New York Senate

2020 Election Update

Heading into the 2020 election, Democrats controlled the New York Senate 40 to 23. Democrats flipped five seats (SDs 46, 50, 55, 56, and 60) and lost two seats to Republicans (SDs 3 and 42) for a net gain of three seats. Democrats now control the chamber 43 to 20.

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

2018 Election Update

In the 2016 election, Democrats won 32 seats to Republicans’ 31. However, Democrat Simcha Felder chose to caucus with the Republicans, giving them a 32-31 majority. Eight Democrats also formed the Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC) and caucused with the Republicans, effectively giving Republicans a 40-23 majority.

In the 2018 primary, six of the eight members of the IDC were defeated by primary challengers. In the 2018 general election, Democrats flipped eight Republican-held districts, giving Democrats a 40-23 majority.

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.