The 2021 United States state legislative elections were held on November 2, 2021. Three legislative chambers in two states, New Jersey and Virginia, held regularly scheduled elections. These off-year elections coincided with other state and local elections, including gubernatorial elections in both states.
As a result of the elections, New Jersey retained its Democratic trifecta, while a divided government was established in Virginia, as Republicans won back the lower house of the Virginia legislature, which they lost two years earlier.
Regularly scheduled elections were held in 3 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. Nationwide, regularly scheduled elections were held for 220 of the 7,383 legislative seats. This table only covers regularly scheduled elections; additional special elections took place concurrently with these regularly scheduled elections.
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All seats of the New Jersey Senate and the New Jersey General Assembly were up for election. One Senator and two Assembly members were elected to two-year terms in each district. Democrats retained majority control in both chambers, but they lost seats in each as well, despite their candidates generally outrunning governor Phil Murphy in the concurrent gubernatorial election. Most stunningly, Senate president Stephen Sweeney lost re-election to a political newcomer who spent less than $2,500 on his campaign.
All seats of the Virginia House of Delegates are up for election; the Virginia Senate did not hold regularly-scheduled elections in 2021. Delegates are elected to two-year terms in single-member districts. Democrats had recently gained control of the House in 2019; however, they lost their majority to the Republicans in this election.
Various states held special elections for legislative districts throughout the year. Neither party made net gains, with Democrats picking up 3 seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, New Hampshire House of Representatives, and Maine House of Representatives, while Republicans picked up 3 seats in the Connecticut State Senate, Iowa House of Representatives, and Texas House of Representatives.