Party Summary
The party composition of the legislatures (and party summary of the individual chambers), as of 2012, was:
| 27 | Republican-controlled Legislatures |
| 19 | Democratic-controlled Legislatures |
| 3 | Split Legislatures |
| 1 | Officially non-partisan (Nebraska) |
| 50 | Total |
"Split" means that either the two chambers have different majority parties (e.g., Democratic Senate and Republican House), that one chamber is evenly split between parties, or that a coalition or "hung" chamber has occurred.
In several states, the party that controls the state legislature may not be the one that usually wins the state in presidential elections. Also note that due to politics, a party with a numerical majority in a chamber may be forced to share power with other parties due to informal coalitions, or outright cede power due to divisions.
The table below shows total state government control, which means the governor and the chamber majorities are all of the same party.
| 24 | Republican-controlled governments |
| 14 | Democratic-controlled governments |
| 3 | Democratic Governor/Republican-controlled Legislature |
| 4 | Republican Governor/Democratic-controlled Legislature |
| 1 | Independent Governor/Democratic-controlled Legislature |
| 1 | Republican Governor/Split Legislature |
| 1 | Democratic Governor/Split Legislature |
| 1 | Republican Governor/Non-partisan Legislature (Nebraska) |
| 50 | Total |
In the 2010 election, the Republican Party took control of a majority of the state legislative bodies, in which a net of 19 of the 49 partisan legislative bodies changed from Democratic Party control to Republican Party control.
Read more about this topic: List Of United States State Legislatures
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—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
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—Walter Pater (1839–1894)