1798–99 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1796 & 1797 April 24, 1798 – August 1, 1799 1800 & 1801 →
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All 106 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives 54 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Theodore Sedgwick Nathaniel Macon Party Federalist Democratic-Republican Leader's seat Massachusetts 1st North Carolina 5th Last election 57 seats 49 seats Seats won 60[1] 46[1] Seat change 3 3
Results:      Federalist hold     Federalist gain      Democratic-Republican hold     Democratic-Republican gain      Undistricted
Speaker before election Jonathan Dayton Federalist ElectedSpeaker Theodore Sedgwick Federalist

The1798–99 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between April 24, 1798, inNew York and August 1, 1799, inTennessee. Each state set its own date for its elections to theHouse of Representatives, with some after the official start of the6th United States Congress on March 4, 1799, but before the start of the first session of this Congress inPhiladelphia on December 2, 1799.^[2] These elections were held duringPresidentJohn Adams term. It was the last congressional session before the move to the newcapital atWashington, D.C. Elections were held for all 106 seats, representing 16 states.

President Adams, aFederalist elected two years prior in theelection of 1796, remained popular during a time of national economic growth,^{[citation needed]} and the Federalists made a modest gain of three seats at the expense of the oppositionDemocratic-Republicans, the party ofVice President and future PresidentThomas Jefferson. This resulted in an increased Federalist majority in the House, 60-46 seats.

The Federalist party squandered its popularity by passing a series of controversial new laws in the summer of 1798, including theNaturalization Act of 1798 and theAlien and Sedition Acts. Their passage seriously injured the chances of President Adams and Federalist congressional candidates in the elections of 1800.

The House that met during this Congress would ultimately elect Thomas Jefferson overAaron Burr in thepresidential election of 1800.

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Federalist		Democratic- Republican
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change
New York	Districts	April 24–26, 1798	10	4	2	6	2
New Hampshire	At-large	August 2, 1798	4	4		0
North Carolina	Districts	August 10, 1798	10	4	3	6	3
Connecticut	At-large	September 7, 1798	7	7		0
Maryland	Districts	October 1, 1798	8	5	1	3	1
Rhode Island	At-large	August 28, 1798	2	2		0
Vermont	Districts	September 4, 1798[a]	2	1		1
Delaware	At-large	October 2, 1798	1	1		0
Georgia	At-large	October 8, 1798	2	2	2	0	2
Pennsylvania	Districts	October 9, 1798	13	5	1	8	1
New Jersey	District	October 10, 1798	5	2	3	3	3
South Carolina	Districts	October 12, 1798	6	5	2	1	2
Massachusetts	Districts	November 5, 1798[b]	14	12	1	2	1
Late general elections(After the March 4, 1799, start of the next Congress)
Virginia	Districts	April 24, 1799	19	6	2	13	2
Kentucky	Districts	May 7, 1799	2	0		2
Tennessee	At-large	August 1, 1799	1	0		1
Total			106	60 56.6%	3	46 43.4%	3

There were special elections in 1798 and 1799 during the5th United States Congress and6th United States Congress.

Elections are sorted here by date then district.

Massachusetts required a majority for election. This was not met in the5th district and7th district necessitating additional ballots in those districts.

New Jersey switched to district representation for this election. The districts were not numbered at the time, but are retroactively numbered here as 1–5. New Jersey would go back to anat-large district the following election.

Between the 1796 and 1798 elections, New York re-districted. This marked the first time that its districts were numbered.

SeeNon-voting delegates, below.

Rhode Island used at-large districts, but elected the candidates on separate tickets instead of using ageneral ticket.

Majority vote required to win, necessitating a run-off election in the 1st (Western) district.

• 1798 United States elections
  • List of United States House of Representatives elections (1789–1822)
  • 1798–99 United States Senate elections
• 5th United States Congress
• 6th United States Congress

• "A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825". Tufts Digital Library, Tufts University. Archived fromthe original on January 29, 2015. RetrievedJanuary 17, 2015.
• Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998).United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company.ISBN 978-0786402830.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (January 1, 1989).The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company.ISBN 978-0029201701.
• "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, United States House of Representatives. RetrievedJanuary 21, 2015.
• Mapping Early American Elections project team (2019)."Mapping Early American Elections". Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. RetrievedSeptember 6, 2024.

• Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)

• 1798 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1799 United States House of Representatives elections

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