On the Ballot6 Feb 2025

90% of state legislative incumbents won re-election in 2024

On this episode: In some analyses, 2024 was called the year of the challenger, with a variety of global elections seeing prominent leaders, incumbents, or establishment figures lose. Here at Ballotpedia, we talk often about state legislative elections, which shape governance at the most fundamental level. And in 2024, state legislative elections saw much of what we have seen over the past few decades - the year of the incumbent, with more than 90% of incumbents winning re-election.

In 2024, we saw —303 in total across 44 states. This was the fewest incumbent defeats in any even year since 2016 — but, it also happened to be the second consecutive election cycle where more incumbents were defeated in primaries than in general elections.

So what does this say about the shifting dynamics within parties? And how do these losses impact legislative control and policy-making in key states?

Read our analysis: https://ballotpedia.org/Incumbents_defeated_in_state_legislative_elections,_2024

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*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

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