Many posts have discussed state legislatures.
State governors may veto bills advanced by the state legislature. With sufficient support—between one-half and two-thirds of sitting legislators, depending on the state—state legislatures may overturn a gubernatorial veto. When one party controls enough seats to overturn a veto without any support from the other party, a legislature can be said to hold a veto-proof majority. These are most important when the governor belongs to the opposite party as the veto-proof legislature.
Heading into the 2024 elections, there were four states with a governor of one party and a veto-proof state legislative majority of the opposing party: Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Vermont. All four states held elections in both legislative chambers in 2024, meaning their veto-proof supermajority status was at stake.
There were two states—Nevada and Wisconsin—that could have switched to having a veto-proof majority and an opposing party governor as a result of the 2024 elections. They were considered potential supermajorities. Click here to learn more about potential supermajorities.
As of Nov. 7, two of the four states that had a veto-proof legislative majority and governor of the opposing party heading into the 2024 elections — Kansas and Kentucky — maintained that status after the elections. Vermont lost that status as a result of the 2024 elections, with Democrats falling below the threshold for supermajority control in both chambers.[1] Axios Raleigh also reported that North Carolina Republicans lost their veto-proof supermajority as a result of a key Democratic pickup in the House.[2]
Wisconsin did not become a veto-proof supermajority as a result of the 2024 elections. As of Nov. 7, Nevada's supermajority status was uncalled.
