AILSA CHANG, HOST:
We're taking a look this week at some elections that we don't hear so much about but that have big impacts on our laws. That's elections for state legislatures. Unlike the U.S. Congress, which is divided and has trouble passing a lot of stuff, state legislatures do turn out a lot of laws dealing with criminal justice, elections, schools and, of course, abortion. And this year, the balance could tip in several chambers. Let's get the big picture with NPR's Ryland Barton. Hi, Ryland.
RYLAND BARTON, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: Can you just talk to us about why legislative elections at the state level really matter?
BARTON: So legislatures are incredibly powerful. They've had complete control of regulating abortion since the Dobbs decision in 2022. The vast majority of people behind bars in the United States are due to crimes and sentences written out in state law. And they make decisions on a whole range of issues, access to healthcare, schools, really, you name it. Jake Grumbach is an associate professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He says national culture wars have come to dominate state politics.
JAKE GRUMBACH: Increasingly, these national waves take over. And voters don't pay as much attention to state and local politics with the decline of state and local news media, especially.
GRUMBACH: But right now, legislatures can pass a lot of laws because almost every legislature is controlled by one party or the other. And overall, Republicans control 28 legislatures. Democrats have 20.
CHANG: All right. Let's dig in to a couple examples here of state legislatures that are on the line this year. Like, we did a lot of coverage earlier this year when the Arizona legislature barely repealed a Civil War-era ban on abortion. And that legislature - it's run by Republicans. Could that flip, you think?
GRUMBACH: It could. So Republicans hold just a two-seat majority in both the state House and Senate. And though the Republican-led legislature did repeal that ban, Democrats are targeting the Republicans who voted against doing that. Arizona is also a good example of what happens when the legislature and the governor are controlled by different parties. Since Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs was elected back in 2022, she set a record for the most vetoes in Arizona history. She's struck down conservative bills dealing with elections, illegal immigration and transgender people. If Democrats are able to flip control of the legislature, then they could start passing some progressive policies into law.
CHANG: OK, that's Arizona. And then in the state of Minnesota, it's Republicans - right? - who are trying to wrest control away from the Democrats. Bring us up to speed there.
GRUMBACH: Yeah. So in Minnesota, Democrats are trying to keep their trifecta. That's where a party controls both legislative chambers and the governor's office. And remember; Minnesota's governor is Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president this year. So control for the legislature could all end up coming down to one seat in the state Senate there. Under Democratic control, the legislature passed and the governor signed bills that provide free meals for kids at school, restored voting rights to some people with felony convictions and reinforce abortion access and trans rights. The GOP wants to slow all that down.
CHANG: Well, what about other states that could see big changes this year?
BARTON: There's really too much to go into too much depth on, but other states we're trying to watch are swing states. We've heard so much about Republicans are trying to grab a few seats in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Democrats have a slim majority. And Democrats are trying to flip New Hampshire and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, interestingly, almost half the lawmakers in the Republican-led legislature are running under redistricting new maps that could benefit Democrats. Then there are these supermajorities. That is places where one party has enough votes in the legislature to override a governor's veto.
In both North Carolina and Kansas, Democrats are trying to end Republican supermajority control of their legislatures, which would then, in turn, give their Democratic governors a lot more power. There were 29 states this year where a party had a veto-proof supermajority. It's just a sign of how politically lopsided states are right now, and we have a map of all of those on npr.org.
CHANG: That is NPR's Ryland Barton. Thank you so much, Ryland.
BARTON: Thanks, Ailsa.
CHANG: Tomorrow on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, we'll be hearing from fans at a Packers game about the race for the Wisconsin legislature. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
