Lower house

State Lower Houses

Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut •Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming

The term lower house refers to one of two state legislative chambers in a bicameral legislature. Forty-nine of the fifty states have a bicameral legislature and a lower house, with the only exclusion being Nebraska, which has a nonpartisan unicameral legislature.

Nebraska operated under a bicameral system until 1934, when voters approved a constitutional amendment to consolidate the two houses. No other state has seriously considered a unicameral system, although during his term as governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura argued for one.

Overview

Lower houses have a greater number of members than upper houses, and members tend to have shorter terms than upper house members. They also vary from state to state in a number of ways, including:

• Term length - two years or four years
• Session length - part-time or full time
• Term limits - some states limit the number of terms members can serve, most do not
• Number of legislators - the number of lower house members per states varies from 40 to 400
• Salary - annual salaries vary from none at all up to $95,291 per year
• Number of residents represented - out of all state houses, California's assembly members represent the most residents - 465,674 per representative, while New Hampshire representatives represent the fewest - 3,291 residents per representative.

History

Partisan Control, 1992-2013

1992-2013

Praise or blame is extended to political parties for the economic, educational, health and other quality of life outcomes that result from the policies those parties enact into law. To better understand which political party enjoys power in each of the states, Ballotpedia has analyzed state government control from 1992-2013 using the concept of a "partisan trifecta." A partisan trifecta is defined as when a state's governorship and legislative chambers are controlled by the same political party.

The two major political parties claim that their policies will lead to better outcomes. What does the data show?

At Ballotpedia, we explored these issues in a three-part study, Who Runs the States.

Part 1: Partisanship

See also: Ballotpedia:Who Runs the States, Partisanship Results, Partisan Control of State Houses

We identified the party holding each state's lower legislative chamber for the majority of time in each year from 1992 through 2013. Across the 49 states (excluding Nebraska) with lower houses, there were 577 years (53.5%) of Democratic control and 483 years (44.8%) of Republican control.

The trifecta analysis over this period shows a notable trend toward one-party control of state governments. At the outset of the study period (1992), 18 states had trifectas while 31 states had divided governments. In 2013, only 13 states had divided governments, while single-party trifectas hold sway in 36 states, the most in the 22 years we studied. The number of states with trifectas doubled between 1992 and 2013.

The trifecta analysis also allowed us to identify seven states that have experienced dramatic changes in partisan state government control from the first 11 years of the study to the last 11 years of the study. Studying the partisan composition of state governments as we do also allows a clean way to assess whether a state is "moving red" or "moving blue."

Visualizations

Legend for State government trifecta visualization -- Figures 10 and 11

Figure 10: Visualization of Trifectas from 1992-2013 -- Alabama-Missouri

Figure 11: Visualization of Trifectas from 1992-2013 -- Montana-Wyoming

Legend for State government visualization with Presidential Voting -- Figures 19 and 20

Figure 19: Visualization of State Partisanship (with Presidential voting) from 1992-2013 -- Alabama-Missouri

Figure 20: Visualization of State Partisanship (with Presidential voting) from 1992-2013 -- Montana-Wyoming

Infographic

Infographic of Partisanship Results
This infographic was created by Attwood Digital

Lower Chamber Overview

Term length Houses 2 years 44 4 years 5

Partisan majority (as of July 2011) Houses Republican 30 Democratic 18

Sessions Houses Full-time 10 Part-time 39

Term limits Houses None 35 3 terms 4 4 terms 8 6 terms 1

Session start Houses December 2 January 41 February 2 March 2 April 1

Number of legislators Houses Under 50 3 51-100 24 101-150 15 151-200 5 Over 201 2

Comparison of state lower houses

Chamber article	Members	Party control	Term Length	Term Limit	Session start date	Salary
Alaska House of Representatives	40	Split	2 years	None	January 16, 2024	$84,000/year + per diem
Arizona House of Representatives	60	Republican	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 8, 2024	$24,000/year + per diem
Alabama House of Representatives	105	Republican	4 years	None	February 6, 2024	$59,674.08/year
Arkansas House of Representatives	100	Republican	2 years	12 consecutive years; can return after a four-year break	April 10, 2024	$44,356/year + per diem
California State Assembly	80	Democrat	2 years	12 years	January 3, 2024	$128,215/year + per diem
Colorado House of Representatives	65	Democrat	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 10, 2024	$43,977/year for legislators whose terms began in 2023. $41,449/year for legislators whose terms began in 2021. + per diem
Connecticut House of Representatives	151	Democrat	2 years	None	February 7, 2024	$40,000/year
Delaware House of Representatives	41	Democrat	2 years	None	January 9, 2024	$45,291/year
Florida House of Representatives	120	Republican	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 9, 2024	$29,697/year + per diem
Georgia House of Representatives	180	Republican	2 years	None	January 8, 2024	$17,342/year + per diem
Hawaii House of Representatives	51	Democrat	2 years	None	January 17, 2024	$60,180/year + per diem
Idaho House of Representatives	70	Republican	2 years	None	January 8, 2024	$16,684/year + per diem
Illinois House of Representatives	118	Democrat	2 years	None	January 16, 2024	$89,250/year + per diem
Indiana House of Representatives	100	Republican	2 years	None	January 8, 2024	$32,070.24/year + per diem
Iowa House of Representatives	100	Republican	2 years	None	January 8, 2024	$25,000/year + per diem
Kansas House of Representatives	125	Republican	2 years	None	January 8, 2024	$86.66/session day + per diem
Kentucky House of Representatives	100	Republican	2 years	None	January 2, 2024	$188.22/calendar day during session for legislators whose terms began before 2023. $203.28/calendar day for legislators whose terms began after 2023. + per diem
Louisiana House of Representatives	105	Republican	4 years	3 terms (12 years)	March 11, 2024	$16,800/year; plus an additional $6,000/year as an unvouchered expense + per diem
Maryland House of Delegates	141	Democrat	4 years	None	January 10, 2024	$54,437/year + per diem
Massachusetts House of Representatives	160	Democrat	2 years	None	January 3, 2024	$73,655.01/year
Michigan House of Representatives	110	Democrat	2 years	12 combined years in the Legislature	January 10, 2024	$71,685/year + expenses
Minnesota House of Representatives	134	Democrat	2 years	None	February 12, 2024	$51,750/year + per diem
Mississippi House of Representatives	122	Republican	4 years	None	January 2, 2024	$23,500/year + per diem
Montana House of Representatives	100	Republican	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	No regular legislative session	$104.86/legislative day + per diem
New Hampshire House of Representatives	400	Republican	2 years	None	January 3, 2024	$100/year
New Jersey General Assembly	80	Democrat	2 years	None	January 9, 2024	$49,000/year
New Mexico House of Representatives	70	Democrat	2 years	None	January 16, 2024	$0/year + per diem
New York State Assembly	150	Democrat	2 years	None	January 3, 2024	$142,000/year + per diem
North Carolina House of Representatives	120	Republican	2 years	None	April 24, 2024	$13,951/year + per diem and expenses
North Dakota House of Representatives	94	Republican	4 years	2 terms (8 years)	No regular legislative session	$592/month + per diem
Ohio House of Representatives	99	Republican	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 2, 2024	$71,099/year
Oklahoma House of Representatives	101	Republican	2 years	12 year cumulative total, in either or both chambers	February 5, 2024	$47,500/year + per diem
Oregon House of Representatives	60	Democrat	2 years	None	February 5, 2024	$35,052/year + per diem
Pennsylvania House of Representatives	203	Democrat	2 years	None	January 2, 2024	$106,422.33/year + per diem
Rhode Island House of Representatives	75	Democrat	2 years	None	January 2, 2024	$19,037/year
South Carolina House of Representatives	124	Republican	2 years	None	January 9, 2024	$10,400/year + per diem
South Dakota House of Representatives	70	Republican	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 9, 2024	$13,436/year + per diem
Texas House of Representatives	150	Republican	2 years	None	No regular legislative session	$7,200/year + per diem
Utah House of Representatives	75	Republican	2 years	None	January 16, 2024	$293.55/legislative day + per diem
Vermont House of Representatives	150	Democrat	2 years	None	January 3, 2024	$843.32/week during session + per diem
Virginia House of Delegates	100	Democrat	2 years	None	January 10, 2024	$18,000/year for senators. $17,640/year for delegates. + per diem
West Virginia House of Delegates	100	Republican	2 years	None	January 10, 2024	$20,000/year + per diem
Wisconsin State Assembly	99	Republican	2 years	None	January 16, 2024	$57,408/year + per diem
Wyoming House of Representatives	62	Republican	2 years	None	February 12, 2024	$150/day + per diem
Washington House of Representatives	98	Democrat	2 years	None	January 8, 2024	$60,191/year for senators. $61,997/year for representatives. + per diem
Maine House of Representatives	151	Democrat	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 3, 2024	$16,245.12 for the first regular session. $11,668.32 for the second regular session. + per diem
Missouri House of Representatives	163	Republican	2 years	4 terms (8 years)	January 3, 2024	$41,070.14/year + per diem
Nevada State Assembly	42	Democrat	2 years	6 terms (12 years)	No regular legislative session	$130/legislative day + per diem
Tennessee House of Representatives	99	Republican	2 years	None	January 9, 2024	$28,405.96/year + per diem

State-by-state session details