# 1994 Midterm Elections The **Gingrich Revolution** / **Republican Revolution** — one of the most consequential midterm elections in American history. Republicans gained ~54 House seats and ~8 Senate seats; took both chambers for the first time since 1954 (40 years for the House, 8 years for the Senate). The cycle is conventionally treated as a **realigning midterm** that completed the long Southern realignment in congressional voting (Southern white voters who had still voted Democratic for Congress shifted to Republican) and inaugurated the post-Cold-War polarized political era. ## Result - **House:** Republicans gained ~54 seats; took majority (~230 of 435 Republicans vs. ~204 Democrats in the 104th Congress) - **Senate:** Republicans gained ~8 seats; took majority (~52 of 100 Republicans vs. ~48 Democrats) - **Chambers flipped:** Both — House and Senate flipped to Republican - **Net change:** Major Republican gains; ended 40-year Democratic House control ## Notable - **Newt Gingrich** elected Speaker of the House January 1995 — the architect of the Republican congressional takeover; his **Contract with America** (September 1994) was the nationalized-campaign platform that mobilized Republican voters - **Not a single Republican incumbent lost** in 1994 — the wave was entirely Democratic losses - **Speaker Tom Foley** (D-WA) lost his Spokane House seat — the first sitting Speaker defeated since 1862; the symbolic political event of the cycle - The **1994 Crime Bill** (signed by Clinton September 1994) and **Assault Weapons Ban** were substantially blamed by Democrats for the rural-and-Southern losses - The post-1994 Gingrich Speakership produced the **1995-1996 government shutdowns**, the **1996 [[Welfare Reform Act]]**, and the operational political environment that produced the 1998 Clinton impeachment ## Connections - [[Bill Clinton]] — Sitting president; would survive 1995-96 shutdowns and impeachment to win reelection in 1996. - [[Newt Gingrich]] — Architect of the Republican Revolution; Speaker 1995-1999. - [[Party Realignment]] — Substantially completed the long Southern congressional realignment. - [[Gingrich Revolution]] — The political-historical event itself.