Midterm elections in the United States are the general elections that are held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term of office, on Election Day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Federal offices that are up for election during the midterms include all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives, and 33 or 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate.
34 of the 50 U.S. states elect their governors for four-year terms during midterm elections. Vermont and New Hampshire elect governors to two-year terms in both midterm and presidential elections. Thus, 36 governors are elected during midterm elections. Many states also elect officers to their state legislatures in midterm years. There are also elections held at the municipal level. On the ballot are many mayors, other local public offices, and a wide variety of citizen and legislatively referred initiatives.
Special elections are often held in conjunction with regular elections, so additional Senators, governors and other local officials may be elected to partial terms.
Midterm elections historically generate lower voter turnout than presidential elections. While presidential elections have had turnouts of about 50–60% over the past 60 years, only about 40% of those eligible to vote go to the polls in midterm elections.Desilver, D. (2014) Voter turnout always drops off for midterm elections, but why? Pew Research Center, July 24, 2014. Historically, midterm elections often see the president's party lose seats in Congress, and frequently see the president's opposite-party opponents gain control of one or both houses of Congress.
Background While Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution sets the U.S. president's term of office to four years, Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 sets a two-year term for congressmembers elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Article I, Section 3, Clause 1 then sets a six-year term for those elected to the U.S. Senate, with Clause 2 dividing the chamber into three "classes", so that approximately one-third of those seats are up for election every two years.
Still, a number of state and local governments instead prefer to avoid presidential and midterm years altogether and schedule their local races during odd-numbered "off-years".
Historical record of midterm
Midterm elections are regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance.
The party of the incumbent president tends to lose ground during midterm elections. Since World War II, the president's party has lost an average of 26 seats in the House, and an average of four seats in the Senate.
Since direct public midterm elections were introduced, in only eight of those (under presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden) has the president's party gained seats in the House or the Senate. Of those, only two (1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and 2002, George W. Bush) have seen the president's party gain seats in both houses.
The losses suffered during a president's second midterm tend to be more pronounced than during their first midterm, in what is described as a "six-year itch".
Year Sitting president President's party Net gain/loss of president's party House seats Senate seats 1790 George Washington None +3: (37 ► 40) 0: (18 ► 18) 1794 -4: (51 ► 47) +3: (16 ► 19) 1798 John Adams Federalist +3: (57 ► 60) 0: (22 ► 22) 1802 Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican +35: (68 ► 103) +5: (17 ► 22) 1806 +2: (114 ► 116) +1: (27 ► 28) 1810 James Madison Democratic-Republican +13: (94 ► 107) 0: (26 ► 26) 1814 +5: (114 ► 119) -3: (26 ► 22) 1818 James Monroe Democratic-Republican +13: (145 ► 158) +2: (28 ► 30) 1822 +34: (155 ► 189) 0: (44 ► 44) 1826 John Quincy Adams Democratic-Republican -9: (109 ► 100) -2: (21 ► 19) 1830 Andrew Jackson Democratic -10: (136 ► 126) +1: (25 ► 26) 1834 0: (143 ► 143) +1: (21 ► 22) 1838 Martin Van Buren Democratic -3: (128 ► 125) -7: (35 ► 28) 1842 John Tyler None -69: (142 ► 73) -3: (30 ► 27) 1846 James K. Polk Democratic -30: (142 ► 112) +2: (33 ► 35) 1850 Millard Fillmore Whig -22: (108 ► 86) -3: (36 ► 33) 1854 Franklin Pierce Democratic -75: (158 ► 83) -3: (36 ► 33) 1858 James Buchanan Democratic -35: (133 ► 98) -4: (32 ► 38) 1862 Abraham Lincoln Republican -23: (108 ► 85) +1: (31 ► 32) 1866 Andrew Johnson Democratic +9: (38 ► 47) 0: (10 ► 10) 1870 Ulysses S. Grant Republican -32: (171 ► 139) -5: (63 ► 58) 1874 -93: (199 ► 106) -10: (52 ► 42) 1878 Rutherford B. Hayes Republican -4: (136 ► 132) -7: (38 ► 31) 1882 Chester A. Arthur Republican -29: (151 ► 118) 0: (37 ► 37) 1886 Grover Cleveland Democratic -16: (183 ► 167) +2: (34 ► 36) 1890 Benjamin Harrison Republican -93: (179 ► 86) -4: (47 ► 43) 1894 Grover Cleveland Democratic -127: (220 ► 93) -4: (44 ► 40) 1898 William McKinley Republican -21: (205 ► 189) +6: (44 ► 50) 1902 Theodore Roosevelt Republican +9: (201 ► 210) 0: (55 ► 55) 1906 -27: (251 ► 224) +2: (58 ► 60) 1910 William Howard Taft Republican -56: (219 ► 163) -9: (59 ► 50) 1914 Woodrow Wilson Democratic -61: (291 ► 230) +3: (50 ► 53) 1918 -22: (214 ► 192) -4: (52 ► 48) 1922 Warren G. Harding Republican -77: (302 ► 225) -7: (60 ► 53) 1926 Calvin Coolidge Republican -9: (247 ► 238) -6: (56 ► 50) 1930 Herbert Hoover Republican -52: (270 ► 218) -6: (56 ► 50) 1934 Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic +9: (313 ► 322) +9: (60 ► 69) 1938 -72: (334 ► 262) -7: (75 ► 68) 1942 -45: (267 ► 222) -8: (65 ► 57) 1946 Harry S. Truman Democratic -54: (242 ► 188) -10: (56 ► 46) 1950 -28: (263 ► 235) -5: (54 ► 49) 1954 Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican -18: (221 ► 203) -2: (49 ► 47) 1958 -48: (201 ► 153) -12: (47 ► 35) 1962 John F. Kennedy Democratic -4: (262 ► 258) +4: (64 ► 68) 1966 Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic -47: (295 ► 248) -3: (67 ► 64) 1970 Richard Nixon Republican -12: (192 ► 180) +2: (43 ► 45) 1974 Gerald Ford Republican -48: (192 ► 144) -4: (42 ► 38) 1978 Jimmy Carter Democratic -15: (292 ► 277) -2: (61 ► 59) 1982 Ronald Reagan Republican -26: (192 ► 166) 0: (54 ► 54) 1986 -5: (182 ► 177) -8: (53 ► 45) 1990 George H. W. Bush Republican -8: (175 ► 167) -1: (45 ► 44) 1994 Bill Clinton Democratic -54: (258 ► 204) -9: (56 ► 47) 1998 +4: (207 ► 211) 0: (45 ► 45) 2002 George W. Bush Republican +8: (221 ► 229) +2: (49 ► 51) 2006 -32: (231 ► 199) -6: (55 ► 49) 2010 Barack Obama Democratic -63: (256 ► 193) -6: (59 ► 53) 2014 -13: (201 ► 188) -9: (55 ► 46) 2018 Donald Trump Republican -41: (241 ► 200) +2: (51 ► 53) 2022 Joe Biden Democratic-9: (222 ► 213) +1: (50 ► 51) 2026 Donald Trump Republican t.b.d. November 3, 2026 t.b.d. November 3, 2026
Comparison with other U.S. general elections
Notes
References
External links