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1986 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1984 November 4, 1986 1988 →
All 435 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Tip O'Neill (retired) Bob Michel Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 4, 1977 January 3, 1981 Leader's seat Massachusetts 8th Illinois 18th Last election 253 seats 181 seats Seats won 258 177 Seat change 5 4 Popular vote 32,447,021 26,533,178 Percentage 54.3% 44.4% Swing 2.2pp 2.6pp   Third party   Party Conservative Last election 1 Seats won 0 Seat change 1 Popular vote 58,712 Percentage 0.1% Swing 0.1pp
Results:      Democratic hold     Democratic gain      Republican hold     Republican gain
Speaker before election Tip O'Neill Democratic ElectedSpeaker Jim Wright Democratic

The1986 United States House of Representatives elections was held on November 4, 1986, to electU.S. Representatives to serve in the100th United States Congress. They occurred in the middle ofPresidentRonald Reagan's second term in office, while he was still relatively popular with the American public. As in most mid-term elections, the president's party — in this case, theRepublican Party — lost seats, with theDemocratic Party gaining a net of five seats and cementing its majority. These results were not as dramatic as those in theSenate, where the Republicans lost control of the chamber to the Democrats.

393 incumbent members sought reelection, but 2 were defeated in primaries and 6 defeated in the general election for a total of 385 incumbents winning.^[1]

Party		Seats			Seat percentage	Vote percentage	Popular vote
		Last election (1984)	This election	Net change
	Democratic	253	258	5	59.3%	54.3%	32,447,021
	Republican	181	177	4	40.7%	44.4%	26,533,178
	Independent	0	0		0.0%	0.2%	157,332
	Libertarian	0	0		0.0%	0.2%	121,076
	Conservative	1	0	1	0.0%	0.1%	58,712
	Peace and Freedom	0	0		0.0%	0.1%	57,003
	Right to Life	0	0		0.0%	0.1%	39,407
	Others	0	0		0.0%	0.6%	344,668
Totals		435	435		100.0%	100.0%	59,758,397

Source:Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

A total of 40 representatives (19 Democrats and 21 Republicans) retired, 22 of whom (12 Democrats and 10 Republicans) retired to run for other offices.

Nineteen incumbent Democrats retired.

1. Alabama 7:Richard Shelby: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
2. Colorado 2:Tim Wirth: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
3. Florida 2:Don Fuqua retired.
4. Georgia 5:Wyche Fowler: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
5. Iowa 6:Berkley Bedell retired.
6. Louisiana 7:John Breaux: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
7. Louisiana 8:Catherine Small Long retired.
8. Maryland 3:Barbara Mikulski: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
9. Maryland 7:Parren Mitchell retired.
10. Maryland 8:Michael D. Barnes: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
11. Massachusetts 8:Tip O'Neill retired.
12. Nevada 1:Harry Reid: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
13. New York 34:Stan Lundine: retired torun for Lieutenant Governor of New York.
14. North Carolina 3:Charles Whitley retired.
15. Ohio 14:John F. Seiberling retired.
16. Oklahoma 1:James R. Jones: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
17. Oregon 4:Jim Weaver: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
18. Pennsylvania 7:Bob Edgar: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
19. South Dakota at-large:Tom Daschle: retired torun for U.S. Senate.

Twenty-one incumbent Republicans retired.

1. Arizona 1:John McCain: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
2. Arizona 4:Eldon Rudd retired.
3. California 2:Eugene A. Chappie retired.
4. California 12:Ed Zschau: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
5. California 21:Bobbi Fiedler: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
6. Colorado 5:Ken Kramer: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
7. Illinois 4:George M. O'Brien retired.
8. Illinois 14:John E. Grotberg retired.
9. Indiana 5:Elwood Hillis retired.
10. Iowa 3:T. Cooper Evans retired.
11. Kentucky 4:Gene Snyder retired.
12. Louisiana 6:Henson Moore: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
13. Maine 1:John R. McKernan Jr.: retired torun for Governor of Maine.
14. Maryland 4:Marjorie Holt retired.
15. New York 1:William Carney retired.
16. Ohio 8:Tom Kindness: retired torun for U.S. Senate.
17. South Carolina 1:Thomas F. Hartnett: retired torun for Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina.
18. South Carolina 4:Carroll A. Campbell Jr.: retired torun for Governor of South Carolina.
19. Texas 21:Tom Loeffler: retired torun for Governor of Texas.
20. Utah 2:David Smith Monson retired.
21. Virginia 2:G. William Whitehurst retired.

One Democrat died in office and one Democrat resigned.

1. New York 6:Joseph P. Addabbo died April 10, 1986.
2. Hawaii 1:Cecil Heftel resigned July 11, 1986, tocampaign for Governor of Hawaii.

Two Democrats lost renomination.

1. Hawaii 1:Neil Abercrombie lost renomination toMufi Hannemann, who lost the general election toPat Saiki.
2. New York 6:Alton Waldon lost renomination toFloyd Flake, who won the general election.

One Republican lost renomination

1. Michigan 4:Mark D. Siljander lost renomination toFred Upton, who won the general election.

One Democrat lost re-election to Republicans

1. Missouri 2:Robert A. Young lost re-election toJack Buechner.

5 Republicans lost re-election to Democrats

1. Colorado 3:Michael L. Strang lost re-election toBen Nighthorse Campbell.
2. Mississippi 2:Webb Franklin lost re-election toMike Espy.
3. New York 30:Fred J. Eckert lost re-election toLouise Slaughter.
4. North Carolina 4:Bill Cobey lost re-election toDavid Price.
5. North Carolina 11:Bill Hendon lost re-election toJames M. Clarke.

Eight Republican seats were won by Democrats:

1. Indiana 5: won byJim Jontz.
2. Iowa 3: won byDavid R. Nagle.
3. Maine 1: won byJoseph E. Brennan.
4. Maryland 2: won byTom McMillen.
5. New York 1: won byGeorge J. Hochbrueckner.
6. South Carolina 4: won byLiz J. Patterson.
7. Utah 2: won byWayne Owens.
8. Virginia 2: won byOwen B. Pickett.

Seven Democratic seat was won by a Republican:

1. Hawaii 1: won byPat Saiki.
2. Iowa 6: won byFred Grandy.
3. Louisiana 8: won byClyde C. Holloway.
4. Maryland 8: won byConnie Morella.
5. New York 34: won byAmo Houghton.
6. Oklahoma 1: won byJim Inhofe.
7. Pennsylvania 7: won byCurt Weldon.

Sorted by election date

Boggs and Huckaby won more than 50% of the vote in their Sept. 27 jungle primaries. Livingston, Tauzin and Roemer were automatically re-elected without appearing on a ballot. In the 7th and 8th districts, runoffs were required when no candidate received a majority in the jungle primary.