# 1990 Midterm Elections [[George H.W. Bush]] administration midterm. Democrats gained ~8 House seats and ~1 Senate seat; Democrats retained majorities in both chambers. The political environment was substantially shaped by Bush's June 1990 violation of his **"Read my lips: no new taxes"** pledge — the 1990 budget deal raised income tax rates and triggered the **[[Pat Buchanan]] 1992 primary insurgency**. ## Result - **House:** Democrats gained ~8 seats; expanded majority (~267 of 435 Democrats vs. ~167 Republicans in the 102nd Congress) - **Senate:** Democrats gained ~1 seat (~56 of 100 Democrats vs. ~44 Republicans) - **Chambers flipped:** None - **Net change:** Modest Democratic gains; the "Read my lips" political fallout ## Notable - **Bernie Sanders** elected to the U.S. House from Vermont as an Independent — the first socialist elected to Congress since 1928 (Victor Berger); would serve in the House until 2007 and the Senate from 2007 - Bush's "Read my lips" pledge violation produced sustained Republican-base anger that would fuel **Pat Buchanan**'s 1992 primary challenge and [[Ross Perot]]'s third-party run - The 1990 budget deal — which raised top income tax rates and substantially closed the 1980s deficit — became one of the canonical Republican examples of presidential-establishment-betrayal-of-base - The [[Persian Gulf War]] buildup (Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, August 1990) was the dominant foreign-policy backdrop ## Connections - [[George H.W. Bush]] — Sitting president. - [[Bernie Sanders]] — Elected to House 1990 as Independent.