United States House Of Representatives Elections 2020
| U.S. Senate Elections |
| U.S. House Elections by State |
| U.S. House Republican Party primaries, 2020 |
Democrats maintained a majority in the U.S. House as a result of the 2020 elections, winning 222 seats to Republicans’ 213. Democrats flipped three seats and Republicans flipped 15, including one held by a Libertarian in 2020.
Heading into the November 3, 2020, election, Democrats held a 232-197 advantage in the U.S. House. Libertarians held one seat, and five seats were vacant. All 435 seats were up for election, with Republicans needing to gain a net 21 seats to win a majority in the chamber.
In 2018, Democrats gained a net 40 seats to win a majority. Republicans had held a majority in the chamber since 2010.
Ballotpedia tracked 41 districts as battleground races: 20 held by Democrats heading into the election, 20 held by Republicans, and one held by a Libertarian. Democrats defended 30 seats that President Trump carried in 2016, while Republicans defended five seats that Hillary Clinton carried that year.
In 2020, 49 U.S. House seats were open, meaning the incumbent was not running for re-election. Thirty-six of those seats were open because the incumbent did not run for re-election, eight were open because the incumbent was defeated in a primary or party convention, and five were open due to a vacancy.
On this page, you will find:
- The number of filed candidates by political party
- A list of districts that changed party hands in 2018
- Information on historical wave elections
Personnel Mail And Office Expenses
House members are eligible for a Member’s Representational Allowance to support them in their official and representational duties to their district. The MRA is calculated based on three components: one for personnel, one for official office expenses and one for official or franked mail. The personnel allowance is the same for all members; the office and mail allowances vary based on the members’ district’s distance from Washington, D.C., the cost of office space in the member’s district, and the number of non-business addresses in their district. These three components are used to calculate a single MRA that can fund any expenseâeven though each component is calculated individually, the franking allowance can be used to pay for personnel expenses if the member so chooses. In 2011 this allowance averaged $1.4Â million per member, and ranged from $1.35 to $1.67Â million.
The Personnel allowance was $944,671 per member in 2010. Each member may employ no more than 18 permanent employees. Members’ employees’ salary is capped at $168,411 as of 2009.
Party Divisions Of United States Congresses
Party divisions of United States Congresses have played a central role in the organization and operations of both chambers of the United States Congressthe Senate and the House of Representativessince its establishment as the bicameral legislature of the Federal government of the United States in 1789. Political parties had not been anticipated when the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, nor did they exist at the time the first Senate elections and House elections occurred in 1788 and 1789. Organized political parties developed in the U.S. in the 1790s, but political factionsfrom which organized parties evolvedbegan to appear almost immediately after the 1st Congress convened. Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as “pro-administration” and would eventually form the Federalist Party, while those in opposition joined the emerging Democratic-Republican Party.
Why Did House Democrats Underperform Compared To Joe Biden
The results of the 2020 elections pose several puzzles, one of which is the gap between Joe Bidens handsome victory in the presidential race and the Democrats disappointing performance in the House of Representatives. Biden enjoyed an edge of 7.1 million votes over President Trump, while the Democrats suffered a loss of 13 seats in the House, reducing their margin from 36 to just 10.
Turnout in the 2018 mid-term election reached its highest level in more than a century. Democrats were fervently opposed to the Trump administration and turned out in droves. Compared to its performance in 2016, the partys total House vote fell by only 2%. Without Donald Trump at the head of the ticket, Republican voters were much less enthusiastic, and the total House vote for Republican candidates fell by nearly 20% from 2016. Democratic candidates received almost 10 million more votes than Republican candidates, a margin of 8.6%, the highest ever for a party that was previously in the minority. It was, in short, a spectacular year for House Democrats.
To understand the difference this Democratic disadvantage can make, compare the 2020 presidential and House results in five critical swing states.
Table 1: Presidential versus House results
| Arizona |
Incumbents Defeated In Primary Elections
The following table lists incumbents defeated in 2020 House primary elections or conventions.
| Incumbents defeated in primaries |
|---|
In the 2018 midterm elections, 378 U.S. House incumbents ran for re-election. This was the lowest number of U.S. House incumbents seeking re-election since 1992.
Thirty-four incumbentsâ9 percentâlost their re-election bids. That included two Democrats and 32 Republicans. This was the highest percentage of incumbents defeated since 2012, when 10.2 percent were not re-elected.
The following data for congressional re-election rates from 2000 to 2016 was reported in Vital Statistics, a joint research project of the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. Find the original datasets and methodology here. Data for the 2018 election came from Ballotpedia.
| Defeated U.S. House incumbents by party, 2000-2018 |
|---|
| Year |
| U.S. House incumbents retired, defeated, or reelected, 2000-2018 | |
|---|---|
| Year | Percentage of those seeking reelection |
| 2018 | |
| 97.8 |
Democrats Control The Us House Of Representatives And The Senate Is Republican
2018-11-07T22:08:27.900Z
Members of the Democratic Party in the United States managed to gain control of the House of Representatives during the midterm congressional elections, which took place yesterday, and the majority of Republican Party members, Donald Trump, in the Senate.
Members of the Democratic Party in the United States managed to gain control of the House of Representatives during the midterm congressional elections, and the majority of Republican Party members, Donald Trump, increased in the Senate.
The midterm elections came two years after Trump won the presidency, and the benchmarks showed Democrats winning more than 30 seats, well over the 23 seats they need to win their first 435-seat majority in the House of Representatives in eight years.
Over the past 20 years, the United States has seen only three elections in which one party won 24 seats.
Democrats won at least five US governors yesterday, but lost in two major races in Florida and Ohio, with voters voting in 36 election races for state governors.
During the midterm elections, the US Democratic Party won the California governor’s most populous state, with the vice governor of the state on the west coast of the United States, Gavin Neussem, beating Republican rival John Cox.
Women won 10 seats in the Senate and were appointed governors of nine states. Of the 112 women elected, 95 were Democrats and 17 Republicans.
– Democrats win five governorships and keep California.
Democrats Keep House Majority But ‘republicans Defied The Odds’
The Democrats could wind up with the slimmest House majority in 20 years.
Nancy Pelosi praises Democrats for retaining the House majority
The Democrats will keep their majority in the House of Representatives, but after all the votes are counted, they could wind up with the slimmest House majority in 20 years.
The Democrats gained a majority in the House following the 2018 election in which they won 41 seats. This was the largest gain for the political party since the 1974 election, in which they gained 49.
Some of the popular freshman Democrats who came into office in 2018, including New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, have been elected for a second term.
But Republicans appear set to make some gains, winning nearly every tossup and picking up at least six seats based on calls of races by The Associated Press.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted Wednesday morning, “Republicans defied the odds and grew our party last night.”
He also tweeted to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “You’ve been put on notice.”
Among the Republican victories is Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District after publicly supporting the fringe conspiracy theory known as QAnon.
In videos unearthed by POLITICO, Greene is also heard spouting racist, Islamophobic and sexist views.
President Donald Trump has fully embraced Greene, calling her a “future Republican star” after she won her primary.
Democrats Take Control Of House But Republicans Tighten Grip On Senate
Control of lower chamber of Congress will allow Democrats to block much of Trumps agenda and investigate his administration
Democrats have regained control of the House of Representatives, a momentous win in the midterm elections that will enable the party to block much of Donald Trumps agenda and bombard the president with investigations.
As results came in from across the country overnight, the midterms were a tale of two chambers: the Democrats won key House congressional races while Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate.
The election served as a referendum on Trumps America, and whether Republicans should remain in absolute power in Washington.
Democrats needed to flip 23 seats to take control of the House of Representatives, and early on Wednesday morning hit the 218 needed to win back the chamber from Republicans, breaking one-party rule in Congress after eight years.
Speaking in Washington, the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said the party would use its newly won majority to pursue a bipartisan agenda for a country. Pelosi said Americans have all had enough of division.
Thanks to you tomorrow will be a new day in America, she said.
Earlier in the evening, the White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, sought to downplay Democratic gains, saying: Maybe you get a ripple, but I certainly dont think that theres a blue wave.
And despite the losses, Trump in a tweet early on Wednesday called the midterm results a Big Victory.
With Control Of White House And Congress Democrats Have 2 Years To Make Big Changes
Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can to view it offline.
U.S. Democrats secured unified control of the White House and Congress on Wednesday with the inauguration of President Joe Biden followed by Vice President Kamala Harris swearing in three new Democratic senators.
The three new senators bring the U.S. Senate to a 50-50 Democratic-Republican tie, with Harris as the presiding officer representing the tie-breaking vote.
With the U.S. House continuing under the leadership of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden begins his term with the opportunity to work with the two Democrat-controlled chambers to enact significant legislative changes.
As a result of the shifting political power on Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has succeeded Republican Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader. The Kentucky senator, who served in the top leadership post for six years, was highly skilled at blocking Democratic legislation, as well as advancing former President Donald Trump’s judicial and administration nominees through the confirmation process.
Schumer acknowledged some of those challenges Wednesday in his first speech as majority leader.
“This Senate will tackle the perils of the moment: a once-in-a-generation health and economic crisis. And it will strive to make progress on generations-long struggle for racial justice, economic justice, equality of opportunity and equality under the law,” Schumer said.
I Dont Buy That The 2020 Census Is Good News For Democrats: Nate Silver
Its hard to overstate the impact redistricting might have on Democrats deciding to leave the House. Overall, Republicans will draw lines for about 2.5 times as many seats as Democrats. Republicans will draw the lines in four of the eight Democratic open seats, and in six of the eight Republican open seats. This means that four Democratic representatives Ryan and Vela as well as Floridas Charlie Crist and Val Demings wont be defending seats next year in states where Republicans control redistricting. And outside of Demings, who has launched a Senate campaign to challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, the other three represent competitive districts that could become more GOP-leaning. Conversely, Democrats will draw lines for only two of the GOP-held seats those of New York Reps. Lee Zeldin and Reed as well as retiring Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustoss district in Illinois. That could enable Democrats to pick up Zeldins district Reeds district is more likely to become a GOP vote sink and also maybe protect Bustoss seat, but they simply have fewer opportunities to redraw districts in their favor than the GOP.
Comparison To The Senate
As a check on the regional, popular, and rapidly changing politics of the House, the Senate has several distinct powers. For example, the “advice and consent” powers are a sole Senate privilege. The House, however, has the exclusive power to initiate bills for raising revenue, to impeach officials, and to choose the president if a presidential candidate fails to get a majority of the Electoral College votes. The Senate and House are further differentiated by term lengths and the number of districts represented: the Senate has longer terms of six years, fewer members , and larger constituencies per member. The Senate is referred to as the “upper” house, and the House of Representatives as the “lower” house.
How Did State Populations Change From 2010 To 2020
The U.S. population has increased by 7.4% since the last Census, to a total of 331,449,281 people.
California is the most populous state with 39,538,223 people, while Wyoming is the smallest state at 576,851 people.
Utah was the state with the fastest growing population over the last decade, increasing by 18.4%, while West Virginia had the most population loss, dipping 3.2%.
Filed Candidates By Political Party
As of September 7, 2020, there were 3,263 candidates filed with the FEC to run for U.S. House in 2020. Of those, 2,767â1,291 Democrats and 1,476 Republicansâwere from one of the two major political parties. In 2018, 3,244 candidates filed with the FEC, including 1,566 Democrats and 1,155 Republicans.
The following chart shows the number of filed candidates by political party.
Election Splits Congress Gop Bolstered As Democrats Falter
WASHINGTON The election scrambled seats in the House and Senate but ultimately left Congress much like it began, deeply split as voters resisted big changes despite the heated race at the top of the ticket for the White House.
Its an outcome that dampens Democratic demands for a bold new agenda, emboldens Republicans and almost ensures partisan gridlock regardless of who wins the presidency. Or perhaps, as some say, it provides a rare opening for modest across-the-aisle cooperation.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on track to keep control of the Democratic House, but saw her majority shrinking and her leadership called into question. Control of the Senate tilted Republicans way as they fended off an onslaught of energized challengers, though a few races remained undecided Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday hes confident no matter who ends up running the government theyll be trying to overcome all that and get results.
One certainty is the upended projections will force a rethinking of polling, fundraising and the very messages the parties use to reach voters in the Trump era and beyond.
But the dismal outcome for congressional Democrats put in question the ambitious plans for legislative overhauls pushed by the party, eager for a sweep of Washington government.
McConnell also warned of the continued problems Republicans face in the Trump era as voters turn away from the GOP.
___
How Redrawn Districts Could Impact Control Of The House In 2023
Following last weeks elections, Democrats will retain control the House of Representatives. At the same time, their margin will be considerably smaller than it was in the preceding Congress. Republicans will likely hold between 208 and 212 House seats, placing them within shouting distance of the majority in the next election.
This is first in a two-part examination of the relationship between redistricting/reapportionment and the Congress that will take office in January 2023. It concludes that without any extreme gerrymandering, reapportionment and redistricting alone will likely cost Democrats their majority, even before taking into account the national mood or the general tendency toward midterm losses for the party holding the presidency. Of course, litigation may change the calculus, but absent court losses in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, Republicans would likely control the House in the 118th Congress elected in 2022. For our purposes here, however, we will assume that there will be no sea changes in voting laws.
Ill proceed state-by-state and keep a running tally of the effects of a normal partisan redraw and reapportionment. Because a seat eliminated in reapportionment does not automatically translate to a gained seat for another party, the numbers wont necessarily add up until the end. Well skip single-member states.
Arkansas: Republicans might shore up the increasingly competitive 2nd District, but no net partisan change here.
What Is The New Balance Of Power In The House
House Democrats held onto their majority but lost seats to Republican challengers.
More than a dozen incumbent Democrats lost re-election bids, despite earlier projections they could gain up to 15 seats.
Democrats took the chamber after they netted 41 seats in the 2018 midterm elections, their largest single-year pickup since the post-Watergate midterms of 1974. But some of those new Democrats were among the partys losers in 2020.
Incumbents Who Sought Other Offices
U.S. House members who ran for President
- 1 Democratic member of the U.S. House
| Running for president, 2020 |
|---|
U.S. House members who sought a seat in the U.S. Senate
- 2 Democratic members of the U.S. House
- 3 Republican members of the U.S. House
| Running for Senate, 2020 |
|---|
U.S. House members who ran for governor
- 1 Republican member of the U.S. House
| Running for governor, 2020 |
|---|
U.S. House members who ran for another office
- 2 Republican members of the U.S. House
- 1 Democratic member of the U.S. House
| Running for another office, 2020 |
|---|
| Name |
| No |
The Number Of People Each House Member Represents Will Change
The number of residents represented by each House member will mostly grow in 2022, though it will decrease per representative in some states.
Since Montana gained a representative, its two House members will now split the state’s population currently represented by Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican. The addition of another House seat means Montana’s House members will represent the least amount of people compared to House members in other states.
Delaware’s sole House district, currently held by Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, will be the largest in terms of population.
What Was The Outlook Prior To The Election
Republicans needed to get to 218 seats to win back the majority they lost in 2018. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, in early 2019 identified dozens of Democratic-held districts to target. They included 30 Democrats who were elected or re-elected in 2018 in districts that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. All but one Dave Loebsack of Iowa sought re-election. Most were first-term members who defeated or succeeded Republicans in the 2018 election. Republicans won some of these Trump Democrat districts but needed to unseat most to win back control of the House.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, identified more than 40 Frontline Democrats it expected to have very competitive re-election campaigns. Many of these members represented suburban districts that have diversified their populations in recent years. In most of these districts, Democrats were running for re-election for the first time. The Frontline Democrats amassed large campaign funds.
Democrats also identified more than three dozen Republican-held districts they intended to target, including seven in Texas.
Democrats also made a play for the suburban Texas districts of retiring Republican Reps. Pete Olson of the 22nd District and Kenny Marchant of the 24th District. They lost the 22nd District, but the 24th is currently too close to call, with Republican Beth Van Duyne leading.
Important Dates And Deadlines
The table below lists filing deadlines and primary dates in each state for Democratic Party and Republican Party candidates for congressional and state-level office.
| Primary dates and filing deadlines, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Filing deadline for primary candidates | Primary date |
| 04/21/2020 & 05/08/2020 | 08/04/2020 | |
| 04/24/2020 & 6/12/2020 | ||
| 05/05/2020 & 06/02/2020 | 09/01/2020 | |
| 06/24/2020 07/10/2020 |
The embedded spreadsheet below details filing requirements for major-party and unaffiliated congressional candidates in 2020.
Districts That Flipped In 2018
The map below highlights congressional districts that changed party control in the general elections on November 6, 2018.
The following table lists congressional districts that changed party control in the general elections on November 6, 2018. It also includes 2020 general election race ratings from three outlets.
| Flipped congressional districts, 2018 |
|---|
| Kim Schrier |
Democrats Distance Themselves From Joe Biden As Anger Mounts In Wake Of Kabul Bombings
Referring to the sharing of intelligence with the Taliban, Republican senator Marco Rubio said: The president basically provided the Taliban with a user friendly kill list.
Republicans have requested that documents relating to decisions on the Afghanistan withdrawal be preserved, suggesting a potential future inquiry.
Mr Trump said: We look like fools all over the world, we are weak, we are pathetic, we are being led by people that have no idea what they are doing.
The day after the bombing Mr Biden met in the Oval Office with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Mr Biden said the mission in Afghanistan was dangerous but worthy. He added: We will complete the mission.
The two leaders also discussed the threat from Iran and reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Mr Biden’s standing with independent voters, who were key to his victory in 2020, had plummeted by 14 percentage points since June.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told The Telegraph: Republicans can use this to stir up their base.
But he added: This is foreign policy and it’s over a year to the midterm elections.
Meanwhile, a Democrat congressman, who made a controversial secret trip to Kabul, was also highly critical of the president.
Seth Moulton, a former US Marine, told New York magazine that the situation at the airport was disastrous.
The House’s Balance Of Power Is Tipped Toward Democrats
The Democrats have a narrow six-member margin in the current House of Representatives, meaning if just a handful of seats flip, Republicans can regain control of the House.
Democrats’ advantage will grow to seven when Troy Carter is sworn in to fill a seat in Louisiana’s delegation left vacant by Cedric Richmond, who left the House to join the Biden administration as the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Historical Special Election Data
Special elections, 2013-2020
Fifty special elections to the United States Congress were held during the 113th through 116th Congresses. During that time, special elections were called for 16 seats vacated by Democrats and 34 vacated by Republicans.
The table below details how many congressional seats changed parties as the result of a special election between 2013 and 2020. The numbers on the left side of the table reflect how many vacant seats were originally held by each party, while the numbers on the right side of the table show how many vacant seats each party won in special elections.
| Congressional special election vacancies and results, 113th Congress to 116th Congress |
|---|
| Congress |
| U.S. Senate special election partisan change from special elections, 113th Congress to 116th Congress |
|---|
| Party |
| U.S. House special election partisan change from special elections, 113th Congress to 116th Congress | |
|---|---|
| Party | |
| 40 | 40 |
| To see a list of all the Congressional special elections referenced in the table above, click at the right. | Â |
|---|---|
| Results of special elections to the 113th, 114th, and 115th Congress | |
| Race | |
| R+13 |
Special elections, 1986-2012
| Results of special elections to Congress | ||
|---|---|---|
| Election cycle | ||
| 3 | 5 | |
| 3 | 2 | |
| 3 | None | |
| 21 | 19 | 9 |
