There is a lot to analyze in Tuesday’s election results and that topic will occupy this blog for a few days as I focus on different aspects.

While a lot of attention was focused on the sweeping wins by Democrats in the federal races for the US House of Representatives and the Senate, there were also significant wins by them in down ballot races and for state and local offices. The races for governor and state houses tend to get less attention than the ones for federal offices but they are really important because who controls the governors’ mansions and state houses has immediate effects on the everyday lives of people. Furthermore, the party that controls the state power apparatus has a huge influence in how federal elections are run.

This article discusses the importance of state races.

State governments shape a wide array of policies affecting everyday lives, including tax rates and abortion rights, school choice and education funding, data center development, and the use of artificial intelligence and law enforcement surveillance cameras.

…

It’s the biggest single-election change of partisan power in state governments since 2010, said Katie Owens Hubler, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Lawmakers who will soon be in the majority say the change brings expectations. “We know that people will be counting on us to deliver, and we take that incredibly seriously,” said Wisconsin state Rep. Greta Neubauer, currently the minority leader of state Assembly Democrats.

Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the party won “historic levels of power in statehouses.” She said they hadn’t flipped this many seats nationwide since the 1980s.

This time, she said, Democrats will have to focus on issues that matter to middle-class voters such as improving educational opportunities and increasing access to healthcare, particularly in rural areas.

“This election is about kitchen-table issues; it’s about economic opportunities,” she said Wednesday. “That is what the mandate is about.”
…

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who won reelection, told his supporters Tuesday night that people want him and lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, invest in infrastructure, kids, police and communities, and enshrine abortion rights for women in the state constitution.

Tuesday saw Democrats gain hundreds of seats in state legislatures.

State legislatures have gained outsized importance in recent years, as repeated US Congresses have been mired in partisan gridlock that has left both parties’ priorities unaddressed. Red states have moved decisively to outlaw abortion, expand self-defense rights and pursue rightwing cultural causes such as outlawing sharia law. Where Democrats rule, they have passed laws raising the minimum wage, preserve abortion access, fight the climate crisis and regulate immigration enforcement.

After Tuesday’s wave election – one of the biggest electoral collapses Republicans have suffered in decades – Democrats will now have the opportunity to work through a lengthy list of priorities and promises made to voters.
…

All told, Democrats have gained 258 state legislative seats nationwide, created six new governing trifectas, claimed 11 legislative chambers from the GOP and broken Republican supermajorities in 10 states, according to Nuttycombe. Though not all races have been called, he predicts about 76% the country’s population will live under a Democratic governor, and about half will be represented by one of the party’s lawmakers in their legislature.

After yesterday’s elections, Democrats now hold 28 governorships after flipping five of them from Republican control, while the Republicans hold just 20. The ones in Alaska and Kansas are still undecided but leaning Democratic. The most dramatic flip was in Texas where Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term incumbent Greg Abbott 53%-46%. Ohio saw another flip where Amy Acton easily beat Vivek Ramaswamy by 52%-44%. (I hope Ramaswamy disappears forever from the political scene.) Iowa, Georgia and Nevada also saw flips, a significant one being in Georgia where Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman governor, winning by 54%-46%.

In what was once a solidly red Texas, yesterday saw Democrats win every statewide office, ending 32 years of Republican control, an astonishing result for a state that right up until Tuesday had been considered a die-hard Republican stronghold. Ted Cruz is now the only statewide Republican left standing.

Democrats also made gains in control of state legislatures.

Arizona Senate: If the Democrats maintain their current edge in the Arizona Senate, it will be the first time they’ve won that chamber since the 2000 election.
Georgia House: Democrats are currently in the lead. If they flip the House, it will be the first time they’ve held it since before the 2004 election.
Minnesota House: Flipped to Democrats, after being tied between the two parties since the 2024 election. Democrats have regained their trifecta in the state.
Michigan House: Flipped to Democrats. The Michigan Senate and the governor’s office were already controlled by Democrats, once again giving the party the trifecta that it lost in the 2024 election.
North Carolina House: Flipped to Democrats. Going into the election, Republicans were one seat short of a supermajority in the chamber.
Pennsylvania Senate: Flipped to Democrats for the first time since before the 1994 elections. This gives Democrats a trifecta in the state.
Texas House: It’s too early, to call, but if Democrats take the House, it would be the first time since the 2002 election.
Wisconsin Senate and House: Both legislative chambers flipped from red to blue for the first time since 2010. The governor’s office stayed in Democratic hands as well, giving the state a Democratic trifecta.

Going in to the election, Republicans had 23 so-called trifectas (where one party has control of the governorship and both legislatures) and Democrats had 16, with 11 being shared. As a result of the election, the Democrats gained new trifectas in five states (Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) with Arizona looking likely to join them when all the results are in. Meanwhile Texas and Georgia shifted from Republican to mixed.

It is imperative that those states where Democrats have wrested control move quickly to enact policies that their voters put them in office for, starting with those that are quick and easy to do and maybe even just symbolic, like what Zohran Mamdani did in NewYork City in getting rid of much unneeded scaffolding that blocked sidewalks, filling potholes, and putting in new public toilets. That initial impression of doing things that improve people’s lives in tangible, if small ways, is what sticks in the minds of voters.

One important thing that they can do is make voting easier. Republicans have been determined to make voting tougher (using bogus arguments about illegal voting) by reducing polling stations in Democratic areas and creating onerous requirements, thinking that this will discourage voting by what they see as Democratic constituencies among the young, low-income, and minorities. Expanding voting opportunities is imperative.