How many house, senate, governor, and other seats have flipped since the beginning of 2025?
Executive summary
Since January 2025, reporting documents a patchwork of partisan changes across state and local levels but no single authoritative tally for every chamber; notable, verifiable flips include Democratic gains in the Virginia House of Delegates (+13) and New Jersey General Assembly (+5) in the 2025 regularly-scheduled cycle, a string of state legislative special-election pickups (seven seats), and two Georgia Public Service Commission seats that switched to Democrats in special elections [1] [2] [3]. Federal-level control moves are unresolved or not yet completed in the sources provided: there are many House and Senate vacancies and special contests but no consolidated, source-backed net flip count for the U.S. House or U.S. Senate in 2025 as of these reports [4] [5] [6].
1. House (U.S. House of Representatives): vacancies and special elections, but no confirmed net flips reported
Multiple special elections to the 119th Congress were called in 2025 — Ballotpedia documents dozens of vacancies and special contests (29 seats vacated by Democrats, 51 by Republicans) but that timeline and roster focuses on seat availability rather than a simple, final flip tally, and the sources do not provide an authoritative net number of partisan flips in the U.S. House through the period covered [4].
2. Senate (U.S. Senate): resignations and scheduled special contests, no completed partisan turnover tallies
High‑profile resignations created special‑election contests — Marco Rubio’s January 20, 2025 resignation to join the administration and JD Vance’s January 10, 2025 resignation after becoming vice president are cited — but the provided sources describe vacancies and prospective contests rather than a settled, sourced count of Senate seat flips in 2025 [5] [6].
3. Governors: one clear flip in Virginia; New Jersey held by Democrats
In the 2025 off‑year cycle Democrats flipped the Virginia governorship and held New Jersey’s governorship (Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey’s open seat after Phil Murphy was term‑limited), a change analysts and encyclopedic summaries characterize as part of a Democratic-leaning year in those state executive contests [1].
4. State legislatures: a mix of scheduled gains and special‑election pickups — documented flips include VA +13, NJ +5, and seven special‑election seat changes
State-level results in 2025 included large Democratic gains in Virginia’s House of Delegates (+13 seats) and five seats flipped in the New Jersey General Assembly [1]. Across special elections during the year, Ballotpedia and related summaries record seven state legislative special-election flips (Georgia HD‑121; Iowa Senate Districts 1 and 35; Pennsylvania SD‑36; and three Mississippi special-election flips that broke the GOP supermajority in the Mississippi Senate) and list the specific seats that changed hands in these contests [2] [3].
5. Other statewide and regulatory offices: Georgia Public Service Commission flips
Beyond legislatures and governors, Wikipedia’s summary flags two Georgia Public Service Commission seats picked up by Democrats in special elections (Districts 2 and 3), a noteworthy down‑ballot change of control in regulatory posts [1].
6. The bigger picture, competing interpretations and data gaps
Analysts disagree about net congressional impact: Politico’s redistricting reporting concludes Republicans may have modestly strengthened their position by three to four seats via mid‑decade map fights (a distinct mechanism from election‑day flips), while Cook warns the likeliest redistricting outcome is a wash for net seats [7] [8]. Ballotpedia and election trackers document many contests and many vacancies but do not present a single consolidated, authoritative national count of every partisan flip across House, Senate, governors, and every local office for the period; therefore, this account confines itself to flips explicitly reported in the provided sources and notes where complete figures are not available in those materials [4] [9].