MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Also on the ballot in some states - the state lawmakers who write the laws that affect our lives in some very direct ways from reproductive rights to education to criminal justice. Control of those legislatures in several states is up for grabs this year. NPR's Ryland Barton is here in Studio 31 to tell us more about this. Good morning, and welcome.
RYLAND BARTON, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So give me the big picture - who controls the legislatures now, and how could that change with this election?
BARTON: Yeah, so right now, Republicans control more state capitals. They have 28. Democrats have 20. There are only two where control is divided - Pennsylvania, which has really tight margins in both legislative chambers, and then there's Alaska, where it's actually run by a coalition. And the legislative battlegrounds this year kind of overlap in many cases with presidential swing states. Republicans are defending narrow majorities in Arizona, and then there's New Hampshire. Democrats think they've got a shot at winning a bunch of seats in Wisconsin after the state Supreme Court struck down redistricting maps there last year. But they've also been trying to stay on top in Michigan, Democrats have, and, perhaps surprisingly, also Minnesota, where a special election for a single state Senate seat will determine which party controls that chamber.
MARTIN: OK, but what I'm hearing here is that Republicans have largely dominated legislative politics. Why is that?
BARTON: Yeah, Republicans have really been on top at the state level since 2010, when they made a big blitz during that campaign year to grab up state House seats ahead of the redistricting session the following year. That's had long-standing effects. It's meant the GOP not only set the legislative agenda, but they got to control how political maps for state House and congressional districts are - have been drawn since then.
MARTIN: Yeah, judges and taxes. That's what happens here. So are the Democrats doing something to catch up?
BARTON: Yeah, this time around they've made a big spending push to try and claw back some of those districts. Heather Williams is the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which is the main national funder for legislative races.
HEATHER WILLIAMS: We certainly look at the election in front of us and are identifying where the opportunities are, but we are also responsible for crafting this long-term strategy to win power in the states over the decade.
BARTON: So besides just the majorities, this year, Democrats have also talked a lot about trying to undermine these Republican supermajorities. That's where, in this case, Republicans have enough votes in the legislature to, say, override a governor's veto. It's a really big deal in states like Kansas and North Carolina, which they currently have Democratic governors but a Republican legislature, and Democrats just want to flip a few seats. So then the governors would be able to veto legislation that they don't like without the risk of getting overwritten.
MARTIN: So Ryland, what you're really reminding us here is how important legislatures have become. They always have been, but they've really taken center stage on abortion rights, issues like abortion rights and immigration and voting. Remind us of why that is and what's behind that.
BARTON: Well, one thing is there's been a series of Supreme Court rulings that handed states a lot more power recently. One issue we obviously talk a lot about is abortion. Legislatures have been driving the bus on that issue since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and said it was up to states to decide how to regulate abortion. That created this patchwork of states passing various kinds of abortion bans, more liberal ones passing laws guaranteeing access to abortion. But also, legislatures have always been this proving ground for ambitious politicians, and now they're so much more coordinated, plugged in with organizations that are shopping around bills to legislatures across the country. So now lawmakers are willing to stick their necks out on some of these issues.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Ryland Barton. Ryland, Thank you.
BARTON: Thank you.
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