Incumbents face an enormous edge when running for office. To dig into the numbers, we look into the incumbency advantage in both the California State Assembly and State Senate from 2010 to 2014.

1. in cum bent (noun):
the holder of an office who
runs for that office again
The Incumbency Advantage
in California State Government
2010
2012
2014
Incumbent
reelected
Incumbent lost
to challenger
Percent of
incumbents
reelected
in 2010:
100%
52/52 10/10
11/1141/44
10/1053/57
State Assembly State Senate
In 2010, 100% of the incumbents, who ran were
reelected. There are a total of 80 seats in the CA State
Assembly and 40 seats in the CA State Senate,
meaning reelected incumbents are 65% of the
Assembly and 25% of the Senate. Representatives
were only elected in open seats, where the incumbent
did not run for reelection.
In 2012, 3 out of the 44 incumbents in the Assembly
were not reelected — only 7% of them!
The reelection rate for the California State Assembly and
State Senate in 2014 was 93% and 100%, respectively. For
comparison, the 2014 reelection rates for the US House of
Representatives and Senate, according to Open Secrets,
were 95% and 82%, respectively.
Want to learn more about
incumbency and state elections?
More information can be found at roseinstitute.org.
Timeline
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