Democrats will hold the governor’s office and both legislative chambers in Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin next year, the National Conference of State Legislatures said Friday in its tally of unofficial results from the Nov. 3 election, adding that Arizona would make six if Democrats’ lead in its state House holds. “Voters flipped control of Congress, governorships and legislatures, and elected barrier breaking candidates,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in the group’s Nov. 4 election statement.
Republicans in four of the states on NCSL’s list of Democratic trifectas in 2027 pushed bills in 2025 and 2026 to keep transgender girls off girls’ school teams. “Make no mistake, this legislation and the rhetoric that surrounds it could get somebody killed,” Michigan Rep. Matt Koleszar said in one of those debates, the Michigan Advance reported.
Pennsylvania Fairness Act Sits in a Senate Democrats Just Flipped
Democrats kept the Pennsylvania House and flipped the Senate, The Associated Press reported, giving them a 26-24 Senate edge, according to CBS Philadelphia. Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose reelection the AP called Tuesday night, said Wednesday that “now I’ve got a whole lot more partners in progress, a whole lot more GSD Democrats ready to do this work alongside me,” WHYY reported.
Shapiro has said he’d sign the Fairness Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the state’s civil rights law, as Gayety reported. “It is long past time to pass a nondiscrimination law in our Commonwealth,” he said in an April 2023 statement.
The act’s language passed the House 101-100 on April 28 inside Rep. Ben Waxman’s HB 2103 and has sat in the Senate State Government Committee since May 7, the bill’s history shows. “For the first time in decades, Pennsylvanians used their power tonight to flip the state Senate so that we can deliver even more results for our communities,” Shapiro said in a statement, CBS Philadelphia reported.
The Senate had passed Sen. Judy Ward’s SB 9, which her memo calls the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” 32-18 the year before, on May 6, 2025, records show. Five Democrats joined all 27 Republicans, and Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa called the bill “unnecessary, unwarranted, and unconstitutional in my mind,” the AP reported.
The House has bounced it among four committees since. Shapiro called a 2022 version “nothing more than cruel, designed to discriminate against transgender youth who just want to play sports like their peers,” according to the AP.
Evers Vetoed Five Anti-Trans Bills Before Crowley Takes Over
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed five Republican bills on March 31, the Transgender Day of Visibility, WXPR reported. “I will veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids,” Evers said in his office’s release.
Two of the bills targeted school and college sports, and AB 104, which would have barred most gender-affirming care for minors, is listed as “Veto Sustained” in Legislature records after an override vote failed May 13. “This type of legislation stirs harmful rhetoric, negatively affects Wisconsinites’ and kids’ mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ harassment, bullying, and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ Wisconsinites, especially our trans and nonbinary kids,” Evers said.
Democrats flipped both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature, the AP reported, and Wisconsin Public Radio’s unofficial count gives Gov.-elect David Crowley an 18-15 Senate and a 53-46 Assembly. “In 2006, Wisconsin wrote discrimination into our constitution,” Crowley said in an October 2025 release calling for repeal of the state’s same-sex marriage ban. “I will call a special session of the Legislature to focus squarely on repealing this ban,” he said.
Minnesota’s 67-67 House Stalemate Ends With DFL Majorities
Sen. Amy Klobuchar beat Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth for governor, the AP declared at 12:07 a.m. EST Wednesday. “I think it’s an overwhelming display of frustration that people had with the Trump administration and with Republican governance,” DFL House Leader Zack Stephenson said of the blue wave, CBS Minnesota reported.
By Wednesday evening, the AP had called at least 37 of 67 Senate seats and at least 77 House seats for the DFL, CBS reported. “The first thing we have to do is to address the cost of living for people, and that’s not going to happen in one bill,” Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy told reporters.
Demuth’s caucus put HF 12, which would bar trans girls from girls’ school teams, on the floor March 3, 2025. “This bill is about protecting fairness,” Demuth said, CBS Minnesota reported. “It’s protecting opportunity and safety in sports.”
It failed 66-67, the House Journal shows, after one of its Republican authors voted no and then moved to reconsider. “History has never looked favorable upon any movement that criminalizes people based solely on the fact of who they are,” DFL Rep. Leigh Finke said before the vote.
A motion to bring it back April 7 drew 67 votes, one short of the 68 required, House records show. “My colleagues across the aisle say that you are bringing this to protect women and girls and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” DFL Rep. Kelly Moller of Shoreview said, KTTC reported.
Klobuchar said in a statement last year that the decision should be left to local school districts, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
SF 473, a state Equal Rights Amendment that stalled in the Senate Rules and Administration Committee this year, would bar discrimination on account of sex, including “gender identity or gender expression” and “sexual orientation,” the bill text reads. Finke said at the DFL’s watch party Tuesday night that the new trifecta could finally pass the amendment, KARE 11 reported.
Democratic Trifectas 2027: Michigan’s Sports Bills, Nevada’s Vetoes
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson won the governor’s race, the AP declared at 1:45 a.m. EST Wednesday. “Our Democratic trifecta is going to go to Lansing and pass a voting rights act for the state of Michigan to ensure that every citizen in this state is protected at the ballot box in every election,” Benson said in her victory speech, Bridge Michigan reported.
Democrats also flipped the state House and kept the Senate, the AP reported. “Voters have given us a mandate to address the cost of living crisis head-on,” state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, said Wednesday, Bridge reported.
The Republican House passed HB 4066, barring trans girls from girls’ school sports, 58-46 on May 22, 2025, and it’s sat in the Senate Government Operations Committee since, Michigan Legislature records show. “These bills tell the children of our state that some can have civil rights, but not all,” Rep. Carrie Rheingans, D-Ann Arbor, said that day, according to the Advance.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed two trans protection bills in 2023 but vetoed a shield bill for gender-affirming care providers that year, the Nevada Current reported. “I still believe this is very important in terms of protecting our citizens, protecting our health care providers,” its sponsor, Sen. James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, told the Nevada Current in January 2024.
Lombardo vetoed Ohrenschall’s 2025 version, SB 171, too, writing in his veto message that it “would lead to complicated legal battles and uncertainty about what laws providers must follow.” The AP declared early Wednesday that Attorney General Aaron Ford had unseated Lombardo, and it reported that Democrats kept the Legislature.
