Change in Party Control of Southern State Legislatures

Description:

During Obama’s two terms in office, Democrats lost control of most Southern legislatures. Missing from this narrative, however, is the fact that this process had been occurring since the 1990’s. Several states had been flipped sooner, with Republicans winning the legislatures of Florida, Texas, and Virginia during Clinton’s tenure. Although most Southern states flipped to Republicans, this is largely a result of political party realignment - many Southern Democrats were quite conservative.

Note: Although Delaware and Maryland are in the Census South region, they are not included in this chart. Though debatable, both states are widely not considered part of the South [https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-states-are-in-the-south/]. While Virginia has flipped back to Democrats as of the November 2019 election, it is part of a new wave of political and demographic changes.

Details:

A chart created in R using ggplot package. Additional editing was completed using Adobe Illustrator.