Since 1946, the president's party has lost House seats in the first midterm at different average rates depending on party—Democratic presidents lose ~30 seats, Republican presidents ~16—but a major reason for the gap is that Democrats controlled the House for more of that period (a larger sample), so the overall average is roughly 20-23 seats with large variance.

factualpending

Speaker

David Brady

Evidence Quote

say the average is average losses about 20 22 23 seats but there's a lot of variance

Source

David Brady on the State of the Electorate 09/02/2010EconTalk
Created: 6/16/2026, 2:51:22 PM

My Notes

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