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1998 United States elections

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Field	Value
year	1998
type	Midterm elections
election_day	November 3
incumbent_president	Bill Clinton (Democratic)
next_congress	[106th](106th-united-states-congress)
senate_seats_contested	34 of 100 seats
senate_control	Republican hold
senate_net_change	0
senate_map
senate_map_caption	1998 Senate election results
house_seats_contested	All 435 voting seats
house_control	Republican hold
house_pv_margin	Republican +1.1%
house_net_change	Democratic +5
house_map	[[File:United States House of Representatives elections, 1998.png	400px]]
house_map_caption	1998 House of Representatives results
(territorial delegate races not shown)

governor_seats_contested	38 (36 states, 2 territories)
governor_net_change	Reform +1
governor_map
governor_map_caption	1998 gubernatorial election results

(territorial delegate races not shown)

Elections were held on November 3, 1998, in the middle of Democratic President Bill Clinton's second term and during impeachment proceedings against the president as a result of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. Though Republicans retained control of both chambers of Congress, the elections were unusual because this is the first midterm since 1934 that the president's party gained seats in the House of Representatives.

Several Senate seats changed hands, but neither party made a net gain. In the House of Representatives, Democrats picked up five seats, marking the first time since the 1934 elections in which the incumbent president's party did not suffer losses in either house of Congress. This also occurred in 2002. This is the most recent midterm election in which neither chamber of Congress changed partisan control.

The disruption of the six-year itch is attributed to wide opposition to the impeachment investigations against Clinton and his high popularity numbers.

Federal elections

Senate elections

Main article: 1998 United States Senate elections

In the Senate elections, Republicans picked up open seats in Ohio and Kentucky and narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Carol Moseley Braun (Illinois), but these were cancelled out by the Democrats' gain of an open seat in Indiana and defeats of Republican Senators Al D'Amato (New York) and Lauch Faircloth (North Carolina). The balance of the Senate remained unchanged at 55–45 in favor of the Republicans.

House of Representatives elections

Main article: 1998 United States House of Representatives elections

The House of Representatives elections saw a significant disruption of the historic six-year itch trend, where the president's party loses seats in the second-term midterm elections. Though Republicans won the national popular vote for the House by a margin of 1.1 percentage points and retained control of the chamber, Democrats picked up a net of five seats. This marked the second time since the Civil War in which the president's party gained seats in the House of Representatives in a midterm election, following the 1934 elections. Republicans would later gain seats during the 2002 mid-terms. The 1998 elections were the first time since 1822 in which the president's party gained seats in the House during the president's second midterm.

The impeachment of Clinton likely played a major role in the success of the Democratic Party in the House and Senate elections. The election precipitated a change in Republican leadership, with Newt Gingrich resigning as Speaker of the House.

State elections

Neither party made net gains in governorships. Texas Governor George W. Bush's landslide re-election solidified his status as a front-runner for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.

References

"Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 3, 1998". U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk.
Abramowitz, Alan I.. (2001). "It's Monica, Stupid: The Impeachment Controversy and the 1998 Midterm Election". Legislative Studies Quarterly.
(1999). "Horses in Midstream". University of Pittsburgh Press.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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