The Democratic surge on Tuesday netted at least 330 state legislative seats, from New Hampshire to Arizona, giving the Democrats full control of 22 state governments and making them the majority in a dozen statehouse chambers where they had been the minority party.

And while Washington remains divided, Democrats will have the power to make policy on healthcare, voting and taxation in state capitals that for years have been far beyond their control, such as Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.

In Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Nevada, Democrats will hold both statehouse chambers as well as the governorship. The party was on the verge of the same “trifecta” in Arizona as well.

“Our victories have shattered Republicans’ grip on our statehouses,” said Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

The victories in state legislative races rarely grab national headlines, but statehouses exert enormous influence on issues that directly affect day-to-day life, from healthcare coverage to transportation. Some of those wins were the fruits of long rebuilding efforts. In Wisconsin, the fight to dismantle a Republican gerrymander of legislative districts finally delivered the Democrats both the state Senate and House, while the party retained the governor’s mansion in Madison.

Elsewhere, state-level victories were almost incidental consequences of a wave that was bigger than even the most optimistic Democrat has anticipated.

The Arizona Senate’s minority leader, Priya Sundareshan, went to sleep Tuesday night with a statement saying she looks forward to seeing the votes counted. By morning, it was clear the changes would be huge. ”I’m really excited to be in the driver’s seat,” Sundareshan said.

Even in several states where Democrats did not win a majority, they still won enough seats to prevent Republican supermajorities, which confer the ability to override a governor’s veto.

Most notable were Iowa, where Rob Sand, a Democrat, won the governor’s race, and Ohio, where, Amy Acton, also a Democrat, was elected governor. They are their states’ first Democratic governors in 16 years, and with no Republican supermajority, both will have more leverage than they would otherwise have had.

The earliest tally of state legislative results has Democrats netting at least 330 statehouse seats, but the number is sure to climb, perhaps as high as 800 seats. There is little doubt they will outperform 2018, when they gained more than 300 during President Donald Trump’s first term.

It was likely the best Democratic result since they gained more than 600 seats in 1974, right after Watergate, said Katy Owens Hubler, director of elections and redistricting for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Republicans gingerly pointed to Trump’s abysmal approval ratings and the same headwinds of inflation, war and fuel costs that cost them the U.S. House and Senate, but also to governor’s races that went badly for the GOP.

“The national political environment and the impact of top-of-the-ticket races significantly affected our candidates’ ability to defy historical trends,” Edith Jorge-Tuñón, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said in a statement.The president’s party has lost statehouse seats in 20 of the last 22 midterms, so Tuesday’s results were hardly a surprise, though a year ago the Republican State Leadership Committee held out hope for gains in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Instead, all three of those statehouses will be completely in Democratic hands all with Democratic governors.

And on a night full of unexpected results, one standout was North Carolina. Only three years ago, Democratic legislators were in a superminority, after state Rep. Tricia Cotham, a Democrat, switched parties and gave Republicans the power to override former Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and enact the state’s most restrictive abortion policy in 50 years.

After the Democrats broke that North Carolina supermajority in 2024, their goal for this year’s midterms was simply to chip away at the Republican majority in one of the country’s most gerrymandered states.

Instead, bolstered by Cooper’s resounding victory for U.S. Senate, they seized control of the House and narrowed the gap in the Senate, bolstering Cooper’s Democratic successor, Gov. Josh Stein. Cotham lost her seat.

A similar dynamic unfolded in Georgia and Texas, where Democrats won both states’ Houses of Representatives for the first time since the early 2000s, as part of a sweep of all statewide races, as well as the governorships.

History was also on the verge of being made in Arizona, as Democrats appeared poised to claim both the House and Senate, as one of six new trifectas. Arizona Democrats have not had an outright majority in any chamber since the early 1990s, and not had full control since the mid-1960s.

And though Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont, a popular moderate Republican, won a record sixth term, statehouse Democrats regained the supermajority they had lost in 2024.

Victories by Scott and Gov. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire were among the few bright spots for Republicans. They also held firm in conservative strongholds including Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and the Dakotas.

Still, there were cracks in Republican redoubts. In Missouri, Democrats broke the supermajority in both the House and Senate. And in Arkansas, Democrats gained a projected 10 seats in the state House.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By David W. Chen/Kelter Davis
c. 2026 The New York Times Company