On Friday the Republican State Legislative Committee, the national party organ that deals with state legislative races, announced that a party switch by Louisiana State Rep. Francis Thompson gave the GOP its 24th legislative supermajority.
A supermajority occurs when enough members in a state legislative chamber are of the same party to override a gubernatorial veto. In Louisiana, there are now enough Republicans in the State House of Representations to override Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’s vetos, making it what RSLC President Dee Duncan described “a good day in Baton Rouge.”
What happened in the Pelican State is part of a growing trend in which Republicans are becoming dominant in the states at the same time things in Washington have slowed pretty much to a standstill.
The trend continues. Republican policy successes have been rewarded time and again with more votes for more candidates resulting in bigger majorities that can do more.
In 2022, an election most pundits called “a push at best” for the GOP, the party gained seven additional supermajorities in chambers they controlled to the ones already in place before the election.
At present, the GOP is the majority party in 58 of the country’s 99 state legislative chambers. The Nebraska Legislature is unicameral and non-partisan.
Other developments cited by the RSLC in its release include:
- Florida, where Republicans now have their largest Republican majority in State House history.
- Iowa, where the GOP supermajority secured in the Senate will be the first supermajority the state has seen in either chamber in 50 years.
- Montana, where Republicans added a supermajority in the State Senate to one already present in the State House.
- South Dakota: Republicans hold all but 11 seats in the state legislature.
Even in states where the party seems well behind, the RSLC points to recent historic GOP gains. There are more Republicans from New York City in the New York State Assembly than at any time in the last 40 years. In Oregon, the GOP threw off its superminority status in the House and Senate, net-gaining seats for the first time since 2010. (RELATED: MIKE MCKENNA: Republicans Are Drawing A Line In The Sand On Energy)
The states are where the action is, especially because Congress is gridlocked. Republicans now have a record of accomplishment to run on in the states and plenty of new ideas on taxes, spending, education, occupational licensing, public safety, and other issues at the top of mind for most voters. The Democrats can’t win now just by saying having the GOP in charge would be worse than the status quo, no matter how bad the status quo is. There are still a lot of battles to be fought but in the places that matter, it is Republicans, not Democrats who are ascendant.
A former UPI senior political writer and U.S. News and World Report columnist, Peter Roff is a senior fellow at several public policy organizations including the Trans-Atlantic Leadership Network. Contact him at RoffColumns AT gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and TruthSocial @TheRoffDraft.
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