Election results, 2023: Results of elected officials seeking other offices
In 2023, 81 state legislators ran for a different office than the one to which they were elected, with 39, or 48%, successfully winning election to those positions. That was higher than the 34% success rate in 2021, the previous odd year-election cycle, and slightly higher than the yearly average success rate of 46% from 2018-2023.
Forty-nine percent of Republicans who sought election to other offices in 2023 won. This is equal to the average success rate of Republicans who sought other offices from 2018-2023.
Forty-eight percent of Democrats who sought election to other offices in 2023 won. This is higher than the average success rate of Democrats who sought other offices from 2018-2023 (44%).
No members of the U.S. House or Senate sought election to other offices in 2023.
Members of state legislatures
Eighty-one state legislators ran for other elected positions in 2023, with 39 of them, or 48%, successfully winning election to a new position. Twenty of these state legislators (25%) lost in the general election, while 22 (27%) were defeated in their party's primary.
State legislators who ran for other offices in 2023 by party
Among the two major parties, more Democratic state legislators sought other offices in 2023 than Republican ones. Forty-two Democratic state legislators ran for other offices in 2023, while 39 Republican state legislators did. In 2021, the previous odd election year, 47 Democratic state legislators ran for other offices and 21 Republicans did.
Success rate by party
Forty-nine percent (19 out of 39) of Republican state legislators who ran for another office won election to a new position, while 48% (20 out of 42) of Democratic state legislators who ran for another office won election to a new position.
| State legislators who ran for other offices in 2023, by party | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Won | Won (%) | Lost | Lost (%) | Lost in primary | Lost in primary (%) | Total |
| Republican Party | 19 | 49% | 5 | 13% | 15 | 38% | 39 |
| Democratic Party | 20 | 48% | 15 | 36% | 7 | 17% | 42 |
State legislators who ran for other offices, by state
The table below details the results of state legislators who ran for other offices in 2023 and the outcomes of those elections by state.
| State legislators who ran for other offices in 2023, by state | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | State Senators | State Representatives | ||||
| Won | Lost | Lost in primary | Won | Lost | Lost in primary | |
| AK | ||||||
| AL | ||||||
| AR | ||||||
| AZ | ||||||
| CA | ||||||
| CO | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| CT | 1 | |||||
| DE | ||||||
| FL | 1 | |||||
| GA | ||||||
| HI | ||||||
| IA | ||||||
| ID | 1 | |||||
| IL | 1 | 1 | ||||
| IN | 1 | |||||
| KS | ||||||
| KY | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| LA | 1 | 12 | 1 | 8 | ||
| MA | 1 | |||||
| MD | ||||||
| ME | ||||||
| MI | ||||||
| MN | ||||||
| MO | 2 | |||||
| MS | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| MT | ||||||
| NC | 1 | |||||
| ND | ||||||
| NE | 1 | |||||
| NH | 1 | 3 | ||||
| NM | ||||||
| NJ | 6 | 1 | ||||
| NV | ||||||
| NY | 2 | |||||
| OH | ||||||
| OK | ||||||
| OR | ||||||
| PA | 1 | 1 | ||||
| R.I. | ||||||
| SC | ||||||
| SD | ||||||
| TN | 2 | 1 | ||||
| TX | 1 | |||||
| UT | ||||||
| VA | 9 | 1 | 4 | |||
| VT | ||||||
| WA | ||||||
| WI | 1 | |||||
| WV | ||||||
| WY | ||||||
| Totals | 1 | 8 | 3 | 38 | 12 | 19 |
Positions sought by state legislators who ran for another offices in 2023
Here is the breakdown of the types of positions sought by state legislators who ran for other offices in 2023:
| Positions sought by state legislators who ran for another office in 2023 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of office | Won | Lost | Lost in primary | Total | |
| U.S. Senate | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| U.S. House | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Governor | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| State executive offices other than governor | 6 | 3 | 6 | 15 | |
| State Senate | 26 | 3 | 9 | 38 | |
| State House | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Judicial offices | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| County offices | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Municipal/school board offices | 6 | 12 | 6 | 24 | |
| Total | 39 | 19 | 23 | 81 | |
Methodology
Ballotpedia identified those officeholders who were declared candidates for a position in the 2023 elections that was different from what they held prior to the November elections. Candidates who resigned their office before the election either because they were required to by state law to run for another office (resign-to-run laws), or to better focus on their campaign for the new office, were still considered to be an elected official of their previous office for this analysis.
Legislators who ran for other seats in the same legislative chamber in which they served due to redistricting were not included in this analysis.
Candidates who won election by winning their primary outright were considered to have won their general election. Candidates who lost their party's nomination at a convention and candidates who lost in a primary runoff were considered to have lost in the primary.
This analysis doesn't include special elections.
See also
- United States Congress elections, 2023
- Election results, 2021: Results of elected officials seeking other offices
- State legislative elections, 2023
- Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2023
Footnotes
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