There was a comment in the Arlington fracking fluid blowout thread that sardonically mentioned overthrowing the Texas state government in response to a recent rule preventing cities from banning fracking within their limits.
Gee if only you lived in a community of well-armed people who idealise the traditional American attitudes of self-determination and anti-tyranny. And if only there was some kind of amendment to a document you held dear that could guide you.
This got me thinking - has there been any instances in the United States history where a state government itself was overthrown outside of an election? In this case, I am referring to an armed militia (or something similar) showing up and replacing the current state government.
There has never been a successful overthrow of a US state government. Although you could count the 11 state governments that comprised the Confederate States of America. In addition one can argue that Lincoln's illegal suspension of habeas corpus and military martial law in Maryland as a coup of an elected state government. An unsuccessful coup in Tennessee during the Reconstruction era was the closest to a armed militia taking power but it was suppressed by State and Federal troops. All of those instances involved massive Federal troops. The states are not fully independent governments. They belong to the united national government. Any attempt to overthrow a legally elected government would result in State and Federal troops being deployed to crush anything of that nature. Also the other states in the Union would refuse to acknowledge any illegal state government so in effect that illegal government would automatically be in a state of war against the other states.
I can not speak on state governments being overthrown, but the local government of Wilmington, NC was pushed out of office by an armed mob in 1898.
The mob was angry over the election of Black and White Republican officials to the city council and mayor's office, and were motivated in part by news articles that claimed Black men were sexually assaulting White women in the city.
How widely are you defining "United States history"?
There were some examples in the Colonial period - the Dominion of New England was dissolved by Massachusetts militia imprisoning governor Edmund Andros in 1689 and seizing control of the colony - this was probably the most successful example, the dominion wasn't restored and Massachusetts leaders negotiated a new charter with the English. Jacob Leisler's followers dismissed Andros' lieutenant in New York, and he ruled the colony for two years until executed for treason.
Both of these events took place amidst the backdrop of the Glorious Revolution, and Puritans likewise seized control of Maryland for a few years from its proprietor after the Battle of the Severn amidst the English Civil War - colonial politicians in both these conflicts used English internal conflicts as a justification to get rid of authorities they opposed. There were also some unsuccessful risings, such as Bacon's Rebellion.
Since the establishment of the United States, state governments have been far more stable. Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising by residents of impoverished and neglected Western Massachusetts, was crushed in 1787. Dorr's Rebellion, an attempt to democratize Rhode Island by abolishing property qualifications and ending the underrepresentation of cities in the state legislature, saw rival governments of Rhode Island for a couple months, but the Dorrites fled before the state militia and Dorr was imprisoned for treason, then pardoned.
The strongest exception I can think of since the foundation of the US didn't abolish tyranny, but re-established it. The restoration of white democratic party rule during Reconstruction took place after "elections" and politicians took office on schedule, but these elections involved no shortage of paramilitaries, voter intimidation, and murder; they were counter-revolutions with a thin veneer of legality, even if the White League and Red Shirts didn't directly march into southern state capitals and make state legislatures resign.