Rick Moran:
The Republican victory on Tuesday night extended beyond taking the US Senate, several big blue state governorships, and picking up a net of at least 13 House seats.
Overshadowed by all the news from Washington and the statehouses was the historic wave that gave Republicans an unprecedented number of state legislative seats. The GOP now has control of both house and senate chambers in 24 states. They took control of an additional 6 state legislative chambers by capturing the Colorado and Maine Senates and state House chambers in Minnesota, New Mexico, West Virginia and New Hampshire.
To add insult to injury, they reduced the number of states where Democrats controlled both the senate and the house from 14 to 7.
It was truly a slaughter. The Washington Post reports:
Republican gains extended to state legislative chambers as well. Before Election Day, the GOP controlled 59 of 98 partisan legislative chambers across the country. On Tuesday, preliminary results showed Republicans had won control of both the Nevada Assembly and Senate, the Colorado and Maine Senates and state House chambers in Minnesota, New Mexico, West Virginia and New Hampshire.
That would give the party control of 67 chambers, five more than their previous record in the modern era, set after special elections in 2011 and 2012.
It also would give Republicans total control of 24 states, in which they hold the governor’s mansion and both chambers of the state legislature (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is technically nonpartisan, but in practice Republicans control the chamber by a wide margin). Democrats, by contrast, are likely to control all three legs of the governing stool in only six states.
Many Republican majorities got bigger on Tuesday night. The GOP won outright control of state Senates in Washington and New York, which they had controlled under coalition agreements with centrist Democrats. By the early morning hours on Wednesday, Republicans claimed supermajority status in 16 legislative chambers. Republicans won four lieutenant governorships previously held by Democrats — in Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts.
There are still several dozen state legislative races too close to call, so the GOP could pick up a couple of other state legislative chambers if those contests break in their direction. But it seems clear that Republicans will set a party record for the number of GOP state legislative office holders, eclipsing the old record of 4001 seats.
National candidates hatching rooms.
These people will show what they are made of over the next few years.