Today, special elections will be held in Louisiana’s 58th and 77th State House Districts. Over the past ten months, there have been 50 state legislative special elections across 19 state legislatures — with an additional 41 elections scheduled to take place before the year’s end. While Republicans successfully defended a handful of special election seats in Congress, Democrats are making up ground in state legislatures. Here’s a breakdown of results from the 50 state legislative special elections so far in 2017:
Democrats flipped 8 Republican-held seats, Republicans flipped 1 Democrat-held seat
President Trump averaged 56% of the vote in districts where Democrats flipped a Republican-held seat
Of the eight Republican-held seats that Democrats flipped, seven of them voted in favor of President Trump and one in favor of Secretary Clinton. In those seven districts that went for Trump, the newly elected Democratic state legislator averaged a 13 point swing in percentage of the vote won.
Elections and appointments are the leading cause for special elections in 2017
Of the 50 special elections held this year, 10 were due to appointments, 10 due to retirement, 13 due to election to another office, 9 due to resignation out of legal controversy, and 8 due to a legislator passing away. When looking at the seats that flipped from Republican to Democrat, 4 were due to resignation out of legal controversy, 3 due to appointments, and 1 due to a legislator who passed away.
