One-Party Dominance in the States: Only a Few Have Party Diversity Among Their Statewide Officeholders

KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE

— In 41 of the 50 states, every statewide executive office is held by the same party—a striking indicator of the scope of political polarization today. In another six states, one side has a clear edge.

— This leaves only three states that have a relatively balanced mix of Republican and Democratic statewide officeholders: Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina.

— Overall, the stronger party’s dominance has grown in recent years. In March 2020, the last time we conducted this analysis, 16 states had at least some degree of bipartisanship in their ranks of statewide executive offices, which is almost twice today’s level.

One-party states dominate the statewide slate

More than five years ago, we tallied the ranks of statewide executive offices to gauge how many states had one party with unanimous control of those posts.

At the time, we found that most states had offices that were fully dominated by one party.

Today? The degree of one-party dominance has only risen higher.

Statewide executive offices include such posts as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, state school superintendent, agriculture commissioner, and insurance commissioner. These posts are important not just because they wield significant authority over policy but because they have long been tools for ambitious politicians to climb the political ladder.

For this article, we analyzed elected positions in which the occupant has a partisan affiliation. In many cases, these officials are elected by the voters, but in some cases, they are appointed by the governor or, in the case of lieutenant governors, run on a ticket with the governor.

To draw up our lists, we relied on the extensive state-by-state executive office data in Ballotpedia. We did not include positions on multi-member commissions, such as boards of regents, nor positions elected by a district rather than the state as a whole.

The results show that in 41 of the 50 states, every statewide executive office is held by the same party. In another six states, one party has a clear edge among the statewide offices.

That leaves only three states with a relatively balanced mix of Republicans and Democrats in statewide offices: Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina. These were some of the key swing states in the most recent presidential election.

This breakdown represents an even stronger tilt toward one-party dominance than we’d found in March 2020. Back then, we found that 16 states exhibited at least a degree of bipartisanship in statewide executive offices.

Here are some tables that break down the results by state:

Table 1: Republican statewide sweep (23)

Notes and Sourcing: Gov = governor. LG = lieutenant governor. AG = attorney general. SOS = secretary of state. Treas = state treasurer. Comp = comptroller/controller. Aud = state auditor. Edu = state education superintendent or equivalent. Agr = agriculture secretary. Ins = insurance commissioner. Labor = labor secretary. Land/Mines = land commissioner or mine inspector. CFO = chief financial officer. Tax = tax commissioner. * denotes an appointed officeholder who is of a different party than the governor; those two officeholders are discussed in the text. In compiling this list, we included every statewide post on Ballotpedia’s list that had a party label.

Currently, 22 states have all-Republican lineups of statewide officials. In addition, South Carolina has Brian Gaines as its comptroller; Gaines is a registered Democrat, but he was appointed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster as opposed to being elected in his own right, so we’re considering South Carolina to be in this category.

This means that 23 states today have all-Republican executive office slates. That’s an increase from 18 in our March 2020 analysis.

Not surprisingly, most of these states are also Republican on the presidential level — though not all of them.

New Hampshire, usually a blue state in federal races these days, elects only one statewide officeholder—the governor, who is currently Republican Kelly Ayotte. In turn, the governor appoints the attorney general, and the legislature—also currently Republican—chooses the secretary of state.

Georgia is now a key presidential battleground state with two Democratic senators. However, its downballot offices remain solidly Republican. (In November, Democrats won two seats on Georgia’s public service commission, but while these seats were chosen by a statewide electorate, we aren’t considering boards and commissions in this analysis.)

Virginia also had Republicans in all three of its elected statewide offices following the 2021 elections, but Democrats took all three of them back in 2025, putting Virginia back in the all-Democratic column. That makes it one of the 18 states with an all-Democratic lineup in its statewide offices, up a little from 16 in March 2020. Those states are listed in Table 2.

Table 2: Democratic statewide sweep (18)

Here too, these states are mostly Democratic at the presidential level, although one—Michigan—is a purple state.

Table 3: Clear Republican edge (4)

Four states today have almost all Republican lineups in statewide offices. That’s down from seven since March 2020.

In two of the cases, this status stems from having only a Democratic governor-lieutenant governor combo in a red state: Kentucky, under Gov. Andy Beshear, and Kansas, under Gov. Laura Kelly. (Kelly is term-limited in 2026, and Beshear is term-limited in 2027, so it’s plausible these could shift to the all-GOP category before long.)

The remaining red state with a single Democratic officeholder is Iowa, where Democrat Rob Sand serves as state auditor (and is running for governor in 2026).

Finally, purple Pennsylvania has a Democratic governor and lieutenant governor, but the state’s separately-elected attorney general, treasurer, and auditor are Republican. Additionally, Pennsylvania’s appointed secretary of state-equivalent office is held by Republican Al Schmidt, but he was appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. Overall, Pennsylvania only elects four statewide offices: governors in midterm years (along with running mates, who run in partisan primaries but are not separately elected in general elections) and the attorney general, auditor, and treasurer in presidential cycles.

Five states have dropped out of this category since March 2020, due to Republicans flipping Democratic toehold seats: Louisiana and Montana, where the governorships turned red, and Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia, where one non-gubernatorial office has since shifted from blue to red.

Table 4: Clear Democratic edge (2)

In two states, Republicans have a small foothold today; that’s down from five in March 2020.

In Vermont, moderate Republican Gov. Phil Scott and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers are separately elected and serve in the otherwise solidly Democratic state. And in purple Wisconsin, Democrats hold all but one statewide office: state treasurer, which is held by Republican John Leiber.

Since March 2020, the shrinkage in this category comes from the governorships of Massachusetts and Maryland flipping from red to blue, and from Republicans losing control of Oregon’s secretary of state position. Nevada, meanwhile, became more thoroughly balanced between the parties following the 2022 election.

Table 5: A genuine mix of party control (3)

Congratulations to the three states that have elected a thorough mix of Republicans and Democrats to downballot offices. Perhaps not surprisingly, each of the three is a presidential battleground state.

Arizona maintains its place in this category from March 2020. After a 2022 election in which Arizona Republicans nominated several election-denial candidates, Democrats swept the offices of governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. But Republicans managed to win three other statewide offices: treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, and mine inspector.

Nevada, a newcomer to this category, also had several controversial GOP nominees in 2022, enabling Democrats to win the posts of attorney general, secretary of state, and treasurer. But more mainstream Republicans won the governorship, the lieutenant governorship, and the office of controller.

North Carolina, another state in this category from our March 2020 list, had a slew of statewide elections in 2024. The Republicans’ controversial gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, not only lost by a wide margin, but he also likely hampered other downballot Republicans’ chances. The 10 members of what is called the Council of State are thus split 5-5 between the parties despite Donald Trump winning the state for president in competitive races all three times he was on the ballot.

Could more states move into this mixed-partisan category following this year’s elections? It’s possible. But given recent trends, I wouldn’t bet much money on it.

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See Other Commentaries by Louis Jacobson.

Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate.