1978 United States elections

none February 2026 January 2025 1978 Midterm elections November 7 Democratic Party (US)Jimmy Carter (D) 96th 35 of 100 seats(33 seats of Class 2 + 2 special elections) Democratic hold Republican +3Republicans picked up two seats in the regularly-scheduled elections and picked up another seat in a special election. 1978 Senate election results #0671B0 Democratic gain #92C5DE Democratic hold#CA0120 Republican gain #F48882 Republican hold All 435 voting seats Democratic hold Democratic +8.9% Republican +15 400px 1978 House of Representatives election results #0671B0 Democratic gain #92C5DE Democratic hold#CA0120 Republican gain #F48882 Republican hold 38 (36 states, 2 territories) Republican +6 1978 gubernatorial election resultsTerritorial races not shown #0671B0 Democratic gain #92C5DE Democratic hold#CA0120 Republican gain #F48882 Republican hold Elections were held on November 7, 1978, to elect the members of the 96th United States Congress. The election occurred in the middle of Democratic President Jimmy Carter's term. Democrats retained control of both houses of Congress. But it appeared so that they were short in time. The Democrats lost three seats in the United States Senate to the Republicans. Democrats won the nationwide popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 8.9 percentage points, but lost fifteen seats to Republicans.Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 1978 http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1978election.pdf U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk 26 December 2011 The elections represent the most recent instance in which the president's party retained control of both houses of Congress in a midterm election, although the 2002 elections saw Republicans retain the House and win control of the Senate. In the gubernatorial elections, Republicans picked up six seats. Among the newly elected governors was future president Bill Clinton from Arkansas. Clinton's eventual successor as president, George W. Bush, ran as the Republican nominee in Texas's 19th congressional district but was defeated by Democrat Kent Hance, while future president Joe Biden was elected to his second term as senator from Delaware. Also , Georgia's 6th congressional district was flipped from Democratic to Republican by future House Speaker and one-time presidential candidate, Republican Newt Gingrich. Though Republicans' gains were relatively modest for a midterm election, the election set the stage for the Reagan Revolution. Many of the newly elected members of Congress were more conservative than their predecessors, and most supported tax cuts that would eventually be implemented in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. The election also ended the possibility of a ratification of the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union. Carter's move to the center after this election encouraged a 1980 Democratic primary challenge by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.Busch Andrew Horses in Midstream 1999 University of Pittsburgh Press 106–110 See also 1978 United States House of Representatives elections 1978 United States Senate elections 1978 United States gubernatorial elections References 1978 Category:United States midterm elections Category:November 1978 in the United States