Election results, 2024: State legislative veto-proof majorities
Veto-proof supermajority status changed in seven states as a result of the 2024 elections. Democrats lost supermajority status in New York and Vermont and gained it in Connecticut, while Republicans lost supermajority status in Montana and North Carolina and gained it in Iowa and South Carolina.
Forty-four states held elections for at least one state legislative chamber. In total, there were veto-proof majorities in 29 state legislatures before the election—nine Democratic and 20 Republican. After the election, there were veto-proof majorities in 28 state legislatures—eight Democratic and 20 Republican.
State governors may veto bills advanced by the state legislature. With sufficient support—between one-half and two-thirds of sitting legislators, depending on the state—state legislatures may overturn a gubernatorial veto. When one party controls enough seats to overturn a veto without any support from the other party, a legislature can be said to hold a veto-proof majority. These are most important when the governor belongs to the opposite party as the veto-proof legislature.
Heading into the 2024 elections, four states had a governor of one party and a veto-proof state legislative majority of the opposing party: Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Vermont. After the elections, Kansas and Kentucky maintained that status, North Carolina and Vermont lost that status, and no new state became a veto-proof legislature with an opposing party governor.
Two states—Nevada and Wisconsin—could have switched to having a veto-proof majority and an opposing party governor as a result of the 2024 elections, but neither state's legislative majority reached its supermajority threshold. Click here to learn more about potential supermajorities.
Status of veto-proof majorities following the 2024 elections
Of the 44 states that held elections in at least one legislative chamber, eight state legislatures had Democratic supermajorities before the election, 18 had Republican supermajorities, and 18 did not have a supermajority. After the elections, seven had Democratic supermajorities, 18 had Republican supermajorities, and 19 did not have a supermajority. The table below shows the veto-proof majority statuses of those states before and after the elections.
| Partisan breakdown of veto-proof majorities on the ballot | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | As of the 2024 elections | Net change | After the 2024 elections | |||
| 8 | -1 | 7 | ||||
| 18 | 0 | 18 | ||||
| 18 | +1 | 19 | ||||
Across all 50 state legislatures, there were nine Democratic supermajorities, 20 Republican supermajorities, and 21 states without a supermajority before the elections. After the elections, eight state legislatures had Democratic supermajorities, 20 had Republican supermajorities, and 22 did not have a supermajority. The table below shows the veto-proof majority statuses of all 50 states before and after the elections.
| Partisan breakdown of veto-proof majorities across all 50 states | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | As of the 2024 elections | Net change | After the 2024 elections | |||
| 9 | -1 | 8 | ||||
| 20 | 0 | 20 | ||||
| 21 | +1 | 22 | ||||
The map below shows the veto-proof majority status across all 50 states after the 2024 elections.
State legislatures with veto-proof majorities and governor of the opposing party
Two of four states heading into the 2022 elections that had a veto-proof legislative majority and governor of the opposing party—Kentucky and Kansas—maintained that status after the elections. The other two states—Maryland and Massachusetts—no longer have that status since the party that held veto-proof legislative majorities also gained control of the governor's office in the 2022 elections.
Vermont became a state with a veto-proof legislative majority and opposing-party governor as a result of the 2022 elections.
See also
- Veto-proof state legislatures and opposing party governors in the 2024 elections
- Veto overrides in state legislatures
- State legislative elections, 2024
- Election results, 2024
Footnotes
- ↑ New York Times, "Vermont Election Results," accessed November 18, 2024
- ↑ Axios Raleigh, "NC Democrats break GOP legislative supermajority," November 6, 2024
- ↑ Even though Nebraska has a unicameral state legislature, it is included in this figure.
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