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All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives[a] 218 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 50.3%[1]  4.4 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results: Democratic hold Democratic gain Republican hold Republican gain Result voided and sent to special election[e] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 6, 2018, as part of the 2018 midterm elections during President Donald Trump's term, with early voting taking place in some states in the weeks preceding that date. Voters chose representatives from all 435 congressional districts across each of the 50 U.S. states to serve in the 116th United States Congress. Non-voting delegates from the District of Columbia and four of the five inhabited U.S. territories[f] were also elected. On Election Day, Republicans had held a House majority since January 2011.[4]
In the 2018 elections, the Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, won control of the House. The Democrats gained a net total of 41 seats from the total number of seats they had won in the 2016 elections. The 41-seat gain was the Democrats' largest gain of House seats since the post-Watergate 1974 elections, when they picked up 49 seats. This was the first time since 1954 that Democrats flipped a chamber of Congress in a Republican president's first midterm. Democrats also won the popular vote by an 8.6% margin, the largest margin of victory for any party during a midterm election since 1986.
Upon the opening of the 116th Congress, Pelosi was elected as Speaker of the House.[5] Incumbent Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan chose not to run for another term.[6] In November 2018, House Republicans elected Kevin McCarthy as House Minority Leader.[7]
The House Republicans' passage of the widely unpopular American Health Care Act of 2017 to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as well as opposition to Trump's policies, his poor approval ratings, and questions about his personal stamina for office, are credited for the Democratic takeover of the House.
As of 2024, this is the last time Democrats made net gains in the House. This also marks the last time Democrats won any house seats in Oklahoma and Utah, the last time they won a majority of seats in Iowa and Minnesota, and the last time they won every seat based in New York City, Los Angeles County, or Orange County, California.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
2018 voter turnoutwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Leamon, Eileen J.; Bucelato, Jason, eds. (December 2017). Federal Elections 2016: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Federal Election Commission.
- ^ a b Johnson, Cheryl L. (February 28, 2019). "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 2018". Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
- ^ "What happens now that Democrats will retake the House". NBC News. November 7, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ Fuller, Matt (January 3, 2019). "Nancy Pelosi Elected Speaker Of The House". HuffPost. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ Fox, Lauren; Walsh, Deirdre; Vazquez, Maegan (April 11, 2018). "House Speaker Paul Ryan won't seek re-election: 'I like to think I've done my part'". CNN. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ "Kevin McCarthy elected minority leader for next Congress". USA Today. Retrieved February 27, 2019.