State Democrats Extend Influence Over Party Amid Turmoil ...

By Alex J. Rouhandeh

Politics and Culture Correspondent

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The Democratic Party in Washington remains in the minority and relatively powerless to stop President Donald Trump's reshaping of Washington, but outside the capital, statehouse leaders are quietly preparing Democrats for the post-Trump era.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin notably started his tenure in 2025 with the message: “It’s time for the DNC to get out of D.C.” And this past cycle, the party saw its greatest victory against the Trump Administration 2.0 in resounding victories up and down the ballot.

While wins in the New Jersey and Virginia governors’ races grabbed headlines, Democrats also made key gains in state legislatures. The party flipped 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, secured a supermajority in the New Jersey General Assembly, broke the GOP supermajority in the Mississippi Senate, and maintained its majority in the Minnesota Senate.

“I think we’re really starting to see a recognition within the party of the importance of these statehouse races,” New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who chairs the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), told Newsweek. “Previously, Democrats focused on creating change through winning Washington, but with us now out of power, people see state legislatures as the best way to fight back against Trump.”

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Stewart-Cousins’ New York Democratic colleagues, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have faced heat from the party’s base for being unable to counter Trump and congressional Republicans. In March, Schumer struck a deal with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown and this month was unable to prevent eight of his Democratic colleagues from striking another deal to end the shutdown over extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Though Stewart-Cousins said she would not have voted for the recent deal, she doesn’t blame Schumer for being unable to prevent it. She said both leaders find themselves in an unprecedented time when the limits of minority power are being exposed, which makes it even more pertinent that the party bolster its influence across America’s state legislatures.

As the two parties face off in a heated competition over the redrawing of congressional district lines, the influence of state legislatures is increasingly making its way to the center of U.S. politics. However, Democrats have not always viewed these offices as strategically as they now do.

Decade of Loss

Prior to the 2010 midterms, Democrats controlled 61 state legislative chambers compared to the GOP’s 37, but after that election, 20 chambers flipped to the right, giving the GOP a 57-40 edge. Between 2025 and 2000, no election saw more than 11 chamber flips, showing what a monumental year 2010 was for the GOP and its Project REDMAP.

Executed by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), REDMAP saw the RSLC invest $30 million into state legislature races, compared to the DLCC’s $10 million. The ruling in Citizens United v. FEC allowed a new wave of outside spending to shape political races, and Republicans took advantage, capitalizing on the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to fund winning campaigns.

REDMAP proved timely as the 2010 victories gave the GOP a vast edge in determining how electoral maps would be drawn in response to 2010 U.S. Census results. The dividends of those efforts paid off quickly, as 2014 saw 11 flips in the GOP’s direction, giving the right control of 68 chambers to the Democrats' 30.

The RSLC declined to comment to Newsweek. A memo from RSLC President Edith Jorge-Tuñón following the election attributed the 2025 results to struggles atop the ticket and being outspent by Democrats. She emphasized that “Control of state legislatures and key offices is essential for securing fair maps and stopping radical left-wing redistricting efforts that could shape elections for the next decade and beyond.”

Democrats control 39 chambers while Republicans control 57. DLCC President Heather Williams told Newsweek that the DLCC aims to build on its 2025 gains and narrow the chamber discrepancy by investing early in races and building a more permanent campaign infrastructure.

“These races don’t have the professional politician sort of air to them yet—you've got just good people trying to do good things,” Williams said. “At this ballot level, we need to get our candidates out in their communities as soon as possible, and in order to do that, we need to make sure that they've got a strong campaign infrastructure, things like staff and plans and tools to ensure that these candidates can be successful.”

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Narrowing Chamber Divide

Williams said what the DLCC did differently this cycle was making its financial commitments to candidates in January, instead of issuing sporadic disbursements every few months. She said this strategy allowed candidates to better budget their resources and prioritize what they would spend on paid communications.

Campaign organizers since the 2024 election have said early investments were something they desired. Williams noted that traditionally 80 percent of resources come in the fall near Election Day, which means candidates overspend on things like ad buys and may not have the time to invest in other outreach tools, such as paid doorknockers.

Those organizers lamented that after presidential years, resources often dry up until the next major federal race. However, with legislative races running throughout the country each year, Williams said the organization must remain nimble. In the past, she said its ability to maintain a continuous organizing apparatus had been limited by the party’s inclination toward federal races.

Take the 2020 Senate race between former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and the Democratic candidate, Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who had never held office. Williams said that Democrats raised more than $96 million for McGrath in an improbable bid to unseat McConnell in deep-red Kentucky, only for her to lose with 38 percent of the vote to McConnell’s 58 percent.

“We Democrats fall in love with people, and we fall in love with these big ideas that if we just get this thing, then we'll solve this big, bad problem, and it's more nuanced than that,” Williams said. “But I think that we are in a place now where there is just deeper recognition that so many things that we care about run through the states.”

Williams said Martin has helped facilitate this understanding through his experience as chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Minnesota holds the longest streak of voting for a Democrat on the presidential level, having not voted for the GOP nominee since Richard Nixon in 1972. Despite this, the state Legislature has regularly swung between Republican and Democratic control.

This gives Martin authority to debunk the idea that a presidential ticket can uplift the down-ballot races, Williams said. She believes this acknowledgment has changed the emphasis the party places on organizing and boosted its connection with party members in red states that might have felt forgotten.

Election Day 2026 will be a greater test for Martin’s agenda and the DLCC as the country faces a greater array of state Legislature races along with high-profile top-of-the-ticket bids that will determine control of Congress. While these efforts may be in place, elections still run on resources. For Martin, Williams and Stewart-Cousins, a key to this effort will likely be their abilities to convince donors that their dollars are better spent down the ticket than on flashy federal candidates attempting to make a big splash.

“Our chair, Ken Martin, has prioritized winning at the state level, which I think has helped us attract greater support for down-ballot efforts,” Stewart-Cousins said. “I think supporters of our party recognize this and are more open to investing in races that appear lower on the ticket.”

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