Government trifecta

Short description: Political situation in some democratic governments

From 2017 to 2019 and since 2025 in the United States, the Republican Party has held the Senate, House of Representatives, and the presidency.[1] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, President Donald Trump, and Vice President (President of the Senate) Mike Pence, all Republicans, are pictured during the first trifecta in the 115th United States Congress. From 2021 to 2023 in the United States, the Democratic Party held the Senate, House of Representatives, and the presidency. Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, President Joe Biden, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, all Democrats, are pictured. The Democrats controlled the Senate with the tie-breaking vote from the Vice President.

In the politics of the United States, a government trifecta is a political situation in which the same political party controls the presidency and both chambers of Congress. The term is primarily used in the United States, where it originated, but can be used for control of the executive branch and both chambers of the legislative branch in any country that has a bicameral legislature and an executive that is not fused. It is borrowed from horse race betting.[2]

Most countries and all democracies have some degree of separation of powers into separate branches of government, typically consisting of an executive, a legislative, and a judicial branch, but the term government trifecta is primarily applied to countries in which the executive is not elected by the legislature and where the legislature is not sovereign; in parliamentary systems, the executive or part of it is elected by the legislature and must have the support of the majority of Parliament.

Government trifectas are seen as beneficial by some and as undesirable by others. Those in favor argue that government trifectas are efficient and avoid gridlocks. Opponents argue that trifectas discourage policing of those in power by the opposition and that they do not limit spending and the expansion of undesirable laws, which sometimes can even trigger democratic backsliding.[3] Opponents also argue that government trifectas do not tend to lead to compromise since one party can simply implement its goals unopposed. Consequently, the incumbent party may alter the structure of executive agencies to prepare for when it is bound to lose its incumbency.[4] These alterations are performed to secure control over the agencies for when the party is no longer incumbent. Examples of these include political appointments that extend beyond the political cycle, contract or grant awards, and debt issuances.

The situation is common in developing nations but rare in developed ones. Early in the 20th century, for example, federal government trifectas were common in the United States, but they have become increasingly rare since the 1970s. State government trifectas have become more common since the 2010s, going from 24 states having trifectas in 2010, to 40 in 2024.

Government trifectas are contrasted by divided governments—a situation in which one party controls the executive branch while another party controls one or both houses of the legislative branch.

In systems that use fusion of powers and where the executive has to rely on the confidence of the legislature, the executive is almost always composed of members of the party or coalition that controls the lower house of the legislature, essentially creating a situation where there always is a government trifecta, assuming the upper chamber is in the same party's control.[lower-alpha 1] If there is no government trifecta a legislature may pass a motion of no confidence to force the government to resign, thereby giving the legislature the power to create a government trifecta and making government trifectas not as significant compared to systems that use separation of powers, since one has to wait for a new election to establish or abolish a government trifecta.

## Contents

* 1 United States
* 1.1 State government trifectas
* 2 See also
* 3 Notes
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## United States

Control of the Senate, Presidency, and House since 1855: any column where all three sections show the same color is a trifecta.

The term is primarily used in the United States, where the federal government level consists of the president and the Congress with its two chambers, the House and the Senate.

Because of the coattail effect, most newly elected presidents have a majority with them in both chambers of Congress. The six-year itch conversely means that the last two years of a two-term president rarely have trifectas. The Republican Party currently holds a trifecta, in power since 20 January 2025. The longest trifectas were two stints of 14 years, one for each major party: 1933–1947 for the Democrats, spanning the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and the first two years of the Truman administration; and 1897–1911 for the Republicans, spanning the McKinley administration, Theodore Roosevelt administration, and the first two years of the Taft administration.

### State government trifectas

| Parts of this social (those related to section) need to be updated. Please update this social to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2024)

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US state and territory governments (governor and legislature) by party control

Democratic control

Republican control

NPP control

Split control

At the state level, a trifecta means that one party holds the governorship and both legislative houses. The sole exception is in Nebraska, where there is a unicameral legislature.

Year  | Total  | Dem  | Rep  | Spread

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2024  | 40 | 17  | 23 | R+6
2023  | 39 | 17  | 22 | R+5
2022  | 37 | 14  | 23 | R+9
2021  | 38 | 15  | 23 | R+8
2020  | 36 | 15  | 21 | R+6
2019  | 36 | 14  | 22 | R+8
2018  | 33 | 7  | 26 | R+19
2017  | 31 | 5  | 26 | R+21
2016  | 31 | 6  | 25 | R+19
2015  | 31 | 7  | 24 | R+17
2014  | 30 | 7  | 23 | R+16
2013  | 36 | 12  | 24 | R+12
2012  | 34 | 11  | 23 | R+12
2011  | 32 | 11  | 21 | R+10
2010  | 24 | 16 | 8  | D+8
2009  | 26 | 17 | 9  | D+8
2008  | 23 | 14 | 9  | D+5
2007  | 24 | 15 | 9  | D+6
2006  | 20 | 8  | 12 | R+4
2005  | 20 | 8  | 12 | R+4
2004  | 21 | 9  | 12 | R+3
2003  | 21 | 9  | 12 | R+3
2002  | 20 | 9  | 11 | R+2
2001  | 21 | 9  | 13 | R+4
2000  | 24 | 8  | 15 | R+7
1999  | 23 | 9  | 14 | R+5
1998  | 19 | 6  | 13 | R+7
1997  | 18 | 6  | 12 | R+6
1996  | 21 | 7  | 14 | R+7
1995  | 23 | 8  | 15 | R+7
1994  | 20 | 16 | 4  | D+12
1993  | 21 | 18 | 3  | D+15
1992  | 18 | 15 | 3  | D+12

Sources:[5][6]

A visual representation of US state government trifectas over time:

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## See also

* Two-party system
* Dominant-party system

## Notes

1. ↑ Although there is not one single party that controls the House of Lords, there always is a de facto government trifecta in the United Kingdom due to the fact that the monarch can appoint whoever they please as a Lord or Baroness, which is almost always done on the advice of the prime minister, thereby giving the prime minister the ability to take control of the House of Lords. The House of Commons can also pass some legislation without the approval of the Lords by using the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949.

## References

1. ↑ "Party Government Since 1857" (in en). https://history.house.gov/Institution/Presidents-Coinciding/Party-Government/.
2. ↑ Hounshell, Blake (2022-11-12). "In the States, Democrats All but Ran the Table" (in en-US). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/us/politics/state-legislatures-democrats-trifectas.html.
3. ↑ "Would Divided Government Be Better?". Cato Institute. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6650. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
4. ↑ Moe, Terry (1989). "The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure". https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247947716. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
5. ↑ "Ballotpedia: Who Runs The States". https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:Who_Runs_the_States,_Partisanship_Results,_State_Government_Trifectas.
6. ↑ "2018 election analysis: State government trifectas". Ballotpedia. https://ballotpedia.org/2018_election_analysis:_State_government_trifectas. Retrieved 7 November 2018.

## External links

* State government trifectas at Ballotpedia.

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