2005 United States state legislative elections

For related races, see 2005 United States elections.

2005 United States state legislative elections

←  2004 November 8, 2005 2006  →
2 legislative chambers 2 states
Majority party Minority party   Party Republican Democratic Chambers before 50 [a] 48 [a] Chambers after 50 48 Overall change
Map of lower house elections:      Democrats retained control      Republicans retained control      No regularly-scheduled elections

The 2005 United States state legislative elections were held on November 8, 2005. Two legislative chambers in two states held regularly scheduled elections. These off-year elections coincided with other state and local elections, including gubernatorial elections in two states. ^[1] Both chambers of the Northern Mariana Islands legislature was up.

Democrats maintained control of the New Jersey General Assembly and Republicans maintained control of the Virginia House of Delegates. ^{[2] [3]}

Summary table

Regularly scheduled elections were held in 8 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly scheduled elections were held for 578 of the 7,383 legislative seats. This table only covers regularly scheduled elections; additional special elections took place concurrently with these regularly scheduled elections.

State	Upper House				Lower House
	Seats up	Total	% up	Term	Seats up	Total	% up	Term
New Jersey	0	0	100	2/4 [b]	80	80	100	2
Virginia	0	0	100	4	100	100	100	2

State summaries

New Jersey

Main article: 2005 New Jersey General Assembly election

All seats of the New Jersey General Assembly were up for election. Assembly members were elected to two-year terms in two-member districts. ^[4] Democrats slightly increased their majority control. ^{[5] [6]}

General Assembly

Party		Before	After	Change
	Democratic	47	49	2
	Republican	33	31	2
Total		80	80

Virginia

Main article: 2005 Virginia House of Delegates election

All seats of the Virginia House of Delegates are up for election. Delegates are elected to two-year terms in single-member districts. Democrats made slight gains, but Republicans maintained the majority. ^[7]

House of Delegates

Party		Before	After	Change
	Republican	60	57	3
	Democratic	38	40	2
	Independents	2	3	1
Total		100	100

Territorial and federal district summaries

Northern Mariana Islands

Main article: 2005 Northern Mariana Islands general election

All seats of the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives and half of the Northern Mariana Islands Senate are up for election. Senators are elected to four-year terms and Representatives are elected to two-year terms.

House of Representatives

Party		Before	After	Change
	Republican	7	7
	Democratic	1	2	1
	Independents	1	2	1
	Covenant Party	9	7	2
Total		18	18

Senate

Party		Before	After	Change
	Republican	2	3	1
	Democratic	2	2
	Covenant Party	3	3
	Independents	2	1	1
Total		9	9

See also

• 2005 United States gubernatorial elections

Notes

1. The Iowa Senate was evenly split. Thus it is not included in either total.
2. The upper houses of Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Texas use a 2-4-4 term length system.

References

1. "State legislative elections, 2005". Ballotpedia . Retrieved February 7, 2023.
2. https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-information-2005.shtml
3. "Election Results - Virginia Department of Elections".
4. "New Jersey Secretary of State". state.nj.us.
5. "2005 NJ General Assembly Elections". state.nj.us.
6. https://ballotpedia.org/New_Jersey_General_Assembly_elections,_2005
7. https://ballotpedia.org/Virginia_House_of_Delegates_elections,_2005