2022 United States House of Representatives elections
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 8, 2022, as part of the 2022 United States elections during President Joe Biden's term. Representatives were elected from all 435 U.S. congressional districts across each of the 50 states to serve in the 118th United States Congress, as well as 5 non-voting members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the District of Columbia and four of the five inhabited insular areas. Numerous other federal, state, and local elections, including the 2022 U.S. Senate elections and the 2022 U.S. gubernatorial elections, were also held simultaneously. These were the first elections after the 2020 redistricting cycle.
The Republican Party, led by Kevin McCarthy, won control of the House, defeating Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party, which had held a majority in the House since 2019, as a result of the 2018 [United States House of Representatives elections|2018 elections]. Although most observers and pundits predicted large Republican gains, they instead narrowly won 4 seats over the 218 seats needed for a majority, as Democrats won several upsets in districts considered Republican-leaning or won by Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, such as. Republicans also won some upsets in districts that Joe Biden won by double-digits, including. Observers attributed Democrats' surprise over-performance to, among other factors, the issue of abortion in the United States after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and the underperformance of multiple statewide and congressional Republican candidates who held extreme views, including refusal to accept the party's 2020 electoral loss. On the other hand, Democrats' political prospects were weighed down by the 2021–2022 inflation spike, which Republicans blamed on President Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress. The elections marked the first time since 1874–75 United States [House of Representatives elections|1875] that Democrats won all districts along the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time since 2004 [United States House of Representatives elections|2004] that Republicans gained House seats in consecutive elections.
Gerrymandering during the 2020 U.S. redistricting cycle had a significant impact on the 2022 election results. Republicans made gains as a result of gerrymandering in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas, while Democrats made gains as a result of gerrymandering in Illinois and New Mexico. Defensive gerrymanders helped both parties hold competitive seats in various states, while Republican gains in New York and Democratic gains in North Carolina and Ohio were made possible because their state supreme courts overturned gerrymanders passed by their state legislatures.
The narrow margin by which Republicans won their House majority resulted in historic legislative difficulties in the 118th Congress. Due to a number of Republican holdouts affiliated with the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy was not January 2023 [Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election|elected] Speaker of the House until the 15th round of voting, thus marking the first time since 1923 [Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election|1923] that a speaker was not elected in the first round. This was the smallest Republican majority since 2000, before Republicans were re-elected with a smaller majority in 2024.
Electoral system
Forty-six states used the first-past-the-post voting plurality system to elect their representatives. Instant-runoff voting was used in two states and runoff system was used in two states.Results
As mail-in voting has increased in U.S. elections, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, the results in some congressional races were not known immediately following the election, which was more competitive and closer than expected, as a widely predicted red wave election did not materialize. Instead, Democrats lost fewer seats than expected at less than 10 and fewer than the average for the president's party since the end of World War II. Several tossup or lean Republican races were won by Democrats, including upsets in,, and congressional districts; Washington 3rd's seat was particularly notable because the Cook Political Report had labeled the district as lean Republican and FiveThirtyEight had Marie Gluesenkamp Perez's chance of winning at 2-in-100. Democrats also narrowly missed a further upset for the seat held by Republican Lauren Boebert; it was so close that it needed a recount.Democrats performed better than expected in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, benefitting from a coattail effect, and performed well in Colorado and New England but suffered substantial losses in New York. In Florida and New York, Republicans achieved state-specific red waves, and red states became redder. Gerrymandering during the 2020 U.S. redistricting cycle gave each party advantages in various states; due to advantageous maps, Republicans performed well or made gains in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee, and Democrats made gains in Illinois and New Mexico. As of November 10, 14 seats were flipped, with Republicans gaining 11 of them for a net gain of 8 seats; Republicans needed to maintain a net gain of at least 5 seats to regain the House. Republicans won the popular vote by a 3 percent margin and would have won it even if Democrats had contested more seats than they did, which may have cost them about 1–2 percent in the final popular vote margin. According to Harry Enten of CNN, the final popular vote margin was the second-closest midterm margin for a U.S. House election in the last 70 years.
The unprecedented degree of Republican underperformance during the election defied election analysts' predictions of heavy gains, given that while a majority of voters trusted Democrats on abortion, they were disappointed with the performance of Joe Biden and Democrats on issues facing the country, such as the economy and inflation, crime, and immigration. This has been variously attributed by political commentators to the issue of abortion after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022; candidate quality among Republicans who held extremist or unpopular views, such as denial of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results; and youth turnout, among others. According to Ron Brownstein of CNN in 2023, exit polls showed that House Democrats won independent voters by 2 percentage points, making it the first time the party holding the White House did so in a midterm election since at least 1982.
Biden described the results as a "strong night" for Democrats, and he urged for cooperation in Congress. Senator Lindsey Graham commented: "It's certainly not a red wave, that's for darn sure. But it is clear that we will take back the House." On November 9, when the results for the House were still uncertain, the Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy launched his bid to succeed long-time House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In a letter asking for support among Republicans, he wrote: "I trust you know that earning the majority is only the beginning. Now, we will be measured by what we do with our majority. Now the real work begins."
Control of the House would not be known until November 16, after Mike Garcia was projected to win reelection in, giving Republicans a total of at least 218 seats; and giving Republicans a narrow majority. The size of the majority remained in doubt with several races still to be called more than one week after Election Day. On November 17, after Republicans were projected to win back the House, Pelosi announced that she would not seek reelection as Speaker of the House, and Hakeem Jeffries was later selected as the Democratic nominee by acclamation. On November 15, McCarthy won an internal Republican caucus poll as the party's nominee for Speaker of the House; as several members of the Republican caucus did not vote for him and had expressed opposition to his speakership, it cast doubt on how the January 2023 [Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election|2023 U.S. speaker election], which began on January 3, would unfold. McCarthy's speaker bid was the first of a party leader List of Speaker of [the United States House of Representatives elections#December 1923|since 1923] that did not succeed on the first ballot.
Federal
The 2022 election results are compared below to the 2020 election. The table does not include blank and over or under votes, both of which were included in the official results.Per state
Maps
Retirements
In total, 49 representatives and one non-voting delegate retired, 17 of whom sought other offices.Democrats
- : Ann Kirkpatrick retired.
- : Jerry McNerney retired.
- : Jackie Speier retired.
- : Karen Bass retired to run for mayor of Los Angeles.
- : Lucille Roybal-Allard retired.
- : Alan Lowenthal retired.
- : Ed Perlmutter retired.
- : Stephanie Murphy retired.
- : Val Demings retired to 2022 [United States Senate election in Florida|run for U.S. Senate].
- : Michael San Nicolas retired to run for governor of Guam.
- : Kai Kahele retired to run for governor of Hawaii.
- : Bobby Rush retired.
- : Cheri Bustos retired.
- : John Yarmuth retired.
- : Anthony Brown retired to 2022 [Maryland Attorney General election|run for attorney general of Maryland].
- : Brenda Lawrence retired.
- : Albio Sires retired.
- : Thomas Suozzi retired to run for governor of New York.
- : Kathleen Rice retired.
- : G. K. Butterfield retired.
- : David Price retired.
- : Tim Ryan retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Peter DeFazio retired.
- : Conor Lamb retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Mike Doyle retired.
- : Jim Langevin retired.
- : Jim Cooper retired due to redistricting.
- : Eddie Bernice Johnson retired.
- : Peter Welch retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Ron Kind retired.
Republicans
- : Mo Brooks retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Connie Conway retired.
- : Jody Hice retired to 2022 [Georgia Secretary of State election|run for secretary of state of Georgia].
- : Adam Kinzinger retired.
- : Trey Hollingsworth retired.
- : Fred Upton retired.
- : Vicky Hartzler retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Billy Long retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Lee Zeldin retired to run for governor of New York.
- : Joe Sempolinski retired.
- : John Katko retired.
- : Chris Jacobs retired.
- : Ted Budd retired to run for U.S. Senate.
- : Bob Gibbs retired.
- : Anthony Gonzalez retired.
- : Markwayne Mullin retired to special election in Oklahoma|run for U.S. Senate].
- : Fred Keller retired.
- : Louie Gohmert retired to run for attorney general of Texas.
- : Van Taylor retired after admitting to an affair.
- : Kevin Brady retired.
Resignations and death
Democrats
Two Democrats resigned before the end of their terms.- : Charlie Crist resigned August 31 to run for governor of Florida.
- : Ted Deutch resigned September 30 to become CEO of the American Jewish Committee.
Republicans
- : Jackie Walorski died August 3. A 2022 [Indiana's 2nd congressional district special election|special election] to fill the remainder of her term was held concurrently with the general election for the next full term.
Incumbents defeated
In primary elections
Democrats
Six Democrats, half of whom were freshmen, lost renomination.- : Carolyn Bourdeaux lost a redistricting race to fellow incumbent Lucy McBath, who won the general election.
- : Marie Newman lost a redistricting race to fellow incumbent Sean Casten, who won the general election.
- : Andy Levin lost a redistricting race to fellow incumbent Haley Stevens, who won the general election.
- : Mondaire Jones sought nomination in a new district and lost to Dan Goldman, who won the general election.
- : Carolyn Maloney lost a redistricting race to fellow incumbent Jerry Nadler, who won the general election.
- : Kurt Schrader lost renomination to Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who lost the general election to Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Republicans
- : Rodney Davis lost a redistricting race to fellow incumbent Mary Miller, who won the general election.
- : Peter Meijer lost renomination to John Gibbs, who lost the general election to Hillary Scholten.
- : Steven Palazzo lost renomination to Mike Ezell, who won the general election.
- : Madison Cawthorn lost renomination to Chuck Edwards, who won the general election.
- : Tom Rice lost renomination to Russell Fry, who won the general election.
- : Jaime Herrera Beutler lost renomination to Joe Kent and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the blanket primary, with Gluesenkamp Perez defeating Kent in the general election.
- : David McKinley lost a redistricting race to fellow incumbent Alex Mooney, who won the general election.
- : Liz Cheney lost renomination to Harriet Hageman, who won the general election.
In general elections
Democrats
Six Democrats lost re-election to Republicans.- : Tom O'Halleran lost to Eli Crane.
- : Al Lawson lost a redistricting race to incumbent Republican Neal Dunn.
- : Cindy Axne lost to Zach Nunn.
- : Tom Malinowski lost to Thomas Kean Jr.
- : Sean Patrick Maloney lost to Mike Lawler.
- : Elaine Luria lost to Jen Kiggans.
Republicans
- : Yvette Herrell lost to Gabe Vasquez.
- : Steve Chabot lost to Greg Landsman.
- : Mayra Flores lost a redistricting race to incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.
Reapportionment
New seats
Six new districts were created, and two districts were restored, after the 2020 redistricting process:Seats eliminated
Seats with multiple incumbents running
- : Neal Dunn defeated Al Lawson
- : Lucy McBath defeated Carolyn Bourdeaux
- : Sean Casten defeated Marie Newman
- : Mary Miller defeated Rodney Davis
- : Haley Stevens defeated Andy Levin
- : Jerry Nadler defeated Carolyn Maloney
- : Vicente Gonzalez defeated Mayra Flores
- : Alex Mooney defeated David McKinley
Open seats that changed parties
Republican seats won by Democrats
- : won by Hillary Scholten
- : won by Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
Democratic seats won by Republicans
- : won by Juan Ciscomani
- : won by Cory Mills
- : won by Anna Paulina Luna
- : won by James Moylan
- : won by George Santos
- : won by Anthony D'Esposito
- : won by Lori Chavez-DeRemer
- : won by Andy Ogles
- : won by Derrick Van Orden
Open seats that parties held
Democratic holds/flips
- : won by Kevin Mullin
- : won by Sydney Kamlager
- : won by Robert Garcia
- : won by Brittany Pettersen
- : won by Maxwell Frost
- : won by Jared Moskowitz
- : won by Jill Tokuda
- : won by Jonathan Jackson
- : won by Eric Sorensen
- : won by Morgan McGarvey
- : won by Glenn Ivey
- : won by Rob Menendez
- : won by Dan Goldman
- : won by Don Davis
- : won by Valerie Foushee
- : won by Emilia Sykes
- : won by Val Hoyle
- : won by Summer Lee
- : won by Chris Deluzio
- : won by Seth Magaziner
- : won by Jasmine Crockett
- : won by Becca Balint
Republican holds/flips
- : won by Dale Strong
- : won by Mike Collins
- : won by Rudy Yakym, who also won the district's special election, see below
- : won by Erin Houchin
- : won by Mike Ezell
- : won by Mark Alford
- : won by Eric Burlison
- : won by Nick LaLota
- : won by Brandon Williams
- : won by Nick Langworthy
- : won by Chuck Edwards
- : won by Max Miller
- : won by Josh Brecheen
- : won by Russell Fry
- : won by Nathaniel Moran
- : won by Keith Self
- : won by Morgan Luttrell
- : won by Harriet Hageman
Newly created seats
Democratic gain
Eight Democrats were elected in newly created seats.- : won by Yadira Caraveo
- : won by Delia Ramirez
- : won by Nikki Budzinski
- : won by Shri Thanedar
- : won by Wiley Nickel
- : won by Jeff Jackson
- : won by Andrea Salinas
- : won by Greg Casar
Republican gain
- : won by Kevin Kiley
- : won by John Duarte
- : won by Aaron Bean
- : won by Laurel Lee
- : won by Rich McCormick
- : won by John E. James
- : won by Ryan Zinke
- : won by Marc Molinaro
- : won by Monica De La Cruz
- : won by Wesley Hunt
Vulnerable seats
Democratic
This is a list of districts that voted for Trump in 2020 but had a Democratic incumbent:- Alaska at-large
- Arizona 2
- Iowa 3
- Maine 2
- Ohio 9
- Pennsylvania 8
Republican
- Arizona 1
- California 22
- California 27 |Mike Garcia]
- California 40
- California 45
- Nebraska 2
- New Mexico 2
- Ohio 1
- Pennsylvania 1 |Brian Fitzpatrick]
- Texas 34
Closest races
| District | Winner | Margin |
| data-sort-value=1 | 0.17% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 0.42% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 0.49% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 0.64% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 0.69% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 0.69% | |
| data-sort-value=-2 | 0.70% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 0.79% | |
| data-sort-value=-2 | 0.83% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 0.88% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 0.98% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 1.35% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 1.50% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 1.56% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 1.97% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 2.08% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 2.45% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 2.45% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 2.49% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 2.67% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 2.80% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 3.05% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 3.16% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 3.19% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 3.41% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 3.43% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 3.59% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 3.70% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 3.71% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 3.97% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 3.97% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 4.66% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 4.69% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 4.74% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 4.76% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 4.83% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 4.83% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 5.23% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 5.26% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 5.35% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 5.42% | |
| data-sort-value=-2 | 5.52% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 5.61% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 5.68% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 6.10% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 6.48% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 6.51% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 6.78% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 6.81% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 6.87% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 7.27% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 7.30% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 7.48% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 7.53% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 7.67% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 7.74% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 7.74% | |
| data-sort-value=2 | 8.08% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 8.13% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 8.25% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 8.32% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 8.36% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 8.48% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 8.50% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 8.72% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 8.85% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 8.91% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 9.06% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 9.28% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 9.58% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 9.63% | |
| data-sort-value=1 | 9.73% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 9.93% | |
| data-sort-value=-1 | 9.95% |
Election ratings
In February 2022, The Guardian reported that "America is poised to have a staggeringly low number of competitive seats in the US House, an alarming trend that makes it harder to govern and exacerbates political polarization." The 2020 redistricting cycle resulted in 94% of the U.S. House running in relatively safe seats, often due to gerrymandering.Special elections
There were nine special elections in 2022 to the 117th United States Congress, listed here by date and district.!
- 79.0%
- Jason Mariner 19.4%
!
!
!
!
!
!
!