Republicans regained control of the U.S. House they had lost in the 2006 midterm election, picking up a net total of 63 seats and erasing the gains Democrats made in 2006 and 2008. Although the sitting President's party usually loses seats in a midterm election, the 2010 election resulted in the highest losses by a party in a House midterm election since 1938,[6][7] as well as the largest House swing since 1948.[8] In total, 52 House Democrats were defeated, including 34 freshman and sophomore representatives.
Republicans made their largest gain in House seats since 1938.[9] Three Democratic committee chairmen were defeated: transportation chairman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, armed services chairman Ike Skelton of Missouri, and budget chairman John Spratt of South Carolina. Democrats made three pick-ups, winning an open seat in Delaware and defeating Republican incumbents in Hawaii and Louisiana.
As of 2023, this is the last election in which Democrats won a seat in Arkansas.
Background
An anti-Pelosi "Boehner for Speaker" bumper sticker on a car window.
Following the 2006 elections, Democrats took control of the House as well as the Senate. In the 2008 elections, which coincided with Democrat Barack Obama's victory over Republican John McCain for the presidency, Democrats increased their majorities in both chambers. Of the 435 congressional districts, 242 were carried by Obama, while 193 voted for McCain. Of the districts Obama won, 34 elected a Republican to the House, while 49 of the districts McCain won elected a Democrat.[13]
Republican gains
The Republicans' 63-seat pickup in the House to take control of that chamber, as well as their gain of six Senate seats, signified a dramatic rollback of recent Democratic gains. In the election, Republicans won their greatest number of House seats since 1946.[14] This has been attributed to the continued economic recession, as well as President Obama's controversial stimulus and health care reform bills. Republicans also took control of 29 of the 50 state governorships and gained 690 seats in state legislatures, to hold their greatest number since the 1928 elections.[15]
Republicans also made historic gains in state legislatures, adding more than 675 state legislative seats, by far surpassing their state-legislative gains in 1994.[16][17] Republicans gained control of dozens of state legislative chambers,[16] and took control of "seven more legislatures outright than they did after 1994 and the most since 1952."[17] Republicans picked up control of the Alabama Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction; control of the North Carolina Senate for the first time since 1870; and control of the Minnesota Senate for the first time since the state returned to partisan elections in 1974.[16][17]
The Great Lakes region, which until then had recently favored the Democratic Party, went strongly Republican. In California and the Pacific Northwest, however, the Democrats retained the upper hand.[18] The biggest change in 2010 occurred in the Southeastern United States, which had previously been roughly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans for everything except for president. Just one white Democrat from the Deep South won reelection to the US House in 2010. Prior to 2010, many white conservative southerners had voted Republican for president, but Democratic for other offices.[19]
Wisconsin 7: Dave Obey: Retired; "But even more frankly, I am bone tired."[36] Media reports indicated Obey's future plans included joining a DC lobbying firm run by former Representative Dick Gephardt.[37]
54 incumbents lost in the general election; all but two were Democrats. Many of the Democrats who lost had been initially elected in the Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, and several others were longtime incumbents from the southeast.[55]
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