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Each state in the United States has a legislature as part of its form of civil government. Most of the fundamental details of the legislature are specified in the state constitution. 49 state legislatures are bicameral bodies, composed of a lower house (Assembly, General Assembly, State Assembly, House of Delegates, or House of Representatives) and an upper house (Senate). The United States also has five non-state territories and one federal district with local legislative branches, which are also listed below. Among the states, the Nebraska Legislature is the lone unicameral body, although three other areas (the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands) also have unicameral bodies.
Contents
The exact names, dates, term lengths, term limits, electoral systems, electoral districts, and other details are determined by the individual states' laws.
Party summary
The party composition of the legislatures (and party summary of the individual legislative chambers), as of January 2017, is:
“Split” means that either the two chambers have different majority parties (e.g., Democratic Senate and Republican House), that one chamber is evenly split between parties, or that a coalition or "hung" chamber has occurred. The Nebraska legislature, though officially nonpartisan is de facto Republican-controlled, and listed as such.
In several states, the political party that controls the legislature is not the one that usually wins the state in Presidential elections. Also note that, due to the workings of politics, a party with a numerical majority in a chamber may be forced to share power with other parties due to informal coalitions or may cede power outright because of divisions.
The table below shows total state government control in 31 states, which means that the Governor and the legislative-chamber majorities are all of the same political party.