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1894 United States House of Representatives elections
House elections for the 54th U.S. Congress From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 1894 United States House of Representatives elections were held from June 4, 1894, to November 6, 1894, with special elections throughout the year. Elections were held to elect representatives from all 356 congressional districts across each of the 44 U.S. states at the time, as well as non-voting delegates from the inhabited U.S. territories. The winners of this election served in the 54th Congress, with seats apportioned among the states based on the 1890 United States census.
The elections comprised a significant political realignment, with a major Republican landslide that set the stage for the decisive election of 1896. The 1894 elections came in the middle of Democratic President Grover Cleveland's second term. The nation was in its deepest economic depression yet following the Panic of 1893, which pushed economic issues to the forefront. In the spring, a major coal strike damaged the economy of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. It was accompanied by violence; the miners lost and many joined the Populist Party. Immediately after the coal strike concluded, Eugene V. Debs led a nationwide railroad strike. It shut down the nation's transportation system west of Detroit for weeks, until President Cleveland's use of federal troops ended the strike. Debs went to prison for disobeying a court order. Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld, a Democrat, broke bitterly with Cleveland.
The fragmented and disoriented Democratic Party was crushed everywhere outside of the South, losing more than 55% of its seats to the Republican Party. The Democrats did so poorly that even in the South, they lost seats to the Republican-Populist electoral fusion in Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas.[2][3] The Democrats ultimately lost 127 seats in this election, with the Republicans gaining 130 seats after the resolution of several contested elections.
The Democratic Party failed to win one seat in twenty-four states and only won one seat in six states. Prominent Democrats in the house including Richard P. Bland, William S. Holman, William M. Springer, and William L. Wilson were defeated in the election.[4] To date, the 1894 election represents the largest seat swing in a single election in the history of the House of Representatives; the only other occasion where a political party has suffered triple-digit losses was in 1932.
The main issues revolved around the severe economic depression, which the Republicans blamed on the conservative Bourbon Democrats led by Cleveland. Cleveland supporters lost heavily, weakening their hold on the party and setting the stage for an 1896 takeover by the free silver wing of the party. The Populist Party ran candidates in the South and Midwest, but generally lost ground outside of the South. The Democrats tried to raise a religious issue, claiming the GOP was in cahoots with the anti-Catholic American Protective Association; the allegations seem to have fallen flat as Catholics swung towards the GOP.[5] Despite the Republicans winning a veto proof majority, House Republicans were not sufficiently united to override President Cleveland's vetoes during his remaining two years in office.
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Election summaries
93 | 10 | 254 |
Democratic | [h] | Republican |

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Special elections
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15 special elections took place in 1894 leading up to and following the general election. They are listed below in order of election date then by state and district. Republicans flipped 3 seats in the special elections in New York's 14th, Kentucky's 9th, and Maryland's 5th congressional districts.
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Early election dates
In 1894, three states, with 8 seats among them, held elections early:
Alabama
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Arkansas
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California
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Colorado
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Connecticut
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Delaware
Florida
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Georgia
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Idaho
Illinois
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Indiana
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Iowa
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Kansas
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Kentucky
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Louisiana
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Maine
Maryland
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Massachusetts
Michigan
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Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
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Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
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New Jersey
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New Mexico
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New York
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North Carolina
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North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
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Rhode Island
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South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
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West Virginia
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin elected ten members of congress on Election Day, November 6, 1894.[8][63]
Wyoming
Non-voting delegates
Oklahoma Territory
See also
Notes
- Martis's figure includes Utah, which held its election in 1895 and is therefore not covered in this article.[1]
- Dubin (p. 312) counts 244 Republicans, 105 Democrats, 7 Populists, and 1 Silver at the opening of the 54th Congress, before the results of several contested elections were overturned in favor of Republican (and a few Populist) candidates. Dubin counts 253 Republicans, 93 Democrats, 9 Populists, and 1 Silver at the start of the 2nd session of the 54th Congress, which closely matches Martis' figure (pp. 148–49). Dubin's figure includes Utah, which held its election in 1895 and is therefore not covered in this article.
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