United States House of Representatives elections, 1986

United States House of Representatives elections, 1986

November 4, 1986
All 435 seats to the United States House of Representatives 218 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Tip O'Neill (retired) Bob Michel Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 3, 1973 January 3, 1981 Leader's seat Massachusetts 8th Illinois-18th Last election 253 seats 182 seats Seats won 258 177 Seat change 5 5 Popular vote 32,447,021 26,533,178 Percentage 54.3% 44.4% Swing 2.2% 2.6%
Results:   Democratic hold   Democratic pickup   Republican hold   Republican pickup
Speaker before election Tip O'Neill Democratic Elected Speaker Jim Wright Democratic

The 1986 United States House of Representatives elections was held on November 4, 1986, in the middle of President Ronald Reagan's second term in office while he was still relatively popular with the American public. As in most midterm elections, the President's party—in this case, the Republican Party — lost seats, with the Democratic Party gaining a net of five seats and cementing its majority. These results were not as dramatic as those in the Senate, where the Republicans lost control of the chamber to the Democrats. Notable freshmen include future House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), future Senators Jon Kyl, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Jim Bunning, Ben Cardin, Jim Inhofe, and Tim Johnson , former Governor of Maine Joseph E. Brennan, future Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, future Administrator of the Small Business Administration Pat Saiki, and former Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee John Lewis.

Overall results

Party		Seats			Seat percentage	Vote percentage	Popular vote
		Last election (1984)	This election	Net change
	Democratic	253	258	5	59.3%	54.3%	32,447,021
	Republican	182	177	5	40.7%	44.4%	26,533,178
	Independent	0	0		0.0%	0.2%	157,332
	Libertarian	0	0		0.0%	0.2%	121,076
	Conservative	0	0		0.0%	0.1%	58,712
	Peace and Freedom	0	0		0.0%	0.1%	57,003
	Right to Life	0	0		0.0%	0.1%	39,407
	American	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	20,360
	Socialist Workers	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	12,812
	Pro-Life	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	11,209
	Citizens	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	8,386
	Labor for Maine	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	7,109
	Small is Beautiful	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	5,847
	Workers League	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	3,985
	Labor and Farm	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	3,953
	New Alliance	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	3,672
	People Before Profits	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	3,646
	Populist	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,783
	Concerns of People	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,338
	Liberal	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,288
	Inflation Fighting Housewife	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,023
	AWG	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,004
	Port Authority = Crooks	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	1,825
	Quality Congressional Representation	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	1,348
	Stop Financing Communism	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	789
	Let Freedom Ring	0	0		0.0%	<0.1%	525
	Others	0	0		0.0%	0.4%	251,578
Totals		435	435		100.0%	100.0%	59,758,397

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

Retiring incumbents

Forty incumbents retired.

Complete list of states

Key to party abbreviations: AI=American Independent, C=Constitution, D=Democrat, G=Green, I=Independent, IP=Independence Party, L=Libertarian, PF=Peace and Freedom, R=Republican.

Special elections

Sorted by election date, then by state and district if necessary.

General elections

See also