Democrats storm statehouses with 258 seat flips and six new trifectas

The blue wave rolled straight past Washington. Democrats picked up 258 state legislative seats nationwide, wrested 11 chambers from Republicans and cracked GOP supermajorities in 10 states, according to Chaz Nuttycombe, executive director of State Navigate. They also stitched together six new governing trifectas, holding the governor's mansion and both legislative chambers at once. The state-level rout rode on the party's congressional landslide, where Democrats are on course for at least 54 Senate seats and 237 House seats.

Some of these wins ended droughts old enough to vote. Democrats took full control of government in Arizona for the first time in 60 years, in Pennsylvania for the first time since the 1990s, and in Wisconsin for the first time since their 2010 wipeout. In Texas, they will run the state House for the first time since 2002, while Michigan and Minnesota trifectas are back in their column.

With ballots still being counted, Nuttycombe projects roughly 76% of Americans will live under a Democratic governor and about half will have a Democratic lawmaker in their legislature. Democrats also won governor's races in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas, giving them a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010. The Democratic Governors Association's Andy Beshear and Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement that more Democratic governors mean better lives for the millions of Americans in those states.

Statehouses have quietly become the real arena while Congress bogs down in partisan gridlock. Red states moved hard on abortion bans, gun rights and culture-war bills; blue states raised minimum wages, protected abortion access, fought climate change and checked immigration enforcement. Nuttycombe credits the economy and voter dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump for most of the wave, estimating those factors account for 80% to 85% of it, with anti-incumbent resentment aimed mostly at Republicans filling out the rest.

Mandara Meyers, executive director of the States Project, called it the most significant night for state legislative power since the Republican wave of 2010, according to The Guardian. She said Democrats now hold more power in the states than at any point in the 21st century, describing a fundamentally new legislative playing field.

Wisconsin is already signaling what comes next. Greta Neubauer, set to lead the state assembly after Democrats won a 53-seat majority, told reporters Wednesday that congressional redistricting is on the table, along with expanding Medicaid and free school meals. In North Carolina, Democrats took the state House's lower chamber and narrowed the GOP's Senate edge, stripping Republicans of the supermajorities they used to override Democratic governors. Tiffany Reynolds-Richardson of Lillian's List said Republicans will now have to play ball with Democrats to get what they want.