WASHINGTON — As Republicans continue creating chaos and dysfunction with their total control in Washington, Newsweek is out with a must-read piece on how statehouses are essential hubs of Democratic influence and leadership. From the redistricting battles to state Democrats leading the fight to push back on Trump, “the influence of state legislatures is increasingly making its way to the center of U.S. politics.”
The DLCC and state Democrats swept nearly every target race across the country in 2025, and the stakes couldn’t be higher to carry that momentum through the 2026 midterms. Read more below:
Newsweek: State Democrats Extend Influence Over Party Amid Turmoil in DC
- The Democratic Party in Washington remains in the minority and relatively powerless to stop President Donald Trump’s reshaping of Washington, but outside the capital, statehouse leaders are quietly preparing Democrats for the post-Trump era.
- While wins in the New Jersey and Virginia governors’ races grabbed headlines, Democrats also made key gains in state legislatures. The party flipped 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, secured a supermajority in the New Jersey General Assembly, broke the GOP supermajority in the Mississippi Senate, and maintained its majority in the Minnesota Senate.
- “I think we’re really starting to see a recognition within the party of the importance of these statehouse races,” New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who chairs the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), told Newsweek. “Previously, Democrats focused on creating change through winning Washington, but with us now out of power, people see state legislatures as the best way to fight back against Trump.”
- As the two parties face off in a heated competition over the redrawing of congressional district lines, the influence of state legislatures is increasingly making its way to the center of U.S. politics. However, Democrats have not always viewed these offices as strategically as they now do.
- DLCC President Heather Williams told Newsweek that the DLCC aims to build on its 2025 gains and narrow the chamber discrepancy by investing early in races and building a more permanent campaign infrastructure.
- “These races don’t have the professional politician sort of air to them yet—you’ve got just good people trying to do good things,” Williams said. “At this ballot level, we need to get our candidates out in their communities as soon as possible, and in order to do that, we need to make sure that they’ve got a strong campaign infrastructure, things like staff and plans and tools to ensure that these candidates can be successful.”
- Williams said what the DLCC did differently this cycle was making its financial commitments to candidates in January, instead of issuing sporadic disbursements every few months. She said this strategy allowed candidates to better budget their resources and prioritize what they would spend on paid communications.
- With legislative races running throughout the country each year, Williams said the organization must remain nimble. In the past, she said its ability to maintain a continuous organizing apparatus had been limited by the party’s inclination toward federal races.
- “We Democrats fall in love with people, and we fall in love with these big ideas that if we just get this thing, then we’ll solve this big, bad problem, and it’s more nuanced than that,” Williams said. “But I think that we are in a place now where there is just deeper recognition that so many things that we care about run through the states.”
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) is the campaign arm of Democratic state legislatures and leads the national strategy for building power and winning new majorities. Over the last three decades, we have strategized cycle over cycle to win majorities and lead the effort to bring national attention and investment to our ballot level, winning nearly a dozen new chamber majorities over the last decade. Our work has ensured that nearly half of Americans are represented by at least one Democratic majority in their statehouse. State legislatures are the building blocks of our democracy and have the closest connections to Americans’ day-to-day lives. From protecting fundamental freedoms and voting rights to growing the middle class and advancing opportunity, the DLCC and state legislators are moving the Democratic agenda forward and shaping the future of this country.
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