2006 United States House of Representatives elections

The 2006 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7, 2006, to elect members to the United States House of Representatives. It took place in the middle of President George W. Bush's second term in office. All 435 seats of the House were up for election. Those elected served in the 110th United States Congress from January 3, 2007, until January 3, 2009. The incumbent majority party, the Republicans, had won majorities in the House consecutively since 1994, and were defeated by the Democrats who won a majority in the chamber, ending 12 years of Republican control in the House.

2006 United States House of Representatives elections

November 7, 2006

All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives
218 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Nancy Pelosi Dennis Hastert
(resigned as leader)
Party Democratic Republican
Leader since January 3, 2003 January 3, 1999
Leader's seat California 8th Illinois 14th
Last election 202 seats, 46.8% 232 seats, 49.4%
Seats before 201 229
Seats won 233 202
Seat change 31 30
Popular vote 42,338,795 35,857,334
Percentage 52.3% 44.3%
Swing 5.5% 5.1%

  Third party
 
Party Independent
Last election 1
Seats won 0
Seat change 1
Popular vote 417,895
Percentage 0.5%
Swing 0.1%

Results:
     Democratic hold      Democratic gain
     Republican hold

Speaker before election

Dennis Hastert
Republican

Elected Speaker

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic

The Republicans had won a 232-seat majority in 2004, but by the time of the 2006 election, they held 229 seats, while the Democrats held 201, plus 1 Independent (Bernie Sanders) who caucused with the Democrats. There were also four vacancies. Democrats needed to pick up 15 seats to take control of the House, which had been in Republican control since January 1995. Along with the historical "sixth-year itch" that has plagued many incumbent presidents in midterm elections, the public's perception of George W. Bush, the handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a series of political scandals involving mostly congressional Republicans took their toll on the party at the ballot box.

The final result was a 31-seat pickup for the Democrats, including the pickup of the Vermont at-large seat, previously held by Independent Bernie Sanders (who ran instead for U.S. Senate), who caucused with the Democrats. Democrats defeated 22 Republican incumbents and won eight open Republican-held seats. For the first time since the party's founding, Republicans won no seats previously held by Democrats and defeated no Democratic incumbents. It was the largest seat gain for the Democrats since the 1974 elections. Among the new Democrats were the first Muslim in Congress (Keith Ellison) and the first two Buddhists (Mazie Hirono and Hank Johnson). As a result of the Democratic victory, Nancy Pelosi became the first female and the first Californian House Speaker.

This is to date the only House election cycle where only one party flipped any seats, and is the last time Republicans won a house race in Connecticut or more than one house seat in New Mexico. This is also the last time Democrats won more than one house seat in either Louisiana and/or Kansas.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.