You often hear the phrases “split control” or “divided government.” These terms relate to the party control of state legislatures or state government, which may change with each election.

Current and historic party control of state legislatures and government can be accessed below.

For consistency, the historic charts show the party control as of January in each year. (If you are looking for current party composition, see here).

Current Composition

As of August 1, 2020, the following information is correct:

Legislators: There are 7,383 total legislative seats throughout the states.

Chamber control: While there are 99 total chambers in states because Nebraska is unicameral, we do not include Nebraska’s legislature in this chart because members are elected on a nonpartisan basis. Therefore, this represents partisan control in 98 chambers.

Legislative Control: When the same party holds both chambers, that party has legislative control. When the chambers are held by different parties, it is divided. Nebraska is not included.

State Control: When the same party holds both legislative chambers and the governorship, that party has state control. When any of those three points of power is held by another party, state control is divided. This is based on the number of members of each party, and does not take into account coalitions that might change effective control. Nebraska is not included.