Nearly 40% of state legislative elections in 2024 had only one candidate
Introduction
Last year, there were over 5,000 state legislative elections across the country.
In an era when state legislatures determine the most policy (according to Quorum, state legislatures introduced 23x the amount of legislation as Congress), 2024 offered voters a huge opportunity to pick the direction of their state government across a range of issues like inflation, mental health, gun rights and artificial intelligence.
Well, actually, that’s not really true. Nearly 40% of those elections had only one candidate.
Overall in Georgia, 123 state legislative elections went uncontested. In Massachusetts, 75% of all open state house elections went unchallenged by one of the major parties. That means plenty of Americans didn't get a say who represents them in their respective state legislatures.
In our latest report, based exclusively on BallotReady research, see:
The scope of uncontested state legislative elections in each state last year
A comparison of uncontested state house and state senate elections (including overlap for 8 of the top 10 states)
The full list of uncontested state legislative elections in Georgia last year
With 84% of all state legislative seats on the ballot in 2026, the upcoming midterms offer another massive choice for voters – and an opportunity to contest more races.
Download the full list of uncontested state legislative elections in Georgia in 2024:
In 10 states last year, a majority of state house general elections went uncontested
Stat to know: In 2024, Arizona was the only state that had state house elections on the ballot – and had contests between the two major parties in them all.
Meanwhile, 12 states had a majority of their state senate elections go uncontested
Stat to know: The rate of uncontested elections for state senate races across the country was actually a few points higher than the rate of uncontested elections for state houses in 2024.
There is strong overlap between states with high rates of uncontested state house and uncontested state senate elections
Stat to know: Wyoming, Massachusetts, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, New Mexico, Delaware and Rhode Island all are in the top ten for highest percentage of uncontested state house elections and state senate elections.
