United States Midterm Elections of 1994

Republicans gained 52 House seats and took Congress for the first time in forty years.

Overview

The Republican Revolution ended forty years of Democratic House control, a run unbroken since 1954. Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, a signed national platform, nationalized the midterm, and the GOP gained 52 House seats and eight Senate seats, sweeping the South's realignment forward. turnout at roughly 39 percent was typical, but the swing, 6.9 percent against Clinton's health care failure and gun politics, was historic. The result produced Gingrich's speakership, government shutdowns, welfare reform, and the strategy of nationalized congressional elections.