2009 United States state legislative elections

The 2009 United States state legislative elections were held on November 3, 2009. Two legislative chambers in two states held regularly-scheduled elections. These off-year elections coincided with other state and local elections, including gubernatorial elections in two states.[1] Both chambers of the Northern Mariana Islands legislature were up, which remains the last time they were up in this class of elections.

2009 United States state legislative elections

← 2008 November 2, 2009 2010 →

2 legislative chambers
2 states
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Party Democratic Republican Coalition
Chambers before 61 37 1 [a]
Chambers after 61 37 1 [a]
Overall change Steady Steady Steady

Map of lower house elections:
     Democrats retained control
     Republicans retained control
     No regularly-scheduled elections

Democrats maintained control of the lower house of the New Jersey legislature, and Republicans did so in the lower chamber in Virginia. This remains the last time Democrats won more state legislative chambers and seats than Republicans.

Summary table

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Regularly-scheduled elections were held in 2 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly-scheduled elections were held for 180 of the 7,383 legislative seats. This table only covers regularly-scheduled elections; additional special elections took place concurrently with these regularly-scheduled elections.

State Upper House Lower House
Seats up Total % up Term Seats up Total % up Term
New Jersey 0 40 0 2/4[b] 80 80 100 4
Virginia 0 40 0 4 100 100 100 2

State summaries

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New Jersey

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All seats of the New Jersey General Assembly were up for election. Assembly members were elected to two-year terms in two-member districts.[2] Democrats retained majority control, albeit a slightly reduced one.[3][4]

General Assembly
Party Before After Change
Democratic 48 47   1
Republican 31 32   1
Total 80 80

Virginia

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All seats of the Virginia House of Delegates are up for election. Delegates are elected to two-year terms in single-member districts. Republicans expanded their majority.[5]

House of Delegates
Party Before After Change
Republican 53 59   6
Democratic 45 39   6
Independents 2 2  
Total 100 100

Territorial Summaries

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Northern Mariana Islands

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All seats of the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives and half of the Northern Mariana Islands Senate are up for election. Senators are elected to four-year terms and Representatives are elected to two-year terms.

House of Representatives
Party Before After Change
Republican 12 9   3
Democratic 1 0   1
Independents 3 4   1
Covenant Party 4 7   3
Total 20 20
Senate
Party Before After Change
Republican 3 5   2
Coalition 6 0   6
Independents 0 4   4
Total 10 10

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b The Alaska Senate was controlled by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. The minority caucus consists of Republicans who were not part of the majority coalition.
  2. ^ The upper houses of Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Texas use a 2-4-4 term length system.

References

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  1. ^ "State legislative elections, 2009". Ballotpedia. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  2. ^ "New Jersey Secretary of State". state.nj.us.
  3. ^ "2009 NJ General Assembly Elections". state.nj.us.
  4. ^ https://ballotpedia.org/New_Jersey_General_Assembly_elections,_2009
  5. ^ https://ballotpedia.org/Virginia_House_of_Delegates_elections,_2009