2012 United States House of Representatives elections
The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 6, 2012. It coincided with the reelection of President Barack Obama. Elections were held for all 435 seats representing the 50 U.S. states and also for the delegates from the District of Columbia and five major U.S. territories. The winners of this election cycle served in the 113th United States Congress. This was the first congressional election using districts drawn up based on the 2010 United States census.
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All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 52.0% 11.1 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results: Democratic hold Democratic gain Republican hold Republican gain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Although Democratic candidates received a nationwide plurality of more than 1.4 million votes (1.1%) in the aggregated vote totals from all House elections, the Republican Party won a 33-seat advantage in seats, thus retaining its House majority by 17 seats. Democrats picked up 27 previously Republican-held seats, but most of these gains were canceled out due to Republican pick-ups of Democratic-held seats, and reapportionment gains that benefited Republicans, leaving the Democrats with a net gain of just eight seats.
This disparity – common in close elections involving single-member district voting – has sometimes been attributed to targeted Republican gerrymandering in the congressional redistricting process following the 2010 United States Census. "Unintentional gerrymandering," --the high concentration of Democrats in urban centers--leading to "wasted votes" in districts that easily elected Democratic candidates, has also been cited as causing some of the efficiency gap. The GOP also benefited from having a greater number of incumbents, who tend to have an advantage in elections which may have helped Republicans win close elections for individual seats.
In the 20th century, the party with a plurality of the popular vote was unable to receive a majority in the House on four occasions- 1952 and 1996, in which the Republicans held a majority in the House. Meanwhile, the 1914 and 1942 elections were the last time that the Democrats won a majority in the House without winning the popular vote.
As of 2023, this is the last congressional election in which the Democrats won a House seat in West Virginia.