislative power...