2011 United States state legislative elections
The 2011 United States state legislative elections were held on November 8, 2011. Eight legislative chambers in four states held regularly scheduled elections. These off-year elections coincided with other state and local elections, including gubernatorial elections in four states.
These were the first elections to be affected by redistricting after the 2010 census. Additionally, the first wave of [2011 Wisconsin Virginia Senate|Senate recall elections|recall elections] occurred in the Wisconsin Senate; while Republicans lost seats, they maintained a narrow majority. A second wave would occur in 2012.
Republicans flipped control of the Virginia Senate, thereby establishing a trifecta. In [|Mississippi], Republicans won the state House for the first time since 1876. After having gained control of the Mississippi Senate in February 2011 in the year due to party switching, Republicans retained control of the chamber in the November election. Republicans thus obtained a trifecta in the state for the first time since 1876 as a result.
In Louisiana, Republicans gained control of the State House in December 2010 when a state representative switched parties, and control of the State Senate by winning a February 2011 special election. Republicans maintained control of both chambers in November, thereby giving Republicans control of Senate for the first time since 1877, and the state house and a trifecta for the first time since 1873.
Background
Republicans made historic gains in the 2010 elections, flipping control of twenty legislative chambers across the country. Republicans made especially large gains in the South, winning control of a number of chambers for the first time since Reconstruction. Additionally, post-election party switching gave Republicans control of the Louisiana House of Representatives. Three Southern states, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia, did not hold regularly scheduled elections in 2010, but many took the 2010 results as a sign that Republicans would soon gain full control of these states as well.Louisiana Senate special elections
Despite losing control of the Louisiana House of Representatives and losing multiple seats in the Louisiana Senate due to late 2010 party switching, Democrats held a narrow majority of seats in the Louisiana Senate at the beginning of 2011. However, two special elections were scheduled to fill vacant seats in the chamber held by non-Republicans early in the year. Republicans won them both, flipping control of the Louisiana Senate and giving the party a government trifecta in the state.Mississippi Senate
Shortly after the 2010 election, Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith switched parties and joined the Republicans, producing a 26–26 tie in the Mississippi Senate. In February, Senator Ezell Lee, who had been voting more and more frequently with Republicans, solidified his own switch to the party by filing to run for re-election as a Republican, flipping control of the chamber to the Republicans. Lee later lost in the primary election.Redistricting
The 2011 elections were the first held after the release of the results of the 2010 census; each of the four states up for election in 2011 attempted to draw new maps in accordance with the new population data. Republicans exercised full control of redistricting in Louisiana after having taken control of both chambers of the legislature in late 2010 and early 2011. Both parties shared control of the redistricting process in Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia, with varied results coming out of each state.Mississippi
In Mississippi, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, while Republicans controlled the governorship and gained control of the Senate early in the year due to party switching. Typically, the Mississippi legislature followed the tradition of each chamber passing the others' maps without interference; however, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to reject the Democratic-passed House of Representatives map, deadlocking the redistricting process and drawing several lawsuits, including from the NAACP. As the legislature showed no signs of resolving its impasse, federal courts took up the process. The NAACP sought new maps to remedy the population disparities that had grown between districts in the preceding decade, while some Republicans sought to hold the 2011 elections under the previous maps while passing new maps and holding new elections in 2012. The judges ruled to conduct the elections under the previous decades' maps, agreeing that redistricting was not required to take place until 2012. After the 2011 elections, the newly Republican-controlled legislature passed new legislative maps, but elections were not held again until 2015.New Jersey
In New Jersey, redistricting was controlled by a bipartisan commission evenly-split between Democrats and Republicans. The commission was unable to reach a compromise on the maps and deadlocked, forcing the Supreme Court of New Jersey to appoint an eleventh, nonpartisan commissioner. Commissioner Alan Rosenthal was unable to broker a compromise either, and he ultimately sided with the Democrats and voted for their proposal.Virginia
In Virginia, Democrats controlled the Senate, while Republicans controlled the governorship and the General Assembly. To avoid a deadlock in the redistricting process, the leaders of both chambers reached a "gentleman's agreement" that the party in control of each chamber would draw their own maps without interfering with the others' map. Despite this, Republican governor Bob McDonnell vetoed the redistricting proposal, objecting to the Democratic-drawn Senate map. The legislature later passed a compromise bill, which McDonnell signed.Other party switching
Like during the immediate aftermath of the 2010 election, a large number of Democratic state legislators, primarily from the South, switched to the Republican party. This included further switches in the Louisiana House of Representatives, which gave Republicans a true majority in the chamber, allowing them to bypass both the Democrats and the four independents in the chamber to pass legislation.Summary table
Regularly scheduled elections were held in 8 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly scheduled elections were held for 578 of the 7,383 legislative seats. This table only covers regularly scheduled elections; additional special elections took place concurrently with these regularly scheduled elections.Election predictions
Several sites and individuals publish predictions of competitive chambers. These predictions look at factors such as the strength of the party, the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state. The predictions assign ratings to each chambers, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that election.Most election predictors use:
- "Tossup": No advantage
- "Lean": Slight advantage
- "Likely": Significant, but surmountable, advantage
- "Safe": Near-certain chance of victory
| State | Chamber | Before election | Ballotpedia Oct. 2011 | Result |
| Louisiana | Senate | R 22–17 | R 24–15 | |
| Louisiana | House of Representatives | R 57–46–2 | R 58–45–2 | |
| Mississippi | Senate | R 27–25 | R 30–22 | |
| Mississippi | House of Representatives | D 68–54 | R 63–59 | |
| New Jersey | Senate | D 24–16 | D 24–16 | |
| New Jersey | General Assembly | D 47–33 | D 48–32 | |
| Virginia | Senate | D 22–18 | R 20–20 | |
| Virginia | House of Delegates | R 59–39–2 | R 67–32–1 |
State summaries
Louisiana
All seats of the Louisiana State Senate and the Louisiana House of Representatives were up for election to four-year terms in single-member districts. Republicans flipped both chambers through party switching and special elections in the past year, and then retained majority control in both chambers in the 2011 elections.Mississippi
All seats of the Mississippi State Senate and the Mississippi House of Representatives were up for election to four-year terms in single-member districts. Republicans won a majority in the lower house for the first time since Reconstruction. They had previously won a majority in the upper house through party switching and special elections earlier in the year, and then expanded their majority in the general election.Shortly after the election, recently re-elected Democratic Senator Gray Tollison announced he was switching parties, giving the Republicans a three-fifths supermajority in the chamber. Republicans also gained a tenth seat in the House after the election when Donnie Bell announced he was switching parties as well.