Impact of term limits on state legislative elections in 2012

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Thirteen state senate chambers and thirteen state house chambers that held general elections on November 6, 2012 include some state legislators who were unable to run for re-election in 2012 because of their state's legislative term limits.

• 83 state senators were termed-out in 2012. This represents 15.9% of the 523 total state senate seats up for election in the 13 term-limited state senates with elections in November 2012.
• 172 state representatives were termed-out. This represents 13.6% of the 1,263 total seats up for election in the 13 term-limited states with elections in November 2012.

Altogether, 255 current state legislators had to leave office after the November elections because of term limits. This was 14.3% of the 1,786 state legislative seats up for election in the 14 term-limited states with 2012 elections, and about 4% of the 6,015 state legislative seats that were up for election altogether in 2012, including the non-term-limited states.

See also: State legislative elections, 2012

State senators

Main article: Impact of term limits on state senate elections in 2012

43 state senates held general elections in November 2012. In 13 of these states, state senators are subject to term limits. Louisiana and Michigan are the only states with state senate term limits that did not have a general election for their state senates in 2012.

A total of 83 current state senators were ineligible to run for re-election in November because of term limit laws in their state. This included:

• 35 incumbent Democratic state senators
• 40 incumbent Republican state senators
• 8 nonpartisan state senators.

In 5 states, the term limits ax fell more heavily on incumbent Republicans: Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Ohio and South Dakota. In 4 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Democrats: Arkansas, California, Colorado, and Montana. In 3 states, the axe fell equally on both parties (Maine, Oklahoma, and Nevada) while Nebraska's senate is officially nonpartisan.

State representatives

Main article: Impact of term limits on state representative elections in 2012

43 state houses held general elections in November 2012. In 13 of these states, state house terms are subject to term limits. 15 states have state legislative term limits, but Louisiana did not hold a state house election in 2012 and Nebraska does not have a state house.

172 current state representatives were ineligible to run for re-election in November because of term limit laws in their state. This included:

• 87 incumbent Democratic state representatives
• 85 incumbent Republican state representatives

In 7 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Republicans: Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In all of these states, the current majority party is also the Republican Party.

In 6 states, the term limits axe fell more heavily on incumbent Democrats: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, and Nevada. In 3 of these states, the current majority party is also the Democratic Party. These states include Arkansas, California and Nevada. In 3 of the 6 states where term limits affect incumbent Democrats more heavily, the current majority party is Republican -- Colorado, Maine and Michigan.

Impact on parties

Although the difference is marginal, the Republican Party took more of a hit from term limits in the 2012 state legislative elections than the Democratic Party, both in terms of how many individual incumbent legislators the Republican Party lost (125, versus 122 for the Democratic Party) and in terms of how many state legislative chambers lost more Republicans (12, versus 10 for the Democratic Party).

Incumbents

Chambers

Comparison to 2010

In 2010, a total of 375 seats were termed out in state senates and state houses combined. Of those, 61 seats, or 16.2%, changed party hands. In state senates, 19 seats, or 15.7% of termed-out seats, changed party hands. In state houses, 42 seats, or 16.5% of termed-out seats, changed party hands.

Term-limited seats that changed party control in the 2010 elections
State	Senators Termed Out 2010	Representatives Termed Out 2010	Democratic Seats lost to other Parties - Senate	Republican Seats lost to other Parties - Senate	Democratic Seats lost to other Parties - House	Republican Seats lost to other Parties - House	Percent of Termed-Out Senate Seats that Changed Party	Percent of Termed-Out House Seats that Changed Party	Total Legislative Seats that Changed Party
Arizona	10	13	0	0	0	0	0%	0%	0
Arkansas	13	34	7	0	11	1	53.8%	35.3%	19
California	8	17	0	0	1	1	0%	11.1%	2
Colorado	3	8	0	0	1	0	0%	12.5%	1
Florida	7	23	0	0	0	0	0%	0%	0
Maine	4	20	1	0	5, 1	2	25%	40%	9
Michigan	29	37	3	0	6	1	10.3%	18.9%	10
Missouri	10	52	1	0	6	0	10%	11.5%	7
Montana	15	15	2	0	4	0	13.3%	26.7%	6
Nebraska	1	N/A[1]	0	0	-	-	0%	-	0
Nevada	4	10	0	0	0	0	0%	0%	0
Ohio	7	13	0	0	0	0	0%	0%	0
Oklahoma	6	4	4	0	0	0	66.7%	0%	4
South Dakota	4	8	1	0	1	1	25%	25%	3
Total:	121	254	19	0	34, 2	6	15.7%	16.5%	61

Legend: = Seat picked up by Democrat • = Seat picked up by Republican • = Seat picked up by Third Party

See also

• State legislatures with term limits

Footnotes

v • e State legislatures Legislatures Alabama (H, S) · Alaska (H, S) · Arizona (H, S) · Arkansas (H, S) · California (A, S) · Colorado (H, S) · Connecticut (H, S) · Delaware (H, S) · Florida (H, S) · Georgia (H, S) · Hawaii (H, S) · Idaho (H, S) · Illinois (H, S) · Indiana (H, S) · Iowa (H, S) · Kansas (H, S) · Kentucky (H, S) · Louisiana (H, S) · Maine (H, S) · Maryland (H, S) · Massachusetts (H, S) · Michigan (H, S) · Minnesota (H, S) · Mississippi (H, S) · Missouri (H, S) · Montana (H, S) · Nebraska · Nevada (A, S) · New Hampshire (H, S) · New Jersey (GA, S) · New Mexico (H, S) · New York (A, S) · North Carolina (H, S) · North Dakota (H, S) · Ohio (H, S) · Oklahoma (H, S) · Oregon (H, S) · Pennsylvania (H, S) · Rhode Island (H, S) · South Carolina (H, S) · South Dakota (H, S) · Tennessee (H, S) · Texas (H, S) · Utah (H, S) · Vermont (H, S) · Virginia (H, S) · Washington (H, S) · West Virginia (H, S) · Wisconsin (A, S) · Wyoming (H, S) 2024 State legislative elections (2024) • State legislative special elections (2024) • Primary dates and filing requirements • 2024 Session Dates 2023 State legislative elections (2023) • State legislative special elections (2023) • Primary dates and filing requirements • 2023 Session Dates Historical elections 2022 •  2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004 • 2003 • 2002 • 2001 • 2000 Features of state legislatures How vacancies are filled in state legislatures • States with a full-time legislature • State legislatures with term limits • Comparison of state legislative salaries • When state legislators assume office after a general election • Population represented by state legislators • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures • State legislative sessions • Resign-to-run law • State legislature candidate requirements by state • Official names of state legislatures • State legislative chambers that use multi-member districts • Factors Affecting Competitiveness in State Legislative Elections State senates Length of terms of state senators • State senators • Partisan composition of state senates • State senators sorted by year first elected State houses Length of terms of state representatives • State representatives • Partisan composition of state houses • State representatives sorted by year first elected Leadership positions President of the Senate • President Pro Tempore • Senate Majority Leader • Senate Minority Leader • House Majority Leader • House Minority Leader • State Speaker of the House