By Douglas Kronaizl | Ballotpedia News

In 12 states, more than half of state legislative seats are guaranteed to one of the two major parties in the 2020 elections, according to Ballotpedia’s 10th Annual State Legislative Competitiveness Report.

When a candidate from only one of the two major parties runs for a state legislative seat, it is all but guaranteed to be won by that party. Nationally, roughly one-third of the 5,875 state legislative seats up for election this year will be won by one of the two major parties due to a lack of major party competition.

The 12 states where more than half of all state legislative elections feature only one major party candidate are:

The chart below shows the number of seats without major party competition in all even-year elections since 2010:

On the other hand, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire feature the highest percentage of seats with major party competition, all over 90%. In Michigan, 109 of the 110 seats up have major party competition in the general election.

Nationally, Democrats and Republicans are contesting a nearly-equal number of seats this year, with a 35-seat difference between the two parties. This is the most parity in the number of seats contested by each of the two major parties since 2010.