Twelve independent candidates were elected to state legislatures on November 8, 2016. Seven were in Vermont, two were in Alaska, two were in Maine, and one was in Rhode Island.
By contrast, in November 2014, fourteen independents had been elected to state legislatures. One of the 2014 winners is still in office because she was elected to four-year terms.
The November 2016 national vote for independent candidates for State Senate was 414,403. By contrast, the 2014 State Senate national total was 251,674.
For lower house of state legislatures, the November 2016 national total was 727,539. In 2014 it had been 410,118.
So how many Independents are currently in state legislatures?
Good question. It’s a little ambiguous because some state legislators were elected as Democrats or Republicans and then, while in office, they announced they were leaving those parties to become an independent. I have been focusing more on how many were actually elected as independents. That number is eleven (the twelve elected in 2016, and a State Senator elected in Alabama in 2014 to a four-year term, and three in Louisiana in 2015 or in a special election in early 2016).
Louisiana (3 representatives): Dee Richard and Terry Brown, elected in 2015; and Joseph Marino “elected in a special election in 2016. Since no one else filed, the election was cancelled. Richard was unopposed in 2015. Brown received 6627 votes in defeating a Republican opponent in 2015 Open Primary.
Alabama (1 senator)
Harri Anne Smith (SD-29) elected as independent in 2014, serves 2015-2019.
Alaska (2 representatives)
Jason Grenn (HD-22) elected as non-affiliated in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Dan Ortiz (HD-36) elected as non-affiliated in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Iowa (1 senator)
David Johnson (SD-1) elected as Republican in 2014, switched to No Party in June 2016, serves 2015-2019). When he switched, it made the Senate 26D:23R:1I, meaning that the Republicans would need to pick up two seats to get a tie, with Johnson’s support needed for control. Republicans picked up six seats, so it is now 19D:29R:1I:1Vac.
Louisiana (3 representatives)
Terry Brown (HD-22) elected as No Party in 2015, serves 2016-2020.
Dee Richard (HD-55) elected as No Party in 2015, serves 2016-2020.
Joseph Marino (HD-85) “elected” in special election in June 2016, he was the only candidate who filed and was elected automatically, serves 2016-2020.
Maine (3 representatives)
Kent Ackley (HD-82) elected as Common Sense Independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Kevin Battle (HD-33) elected as Republican in 2016, switched to Independent in 2017, serves 2017-2019.
Owen Casás (HD-94) elected as Independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Nevada (1 senator)
Patricia Farley (SD-8) elected as Republican in 2014, switched to Independent in 2016, serves 2015-2019.
Rhode Island (1 representative)
Blake Filippi (HD-36) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Vermont (7* representatives)
Alyson Eastman (Addison-Rutland) elected as independent in 2016, to serve 2017-2019. Eastman resigned on January 5, in order to serve as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture for Vermont. Under Vermont statute, the governor appoints a replacement. There does not appear to be any restriction on the appointment other than residency in the district (the Vermont constitution provides that the method of filling legislative vacancies be provided by statute).
Adam Greshin (Washington-7) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Ben Jickling (Orange-Washington-Addison) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Barbara Murphy (Franklin-2) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Oliver Olsen (Windham-Bennington-Windsor) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Paul Poirier (Washington-3) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Laura Sibilia (Windham-Bennington) elected as independent in 2016, serves 2017-2019.
Jickling was elected in a two-member district against two Democrats and 1 Republican. He has the best case for an independent who defeated both Democratic and Republican opponents.
Jickling 49.1%
Democrat 1 44.1%
Democrat 2 39.4%
Republican 33.5%
Write-in 0.5%
Blank 33.4%
The above percentages are based on voters having two votes. In all the two-member districts there were large numbers of blank ballots. In the one-member districts, a few percent would be blank ballots, where voters skipped the race. The exception would be when there was only a single candidate on the ballot, and perhaps 20-30% of voters would skip the race.
But it appears that in two-member races, 20-40% of voters will vote for one candidate, even in cases where there are two Democrats and two Republicans. In the above case it is quite likely that there were a large number of Jickling-Republican votes. Some of those would be Republican voters who didn’t want to vote for a Democrat. In the towns where Democrats were stronger, Jickling was weaker (it is likely that many Democratic voters will simply vote party line for the two Democrats.
But Jickling received more votes than the Republican, and some Republicans won’t vote for a non-Republican. So Jickling must have received enough Jickling-Democrat votes and Jickling-blank votes, and there were sufficient Democrat-blank votes for him to be elected.
Summary
Elected independent legislators (15)
Elected November 8, 2017 (12, one subsequently resigned to take a state cabinet position)
Vermont (7 representatives), Alaska (2 representatives), Maine (2 representatives), Rhode Island (1 representative).
Elected June 2016, special election (1)
Louisiana (1 representative). He was unopposed, so no election was held.
Elected October 2015, general election/open primary (2)
Louisiana (2 representatives)
Elected November 2014, general election for 4 year term.
Alabama (1 senator)
15 elected independents still serving as independents.
Party switchers (2)
Iowa (1 senator) Elected 2014, switched June 2016 from Republican to independent, apparently to make it hard for Republicans to take control of senate, which it failed to do, as 6 seats flipped.
Nevada (1 senator) Elected 2014, switched November 2016 (after election) apparently to align with majority party.