1894 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1892 June 4, 1894[a] – November 6, 1894[b] 1896 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 356 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives[c] 179 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Thomas Brackett Reed Charles F. Crisp Party Republican Democratic Populist Leader's seat Maine 1st Georgia 3rd Last election 124 seats 218 seats 11 seats Seats before 143 seats[d] 198 seats[g] 13 seats Seats won 253[e][f] 93[e][f] 9[e][f] Seat change 110 105 4 Popular vote 5,442,266 4,252,292 1,242,242 Percentage 48.27% 37.72% 11.02% Swing 7.45pp 9.66pp 2.73pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Party Silver Independent Last election 1 seat 2 seats Seats before 1 seat 2 seats Seats won 1[e] 0 Seat change 2 Popular vote 4,581 82,148 Percentage 0.04% 0.73% Swing 0.02pp 0.08pp
Results:      Democratic gain     Republican gain      Democratic hold     Republican hold      Populist gain     Populist hold      Silver hold
Speaker before election Charles Crisp Democratic ElectedSpeaker Thomas Reed Republican

The1894 United States House of Representatives elections were held from June 4, 1894, to November 6, 1894, withspecial elections throughout the year. Elections were held to elect representatives from all 356congressional districts across each of the 44U.S. states at the time, as well asnon-voting delegates from the inhabitedU.S. territories. The winners of this election served in the54th Congress, with seats apportioned among the states based on the1890 United States census.

The elections comprised a significantpolitical realignment, with a majorRepublican landslide that set the stage for the decisiveelection of 1896. The 1894 elections came in the middle ofDemocraticPresidentGrover Cleveland's second term. The nation was in its deepest economic depression yet following thePanic of 1893, which pushed economic issues to the forefront. In the spring,a major coal strike damaged the economy of theMidwest andMid-Atlantic. It was accompanied by violence; the miners lost and many joined thePopulist Party. Immediately after the coal strike concluded,Eugene V. Debs leda nationwide railroad strike. It shut down the nation's transportation system west ofDetroit for weeks, until President Cleveland's use of federal troops ended the strike. Debs went to prison for disobeying a court order.Illinois GovernorJohn 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-Populistelectoral fusion inAlabama,North Carolina,Tennessee,Kentucky, andTexas.^[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 includingRichard P. Bland,William S. Holman,William M. Springer, andWilliam 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 in1932.

The main issues revolved around the severe economic depression, which the Republicans blamed on the conservativeBourbon 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 theanti-CatholicAmerican 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.

State	Type	Total seats	Democratic		Populist		Republican		Silver
			Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Alabama	District	9	5	4	2	2	2	2	0
Arkansas	District	6	6		0		0		0
California	District	7	1	2	0	1	6	3	0
Colorado	District	2	0		1	1	1	1	0
Connecticut	District	4	0	3	0		4	3	0
Delaware	At-large	1	0	1	0		1	1	0
Florida	District	2	2		0		0		0
Georgia	District	11	11		0		0		0
Idaho	At-large	1	0		0		1		0
Illinois	District	22	0	11	0		22	11	0
Indiana	District	13	0	11	0		13	11	0
Iowa	District	11	0	1	0		11	1	0
Kansas	District +at-large	8	0		1	4	7	4	0
Kentucky	District	11	5	5	0		6	5	0
Louisiana	District	6	6		0		0		0
Maine[i]	District	4	0		0		4		0
Maryland	District	6	3	3	0		3	3	0
Massachusetts	District	13	1	3	0		12	3	0
Michigan	District	12	0	5	0		12	5	0
Minnesota	District	7	0	2	0	1	7	3	0
Mississippi	District	7	7		0		0		0
Missouri	District	15	4	9	0		11	9	0
Montana	At-large	1	0		0		1		0
Nebraska	District	6	0	1	1	1	5	2	0
Nevada	At-large	1	0	1	0		0		1	1
New Hampshire	District	2	0		0		2		0
New Jersey	District	8	0	6	0		8	6	0
New York	District	34	4	16	0		30	16	0
North Carolina	District	9	2	6	4	4	3	2	0
North Dakota	At-large	1	0		0		1		0
Ohio	District	21	2	9	0		19	9	0
Oregon[i]	District	2	0		0		2		0
Pennsylvania	District +2 at-large	30	2	8	0		28	8	0
Rhode Island	District	2	0	2	0		2	2	0
South Carolina	District	7	6		0		1		0
South Dakota	At-large	2	0		0		2		0
Tennessee	District	10	6	2	0		4	2	0
Texas	District	13	12	1	0		1	1	0
Vermont[i]	District	2	0		0		2		0
Virginia	District	10	8	2	0		2	2	0
Washington	At-large	2	0		0		2		0
West Virginia	District	4	0	4	0		4	4	0
Wisconsin	District	10	0	6	0		10	6	0
Wyoming	At-large	1	0	1	0		1	1	0
Total[c]		356	93[e] 26.1%	107	9[e] 2.5%	4	253[e] 71.1%	110	1[e] 0.3%	1

15special 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 inNew York's 14th,Kentucky's 9th, andMaryland's 5th congressional districts.

In 1894, three states, with 8 seats among them, held elections early:

• June 4Oregon
• September 4Vermont
• September 10Maine

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