Democrats in Arizona have won control of both chambers of the state legislature and retained the governor’s office, giving the party its first trifecta in the state since 1966.
The Associated Press called enough legislative races on Friday to confirm that both chambers had flipped, completing a sweeping set of Democratic gains in this week’s midterm elections, in which the party also took control of both chambers of Congress.
Governor Katie Hobbs won re-election, defeating Republican challenger Andy Biggs. In her first term, Hobbs vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-led legislature, on policies including taxes, immigration and voting laws. She has said she wants to address water issues and affordability in her second term, and to take on fraud and abuse in the state’s school voucher programme.
Republicans had held the Arizona House for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s. The scale of the reversal underlines how far the state’s politics have moved: Arizona was once a Republican stronghold, and Hobbs herself won the governorship by less than a percentage point in 2022.
The Arizona result is part of a much wider Democratic advance in state government. Overall, Democrats took full control — both legislative chambers and the governor’s office — in at least six states where they previously shared power with Republicans. Besides Arizona, those wins came in the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.
Democrats also won control of the Texas House, which Republicans had held since 2003, and elected Gina Hinojosa as the state’s first Democratic governor since George W. Bush ousted Ann Richards in 1994, although Republicans held on to the Texas Senate. The party flipped the lower chambers in Maine and North Carolina, and both chambers in New Hampshire, where Republican Kelly Ayotte was re-elected governor.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says the election is likely to end up as the one with the most legislative seats and chambers changing parties since 2010, when Republicans took over governments across the country amid the Great Recession. Democrats will also hold the governor’s office in at least 28 states, with results still pending in Alaska and Kansas.
The Associated Press calls races individually, and it can take several days after voting for officials to tally the votes in close contests. Election results in Arizona remain unofficial until local and state officials have tallied all ballots and certified them.
Sources: Associated Press, “Democrats win the Arizona House, Senate and governor’s office for the first time since 1966” (https://apnews.com/article/arizona-midterm-elections-trifecta-legislature-democrat-republican-7b702479591f51c8b8a1d67597c6e05e); Fox 10 Phoenix, “Arizona Democrats win legislative control, securing first state trifecta since 1966” (https://fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-democrats-win-legislative-control-securing-first-state-trifecta-since-1966).
