Election Battles For State Legislature Supermajorities Heat Up

Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

While Congress stagnates, America’s state houses are drafting and passing policies affecting millions. Now, more than ever, those legislative bodies operate without input from an opposition party or dissenting governor.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

As of Oct. 21, there are 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control, according to Ballotpedia. A trifecta means one party holds the state governorship and a majority in the state house and senate.

Heading into November’s general election, legislative supermajorities exist in 57 of the 99 legislative chambers in the union, according to data compiled by state and local government consultancy Stateside.

Republicans hold 41 of those veto-proof advantages, while Democrats own 20. All told, there is a partisan supermajority in at least one house of the Legislature in 35 of the 50 states.

However, in 14 of those states, the supermajority is held by an advantage of three seats or less. Michael Behm, Stateside’s co-CEO and principal, told The Epoch Times that organizations aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties are spending heavily on down-ballot races that could make or break a supermajority in the coming legislative term.

Even though voter interest is low in statehouse races compared with high-profile campaigns for national offices, Behm and others who spoke with The Epoch Times said the stakes are high. Most of the legislative actions that affect the public, such as policy on abortions, education, energy, health care, taxes, and transportation, come from decisions made in statehouses.

“With the federal government being so polarized and hamstrung these days, the action is at the state level,” Behm said.

Supermajorities

The definition of a supermajority varies from state to state. Generally, attaining a supermajority means a state legislative body has enough members from one party to pass laws without any votes from the minority party and enough votes to override the governor’s vetoes.

Heading into the 2024 general election, Republicans hold a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Additionally, Republicans hold a supermajority in one chamber of the Legislature in Iowa, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

Democrats own a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. Democrats have a supermajority in one chamber of the state Legislatures of Colorado, Connecticut, and Nevada.

Behm said that’s the largest number of supermajorities he has ever observed in state legislatures. Ideologically, the domination of the legislatures by a single party reflects intense political polarization in these states, he said.

Chris Cooper, director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University, said a supermajority effectively limits the governor’s power to carry out policy priorities in a state with a divided government.

Four governors—Kansas’s Laura Kelly, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, North Carolina’s Roy Cooper, and Vermont’s Phil Scott—preside over divided state governments in which the opposition party holds a legislative supermajority.

The four governors’ legislatures stripped them of much of their policymaking potency. In June, Scott, a Republican, told members of the news media, “I think the power has gotten to their head,” referring to the Democrat-controlled Vermont General Assembly’s overriding of six of his vetoes in a single override session.

In North Carolina, a supermajority almost wholly nullifies the will of a governor who already commands limited influence under the state’s constitution, Chris Cooper said.

With their supermajority, Republicans passed new abortion restrictions, drafted new election laws, and further throttled back Gov. Roy Cooper’s power during the most recent legislative session.

“They have taken away appointment power from the North Carolina governor,” Chris Cooper said. “They have made a number of changes that make the already powerful state Legislature into something even more powerful.”

National Efforts

Behm said the rise of legislative supermajorities can be attributed to growing involvement from national partisan groups known as 527 organizations. These are tax-exempt entities that can receive and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence federal, state, and local politics and elections.

Three decades ago, statehouse races were usually local contests directed and financed by city and state chambers of commerce, unions, and other parochial political organizations, Behm said. Now, national groups such as the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) and Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) invest vast national resources into the state’s legislative caucuses.

Behm said both party committees use professionals to recruit candidates and organize the partisan campaigns designed to build majorities in statehouses.

The New York State Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Jan. 16, 2024. Hans Pennink/AP Photo

“These 527 groups have turned state legislative races into national races,” Behm said.

Chris Cooper said Republicans began to take over the statehouses in 2010 when the Republican Party introduced an initiative known as Project REDMAP. The plan called for investing huge sums into state legislative races that were previously overlooked in Washington and flipping chambers to the GOP.

“They did as advertised,” he said. “They turned maps red.”

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