Democrats made unexpected gains in state legislature across the country, flipping four chambers.

This was the first midterm election since 1934 in which the party of the incumbent president did not lose any state legislative chambers to the opposition.

[2] Regularly scheduled elections were held in 88 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States; nationwide, regularly-scheduled elections were held for 6,064 of the 7,383 legislative seats.

All states holding elections in 2022 did so under new maps drawn in accordance with the new census results with the exception of Montana, which implements its new maps four years after the census as opposed to two.

This allows for widespread gerrymandering, in which the party in power draws legislative boundaries to favor itself.

[4] Four states established independent redistricting commissions via citizen-led ballot initiative prior to the 2020 redistricting cycle: Colorado, Michigan, Utah, and Virginia.

The new commission in Michigan, especially, was significant due to its implementing of maps seen as fair, replacing maps seen as heavily gerrymandered to favor Republicans, which had been established as a part of Project REDMAP after the 2010 elections.

[5] In Utah, Republican legislators voted in 2020 to strip the state's newly-established commission of its power, returning control over redistricting to the Republican-led legislature.

[6] In Virginia, the state's commission failed to agree on new legislative maps, leading the Supreme Court of Virginia to appoint a special master to draw its maps for use beginning in the 2023 elections.

In Ohio and North Carolina, the states' respective Supreme Courts rejected the legislature's maps as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders.

[8][9] In Minnesota and Wisconsin, redistricting fell to state courts after their legislatures and governors deadlocked.

[10] Wisconsin's litigation briefly involved the U.S. Supreme Court over concerns on the application of the Voting Rights Act in the state court's prior decision.

[11] The New York Court of Appeals overturned the state's new Senate map, drawn by the Democratic-controlled legislature, calling it an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

The new Senate maps drawn by a special master substantially changed the districts drawn in New York City, greatly increasing the number of competitive districts.

[5][14] In Wisconsin, however, the court's chosen map was seen as favoring Republicans.

[11] All three states were severely affected by partisan gerrymandering during the 2010s due to Project REDMAP.

[15] Democrats had not won control of any legislative chambers in those states since 2008 despite winning the statewide popular vote multiple times.

[16][17][18] In Republican-led states such as Texas, Florida, and Georgia, Republican legislatures passed maps seen as gerrymandered and uncompetitive, while states such as Nevada did the same in favor of Democrats.

[19] Although the 2022 elections were initially expected to be highly Republican-favoring, given the increasing unpopularity of Democratic president Joe Biden, the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June dramatically shifted the national political environment.

By the time of the elections, a similar number of Republican- and Democratic-controlled chambers were considered competitive, mostly in states won narrowly by Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Overall, fewer legislative chambers were seen as competitive compared to previous cycles.

Further special elections on February 7, 2023, gave Democrats control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

[24] Democrats had won control of the chamber in 2022, but vacancies prevented them from seating it until after the special elections.

The Alaska House of Representatives is controlled by a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

Republicans maintained control of the officially non-partisan chamber.

Half of both chambers of the North Dakota Legislature were up for election.

All of the seats of the American Samoa House of Representatives were up for election.

Gubernatorial and legislative elections are conducted on a nonpartisan basis in American Samoa.

A coalition of Independents and Democrats replaced the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House.

Various states held special elections for legislative districts throughout the year.