United States House of Representatives elections, 1894

United States House of Representatives elections, 1894

November 6, 1894[Note 1]
All 356[Note 2] seats in the U.S. House of Representatives 179 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Thomas Brackett Reed Charles Frederick Crisp Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat Maine 1st Georgia 3rd Seats before 143 seats[Note 3] 220 seats[Note 4] Seats won 253[1][Note 5] 93[1][Note 5] Seat change 110 127   Third party Fourth party   Party Populist Silver Seats before 13 0 Seats won 9[1][Note 5] 1[1] Seat change 4 1
Speaker before election Charles Crisp Democratic Elected Speaker Thomas Reed Republican

Elections to the United States House of Representatives 1894 comprised a significant realigning election — a major Republican landslide that set the stage for the decisive election of 1896. The elections of members of the United States House of Representatives in 1894 came in the middle of President Grover Cleveland's second term. The nation was in its deepest economic depression ever following the Panic of 1893, so economic issues were at the forefront. In the spring, a major coal strike damaged the economy of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. It was accompanied by violence; the miners lost and many moved toward the Populist party. Immediately after the coal strike concluded, Eugene V. Debs led a nationwide railroad strike, called the Pullman Strike. It shut down the nation's transportation system west of Detroit for weeks, until President Cleveland's use of federal troops ended the strike. Debs went to prison (for disobeying a court order). Illinois's Governor John Peter Altgeld, a Democrat, broke bitterly with Cleveland.

The fragmented and disoriented Democratic Party was crushed everywhere outside the South, losing more than half its seats to the Republican Party. Even in the South, the Democrats lost seats to Republican-Populist electoral fusion in Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.^[2][3] The Democrats ultimately lost 127 seats in the election while the Republicans gained 130 seats (after the resolution of several contested elections). This is the largest swing in the history of the House of Representatives, and also makes the 1894 election the single largest midterm election victory in the entire history of the United States. (A political party would not suffer triple-digit losses again until 1932.)

The main issues revolved around the severe economic depression, which the Republicans blamed on the conservative Bourbon Democrats led by Cleveland. Cleveland supporters lost heavily, weakening their hold on the party and setting the stage for an 1896 takeover by the silverist wing of the party. The Populist Party ran candidates in the South and Midwest, but generally lost ground, outside Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas where state-level fusion with the Republicans was successful despite Populist and Republican antagonism at the national level. The Democrats tried to raise a religious issue, claiming the GOP was in cahoots with the American Protective Association. The allegations seem to have fallen flat as Catholics moved toward the GOP.^[4]

Election summaries

State	Type	Total seats	Republican		Democratic		Populist		Silver
			Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Alabama	District	9	2	2	5	4	2	2	0
Arkansas	District	6	0		6		0		0
California	District	7	6	3	1	2	0	1	0
Colorado	District	2	1	1	0		1	1	0
Connecticut	District	4	4	3	0	3	0		0
Delaware	At-large	1	1	1	0	1	0		0
Florida	District	2	0		2		0		0
Georgia	District	11	0		11		0		0
Idaho	At-large	1	1		0		0		0
Illinois	District[Note 6]	22	22	11	0	11	0		0
Indiana	District	13	13	11	0	11	0		0
Iowa	District	11	11	1	0	1	0		0
Kansas	District +at-large	8	7	4	0		1	4	0
Kentucky	District	11	6	5	5	5	0		0
Louisiana	District	6	0		6		0		0
Maine[Note 7]	District	4	4		0		0		0
Maryland	District	6	3	3	3	3	0		0
Massachusetts	District	13	12	3	1	3	0		0
Michigan	District	12	12	5	0	5	0		0
Minnesota	District	7	7	3	0	2	0	1	0
Mississippi	District	7	0		7		0		0
Missouri	District	15	11	9	4	9	0		0
Montana	At-large	1	1		0		0		0
Nebraska	District	6	5	2	0	1	1	1	0
Nevada	At-large	1	0		0	1	0		1	1
New Hampshire	District	2	2		0		0		0
New Jersey	District	8	8	6	0	6	0		0
New York	District	34	30	16	4	16	0		0
North Carolina	District	9	3	2	2	6	4	4	0
North Dakota	At-large	1	1		0		0		0
Ohio	District	21	19	9	2	9	0		0
Oregon[Note 7]	District	2	2		0		0		0
Pennsylvania	District +2 at-large	30	28	8	2	8	0		0
Rhode Island	District	2	2	2	0	2	0		0
South Carolina	District	7	1		6		0		0
South Dakota	At-large	2	2		0		0		0
Tennessee	District	10	4	2	6	2	0		0
Texas	District	13	1	1	12	1	0		0
Vermont[Note 7]	District	2	2		0		0		0
Virginia	District	10	2	2	8	2	0		0
Washington	At-large	2	2		0		0		0
West Virginia	District	4	4	4	0	4	0		0
Wisconsin	District	10	10	6	0	6	0		0
Wyoming	At-large	1	1	1	0	1	0		0
Total[Note 2]		356	253[1] 71.1%	110	93[1] 26.1%	107	9[1] 2.5%	4	1[1] 0.3%	1

Early election dates

In 1894, three states, with 8 seats among them, held elections early:

• June 4 Oregon
• September 4 Vermont
• September 10 Maine

Special elections

Sorted first by election date, then by state and district.

California

Florida

Ohio

South Carolina

See also

• United States elections, 1894
  • United States Senate elections, 1894
• 53rd United States Congress
• 54th United States Congress

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Republican Congressional Committee, Republican Campaign Text Book: 1894 (1894).
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896 (1971).
• Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998). United States Congressional Elections, 1788–1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0786402830.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (January 1, 1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0029201701.
• Moore, John L., ed. (1994). Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (Third ed.). Congressional Quarterly Inc. ISBN 978-0871879967.
• "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives. Retrieved January 21, 2015.

External links

• Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)