California Senate

2020 Election Update

Heading into the 2020 election, Democrats controlled the California Senate 29 to 11. Democrats flipped two seats (SDs 29 and 37) for a net gain of two seats. Democrats now control the chamber 31 to 9.

The below table shows 2020 and 2018 election results for the California Senate. The LDI scores are for the 2020 cycle. EveryDistrict will release new scores and district rankings after the redistricting process.

2018 Election Update

After the 2016 election, Democrats controlled the California State Senate 27-13. In 2018, Democrats lost one seat when Democrat Josh Newman (SD 29) was recalled and replaced by Republican Ling Ling Chan.

Heading into the 2018 election, Democrats controlled the California State Senate 26-14. In the 2018 election, Democrats flipped three seats. Democrats now control the California State Senate 29-11.

Democrats flipped SD 12, SD 14, and SD 34.

Understanding the Map

EveryDistrict’s Legislative District Index (LDI) is the gold standard of state legislative competitiveness. Our LDI ranks state legislative districts on a scale from 100 to -100, using statewide elections data. Districts with a score of 100 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Democratic candidate receiving 100% of the vote); districts with a score of -100 would vote for statewide Republican candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Republican candidate receiving 100% of the vote). For a more realistic example, a district with a score of 10 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 10 points (meaning we would expect the Democratic state legislative candidate to win with 55% of the vote compared to the Republican winning 45% of the vote).

After the 2018 election, EveryDistrict reviewed and enhanced our LDI system, improving the accuracy of the metric with new methodologies and the most recent electoral data.

For more information about EveryDistrict’s LDI, please click here.