2012 United States state legislative elections
The 2012 United States state legislative elections were held on November 6, 2012, for 86 state legislative chambers in 44 states. Across the fifty states, approximately 65 percent of all upper house seats and 85 percent of all lower house seats were up for election. Nine legislative chambers in the five permanently-inhabited U.S. territories and the federal district of Washington, D.C. also held elections. The elections took place concurrently with several other federal, state, and local elections, including the presidential election, U.S. Senate elections, U.S. House elections, and gubernatorial elections.
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86 legislative chambers 44 states | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Map of upper house elections: Democrats gained control Democrats retained control Republicans gained control Republicans retained control Coalition gained control Non-partisan legislature No regularly-scheduled elections | |||||||||||||||||||||
Map of lower house elections: Democrats gained control Democrats retained control Republicans gained control Republicans retained control Non-partisan legislature No regularly-scheduled elections | |||||||||||||||||||||
13 chambers shifted party control, as Republicans had gained many chambers in the 2010 mid-term elections, and this was seen as a modest rebalancing.
Democrats won the Colorado House of Representatives, Maine Senate, Maine House of Representatives, Minnesota Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, New Hampshire House of Representatives, and Oregon House of Representatives that was previously tied. Meanwhile, Republicans won the Wisconsin Senate which was briefly under Democratic control after multiple recall elections earlier in the year, and both chambers of the Arkansas legislature for the first time since 1874. The Alaska Senate went from a Democratic-led coalition to Republican control. The Washington Senate went from Democratic control to a Republican-led coalition, and the New York State Senate went from Republican control to a Republican-led coalition.