Dems Take Super-Majority In Nevada After Votes Counted

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Democrats in Nevada are on track for a super-majority in the lower chamber of the state legislature, which is comprised of 42 seats.

With most races called and Democrats leading in the two races that remained uncalled as of early Tuesday, Democrats looked set to nab 28 seats, providing the party with control of two-thirds of the chamber. The level of Democratic control is technically veto-proof, although with the bulk of substantive legislative action requiring legislative input from both chambers, and Democrats in control but below a super-majority in the Nevada state Senate, it’s unclear when if ever that the party will be able to put that ramification of their legislative wins to effective use (although there’s definitely more to it than that). If Democrats were to secure such a majority in both chambers, they could pass legislation without input from the governor, who after this year’s election results are finalized and winners take their positions will be a Republican, replacing Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak.

Congress has similar provisions, although neither major political party is anywhere near a super-majority in either the U.S. House or Senate. The level of Democratic control in the Nevada state legislature will mean that it’s that much more difficult for the incoming Republican governor to get more partisan priorities passed and enacted. With a much smaller majority, a handful of Democrats could theoretically peel off from the party line and support a largely Republican ambition, scoring the GOP a win as the interests leading the policy direction taken by the chamber remained in flux. Now, that’s not happening. “Nevada Dems just gained a supermajority in the Assembly!” the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) announced. “They’ll also maintain a woman-majority chamber in an election that was defined by protecting abortion rights. This supermajority will play a key role in keeping the GOP governor-elect’s dangerous agenda in check.”

The DLCC is an official Democratic Party organization that does work on state legislative races. Democrats scored significant success in state legislative races elsewhere, including a flip of the Michigan state Senate for the first time since the early 1980s. There — and in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Minnesota — Democrats added to the list of states in which the party has unified control of the governorship and both state legislative chambers. Democrats also looked set to take control of the Pennsylvania state House.