Six of the 31 cases tracked by Ballotpedia in which legislators were censured by state legislative chambers have occurred in 2023. This is the second highest number of legislators censured in one year since the first case in 1838 and accounts for 19.3% of all state legislative censures. The highest number of censures occurred in 1941 when seven Wisconsin senators were all censured at once for their refusal to vote on a bill.
A censure is the formal way in which a legislative chamber can express disapproval of the words or actions of a legislator. At the state level, it may be accompanied by other actions such as the legislator being removed from committee assignments, but on its own, a censure stands solely as a symbolic rebuke from the chamber.
In total, censured officials include 12 Democrats, 11 Republicans, and seven members of other parties, with one Republican officeholder having been censured twice. Eight of the 14 states where censures have occurred have had two or more legislators censured.
