1896 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1894 November 3, 1896[a] 1898 →
All 357 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives 179 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Thomas Brackett Reed Joseph W. Bailey Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat Maine 1st Texas 4th Last election 254 seats 93 seats Seats won 206[1] 124[1] Seat change 48 31 Popular vote 6,655,919 5,594,384 Percentage 48.77% 40.99% Swing 0.50pp 3.27pp   Third party Fourth party   Party Populist Silver Republican Last election 9 seats Pre-creation Seats won 22[1] 3[1] Seat change 13 3 Popular vote 935,636 139,132 Percentage 6.86% 1.02% Swing 4.16pp New party   Fifth party Sixth party   Party Silver Independent Republican Last election 1 0 Seats won 1[1] 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 6,429 72,945 Percentage 0.05% 0.53% Swing 0.01pp 0.20pp
Results:      Democratic gain     Republican gain      Democratic hold     Republican hold      Populist gain     Populist hold      Silver Republican gain
Speaker before election Thomas Reed Republican ElectedSpeaker Thomas Reed Republican

The1896 United States House of Representatives elections were held for the most part on November 3, 1896, with Oregon, Maine, and Vermont holding theirs early in either June or September. They coincided with theelection ofPresidentWilliam McKinley. Elections were held for 357 seats of theUnited States House of Representatives, representing 45 states, to serve in the55th United States Congress. The size of the House increased by one seat after Utahgained statehood on January 4, 1896. Special elections were also held throughout the year.

TheRepublican Party maintained its large majority in the House but lost 48 seats, mostly to theDemocratic andPopulist parties. The Republican losses were most likely due to the extraordinary gains that party made inthe prior elections,^{[citation needed]} when many normally Democratic districts voted Republican due to the severity of and fallout from thePanic of 1893. The Democratic Party recovered in theMid-Atlantic andMidwestern districts dominated by Catholic andworking-class voters. In theWestern United States, the Populist Party made large gains and several Republicans broke away over thenational party platform's endorsement of agold standard.

This election marked the zenith of thePopulist Party. The Populists would lose most of their seats in the1898 elections and thereafter slowly fade from prominence.

State	Type	Total seats	Democratic		Populist		Silver		Silver Republican		Ind. Republican		Republican
			Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Alabama	District	9	7	2	1	1	0		0		0		1	1
Arkansas	District	6	6		0		0		0		0		0
California	District	7	2	1	2	2	0		0		0		3	3
Colorado	District	2	0		1		0		1	1	0		0	1
Connecticut	District	4	0		0		0		0		0		4
Delaware	At-large	1	1	1	0		0		0		0		0	1
Florida	District	2	2		0		0		0		0		0
Georgia	District	11	11		0		0		0		0		0
Idaho	At-large	1	0		1	1	0		0		0		0	1
Illinois	District	22	5	3	0		0		0		0		17	3
Indiana	District	13	4	4	0		0		0		0		9	4
Iowa	District	11	0		0		0		0		0		11
Kansas	District +at-large	8	0		6	5	0		0		0		2	5
Kentucky	District	11	7	1	0		0		0		0		4	1
Louisiana	District	6	6		0		0		0		0		0
Maine[c]	District	4	0		0		0		0		0		4
Maryland	District	6	0	3	0		0		0		0		6	3
Massachusetts	District	13	1		0		0		0		0		12
Michigan	District	12	2	2	0		0		0		0		10	2
Minnesota	District	7	0		0		0		0		0		7
Mississippi	District	7	7		0		0		0		0		0
Missouri	District	15	12	7	0		0		0		0		3	7
Montana	At-large	1	0		0		0		1	1	0		0	1
Nebraska	District	6	0		4	3	0		0		0		2	3
Nevada	At-large	1	0		0		1		0		0		0
New Hampshire	District	2	0		0		0		0		0		2
New Jersey	District	8	0		0		0		0		0		8
New York	District	34	5	1	0		0		0		0		29	1
North Carolina	District	9	1	1	5	1	0		0		0		3
North Dakota	At-large	1	0		0		0		0		0		1
Ohio	District	21	6	4	0		0		0		0		15	4
Oregon[c]	District	2	0		0		0		0		0		2
Pennsylvania	District +2 at-large	30	3	1	0		0		0		1	1	26	2
Rhode Island	District	2	0		0		0		0		0		2
South Carolina	District	7	7	1	0		0		0		0		0	1
South Dakota	At-large	2	0		2	2	0		0		0		0	2
Tennessee	District	10	8	2	0		0		0		0		2	2
Texas	District	13	12		0		0		0		0		1
Utah	At-large	1	1	1	0		0		0		0		0	1
Vermont[c]	District	2	0		0		0		0		0		2
Virginia	District	10	6	2	0		0		0		0		4	2
Washington[d]	At-large	2	1	1	0		0		1	1	0		0	2
West Virginia	District	4	0		0		1		3	3	0		0
Wisconsin	District	10	0		0		0		0		0		10
Wyoming	At-large	1	1	1	0		0		0		0		0	1
Total		357	124 34.7%	31	22 6.2%	13	1 0.3%	0	3 0.8%		1 0.3%	1	206 57.7%	48

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(January 2020)

Three states, with 8 seats between them, held elections early in 1896:

• June 1:Oregon
• September 1:Vermont
• September 14:Maine

District	Incumbent			This race
	Member	Party	First elected	Results	Candidates[34]
Virginia 1	William A. Jones	Democratic	1890	Incumbent re-elected.	▌YWilliam A. Jones (Democratic) 58.4% ▌Walter B. Tyler (Republican) 40.5% Others ▌Edward J. Winder (Prohibition) 0.8% ▌Samuel D. Shazier (Socialist Labor) 0.3%
Virginia 2	David G. Tyler	Democratic	1892	Incumbent retired. Democratic hold.	▌YWilliam A. Young (Democratic) 50.4% ▌Richard A. Wise (Republican) 42.8% ▌W. M. Whaley (Democratic) 6.1% ▌A. B. Griffin (Prohibition) 0.7%
				Election successfully challenged. Republican gain.	▌YRichard A. Wise (Republican)
Virginia 3	Tazewell Ellett	Democratic	1894	Incumbent retired. Democratic hold.	▌YJohn Lamb (Democratic) 55.5% ▌L. L. Lewis (Republican) 42.5% Others ▌Elisha L. Lewis (Republican) 0.8% ▌William H. Lewis (Republican) 0.6% ▌John Mitchell (Republican) 0.3% ▌James O. Atwood (Prohibition) 0.3%
Virginia 4	Robert Taylor Thorp	Republican	1894(contest)	Incumbent lost re-election. Democratic gain.	▌YSydney P. Epes (Democratic) 54.5% ▌Robert Taylor Thorp (Republican) 43.4% ▌J. L. Thorp (Republican) 2.1%
				Election successfully challenged. Republican gain.	▌YRobert Taylor Thorp (Republican)
Virginia 5	Claude A. Swanson	Democratic	1892	Incumbent re-elected.	▌YClaude A. Swanson (Democratic) 51.0% ▌John Robert Brown (Republican) 49.0%
Virginia 6	Peter J. Otey	Democratic	1894	Incumbent re-elected.	▌YPeter J. Otey (Democratic) 57.0% ▌Duval Radford (Democratic) 38.7% ▌J. Hampton Hoge (Republican) 2.8% ▌Joseph Johnston (Prohibition) 1.5%
Virginia 7	Smith S. Turner	Democratic	1894(special)	Incumbent retired. Democratic hold.	▌YJames Hay (Democratic) 52.1% ▌Robert J. Walker (Republican) 42.4% Others ▌J. Samuel Harrisberger (Democratic) 1.1% ▌John F. Forsyth (Independent) 0.7%
Virginia 8	Elisha E. Meredith	Democratic	1891(special)	Incumbent retired. Democratic hold.	▌YJohn Franklin Rixey (Democratic) 56.1% ▌Peter H. McCaull (Republican) 43.2% Others ▌Joseph N. Pancoast (Prohibition) 0.5% ▌W. C. Colerran (Unknown) 0.2% ▌James S. Cowdon (Unknown) 0.1%
Virginia 9	James A. Walker	Republican	1892	Incumbent re-elected.	▌YJames A. Walker (Republican) 52.7% ▌Samuel M. Williams (Democratic) 47.3%
Virginia 10	Henry St. George Tucker	Democratic	1888	Incumbent retired. Republican gain.	▌YJacob Yost (Republican) 49.9% ▌Henry D. Flood (Democratic) 49.8% ▌C. F. Wanack (Unknown) 0.3%

Wisconsin elected ten members of congress on Election Day, November 3, 1896.^[39][40]

• 1896 United States elections
  • 1896 United States presidential election
  • 1896–97 United States Senate elections
• 54th United States Congress
• 55th United States Congress

• 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.
• Moore, John L., ed. (1994).Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (Third ed.). Congressional Quarterly Inc.ISBN 978-0871879967.
• "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives. RetrievedJanuary 21, 2015.

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

• 1896 United States House of Representatives elections
• Presidency of William McKinley

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