1990 United States elections

← 1988          1989          1990          1991          1992 → Midterm elections
Election day	November 6
Incumbent president	George H. W. Bush (Republican)
Next Congress	102nd
Senate elections
Overall control	Democratic hold
Seats contested	35 of 100 seats (33 seats of Class 2 + 2 special elections)
Net seat change	Democratic +1
1990 Senate election results   Democratic gain   Democratic hold   Republican hold
House elections
Overall control	Democratic hold
Seats contested	All 435 voting seats
Popular vote margin	Democratic +7.8%
Net seat change	Democratic +7
1990 House of Representatives election results   Democratic gain   Democratic hold   Republican gain   Republican hold   Independent gain
Gubernatorial elections
Seats contested	38 (36 states, 2 territories)
Net seat change	Alaskan Independence +1, A Connecticut Party +1
1990 gubernatorial election results   Democratic gain   Democratic hold   Republican gain   Republican hold   Alaskan Independence gain   A Connecticut Party gain

The 1990 United States elections were held on November 6 and elected the members of the 102nd United States Congress. The elections occurred in the middle of Republican President George H. W. Bush's term and during the Gulf War. The Democratic Party slightly built on their control of Congress.

The Democratic Party built on its majorities in both chambers of Congress. They picked up a net of one seat in the Senate.^[1] Democrats won the nationwide popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 7.8 percentage points, picking up a net of seven seats. In the gubernatorial elections, both parties lost a net of one seat to third parties.

Federal elections

Senate elections

The 1990 Senate elections featured the smallest number of seats changing parties in US history since the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913 with only one seat changing parties. That election featured Democrat Paul Wellstone defeating incumbent Republican Rudy Boschwitz in Minnesota.

House of Representatives elections

Democrats won the nationwide popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 7.8 percentage points, picking up a net of seven seats.^[2]

State elections

Heading into the elections, there were 20 seats held by Democrats and 16 held by Republicans. By the end of the elections, 19 seats would be held by a Democrat, 15 would be held by a Republican, and two would be held by other parties.

Notably in these elections, there were two people elected from a third party: a former Alaskan governor and Secretary of the Interior, Joseph Hickel, was elected governor as a part of the Alaskan Independence Party, and former U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut won on A Connecticut Party's ticket. In addition to Weicker, two other U.S. senators were elected governors that year: Republican Pete Wilson of California and Democrat Lawton Chiles of Florida. The 1990 cycle saw six incumbent governors defeated. These were Republicans Mike Hayden of Kansas, Kay Orr of Nebraska, Bob Martinez of Florida and Edward DiPrete of Rhode Island, as well as Democrats James Blanchard of Michigan and Rudy Perpich of Minnesota.