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The 1996 United States House of Representatives elections were held for the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
on November 5, 1996, to elect members to serve in the 105th United States Congress. They coincided with the re-election of President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
. Democrats won the popular vote by almost 60,000 votes (0.07%) and gained a net of two seats from the Republicans, but the Republicans retained an overall majority of seats in the House for the first time since 1928. Although the Republicans lost three seats, one of them included an independent who would caucus with them and switch to the Republicans, resulting in a nine-seat Republican majority. A total of 12 freshman Republicans who were elected in the 1994 Republican Revolution were defeated in the election, while at least 36 were re-elected. The election was the fourth and final time in the 20th century in which either party won the House majority without winning the popular vote, with the previous three instances occurring in 1914,
1942 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...
, and 1952. In terms of the total vote, the 1996 result remains one of the closest in U.S. history. This remains the last election in which Republicans won a majority of seats in the New Jersey delegation, and it was also the first election since 1872 in which Republicans won a majority of seats in Mississippi's delegation.


Special elections


Results summary

Source
Election Statistics – Office of the Clerk


Retiring incumbents

50 incumbents retired: 29 Democrats and 21 Republicans, giving the Republicans a net gain of six seats from the Democrats.


Democrats


Democratic hold

# : Blanche Lincoln # : Ray Thornton # : Anthony Beilenson # : Pat Schroeder # : Pete Peterson # : Sam Gibbons # : Harry Johnston # : Cardiss Collins # : Andrew Jacobs Jr. # : Gerry Studds # : Robert Torricelli, to run for U.S. senator # : Charlie Rose # : Jack Reed, to run for U.S. senator # : Harold Ford Sr. # : Jim Chapman, to run for U.S. senator # : Charlie Wilson # : Kika de la Garza # : Ronald D. Coleman # : Lewis F. Payne Jr.


Republican gain

# : Glen Browder, to run for U.S. senator # : Tom Bevill # :
Dick Durbin Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Dem ...
, to run for U.S. senator # : Cleo Fields # : Sonny Montgomery # : Pat Williams # : William K. Brewster # : Tim Johnson, to run for U.S. senator # : John Bryant, to run for U.S. senator # : Pete Geren


Republicans


Republican hold

# : Tim Hutchinson, to run for U.S. senator # : Carlos Moorhead # : Wayne Allard, to run for U.S. senator # : John Myers # : Pat Roberts, to run for U.S. senator # :
Sam Brownback Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011 and as the List of governors of Kansas, 46th governor of K ...
, to run for U.S. senator # : Jan Meyers # : Mel Hancock # : Barbara Vucanovich # : Bill Zeliff, to run for governor # : Dick Zimmer, to run for U.S. senator # : Wes Cooley # : Bill Clinger # : Robert Smith Walker # : Jimmy Quillen # : Jack Fields # : Enid Greene


Democratic gain

# : Jim Ross Lightfoot, to run for U.S. senator # : Jimmy Hayes, to run for U.S. senator # : Steve Gunderson # : Toby Roth


Incumbents defeated


In primary elections


Democrats

# : Barbara-Rose Collins lost to Carolyn Kilpatrick, who later won the general election.


Republicans

# : Greg Laughlin lost to Ron Paul, who later won the general election.


In the general elections

21 seats switched parties in the November elections, giving the Democrats a net gain of 15 seats from the Republicans.


Democrats who lost to Republicans

# : Mike Ward lost to Anne Northup. # : Harold Volkmer lost to Kenny Hulshof. # : Bill Orton lost to Chris Cannon.


Republicans who lost to Democrats

# : William P. Baker lost to Ellen Tauscher. # : Andrea Seastrand lost to Walter Capps. # : Bob Dornan lost to Loretta Sanchez. # : Gary Franks lost to James H. Maloney. # : Michael Patrick Flanagan lost to Rod Blagojevich. # : James B. Longley Jr. lost to Tom Allen. # : Peter I. Blute lost to Jim McGovern. # : Peter G. Torkildsen lost to John F. Tierney. # : Dick Chrysler lost to Debbie Stabenow. # : William J. Martini lost to Bill Pascrell. # : Dan Frisa lost to Carolyn McCarthy. # : David Funderburk lost to Bob Etheridge. # : Fred Heineman lost to David Price in a rematch of the 1994 election. # : Frank Cremeans lost to Ted Strickland. # : Martin Hoke lost to Dennis Kucinich. # : Jim Bunn lost to Darlene Hooley. # : Steve Stockman lost to Nick Lampson. # : Randy Tate lost to
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...
.


Closest races

Eighty races were decided by 10% or lower.


Alabama


Alaska


Arizona


Arkansas


California


Colorado


Connecticut


Delaware


Florida


Georgia


Hawaii


Idaho


Illinois


Indiana


Iowa


Kansas


Kentucky


Louisiana


Maine


Maryland


Massachusetts


Michigan


Minnesota


Mississippi

With Republican Chip Pickering flipping the Democratic-held 3rd district, the Republican Party gained a majority in the state's U.S. House delegation for the first time since Reconstruction. This would not occur again until
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
.


Missouri

*Jo Ann Emerson was elected as a Republican in a special to serve the remaining months of the term and was elected as an Independent caucusing with Republicans due to Missouri state law. She later switched to the Republican Party a few days after the start of the new Congress.


Montana


Nebraska


Nevada


New Hampshire


New Jersey


New Mexico


New York


North Carolina


North Dakota


Ohio


Oklahoma


Oregon


Pennsylvania


Rhode Island


South Carolina


South Dakota


Tennessee


Texas


Utah


Vermont


Virginia


Washington

, these were the last elections in which the Republican Party won a majority of congressional districts from Washington.


West Virginia


Wisconsin


Wyoming


See also

* 104th United States Congress * 105th United States Congress


Notes


References

{{United States House of Representatives elections Presidency of Bill Clinton John Boehner Sherrod Brown John Conyers Barney Frank John Dingell Dennis Hastert Ed Markey Chuck Schumer John Thune