Seats in Congress Gained/Lost by the President's Party in Mid-Term Elections

Franklin D. Roosevelt - Joseph R. Biden (See analytical graphs below table).

				President's Job Approval Percentage (Gallup) As of:						President's Party		Seat Change, President's Party
Year	Lame Duck?	President	President's Party	Early Aug	Late Aug	Early Sep	Late Sep	Early Oct	Late Oct	House Seats to Defend	Senate Seats to Defend	House Seats	Senate Seats
1934		Franklin D. Roosevelt	D	--	--	--	--	--	--	313	14	+9	+9
1938		Franklin D. Roosevelt	D	--	--	--	--	--	60	334	27	-81	-7
1942		Franklin D. Roosevelt	D	74	--	74	--	--	--	267	25	-46	-9
1946		Harry S. Truman	D	--	--	33	--	--	27	244	21	-45	-12
1950	LD*	Harry S. Truman	D	nd	43	35	35	43	41	263	21	-29	-6
1954		Dwight D. Eisenhower	R	67	62	--	66	62	--	221	11	-18	-1
1958	LD	Dwight D. Eisenhower	R	58	56	56	54	57	--	203	20	-48	-13
1962		John F. Kennedy	D	--	67	--	63	--	61	264	18	-4	+3
1966	†	Lyndon B. Johnson	D	51	47	--	--	44	44	295	21	-47	-4
1970		Richard Nixon	R	55	55	57	51	58	--	192	7	-12	+2
1974	±	Gerald R. Ford (Nixon)	R	71	--	66	50	53	--	192	15	-48	-5
1978		Jimmy Carter	D	43	43	48	--	49	45	292	14	-15	-3
1982		Ronald Reagan	R	41	42	--	42	--	42	192	12	-26	+1
1986	LD	Ronald Reagan	R	--	64	--	63	64	--	181	22	-5	-8
1990		George Bush	R	75	73	54	--	--	57	175	17	-8	-1
1994		William J. Clinton	D	43	40	40	44	43	48	258	17	-52	-8
1998	LD	William J. Clinton	D	65	62	63	66	65	65	207	18	+5	0
2002		George W. Bush	R	--	66	66	66	68	67	220	20	+8	+2
2006	LD	George W. Bush	R	37	42	39	44	37	37	233	15	-30	-6
2010		Barack Obama	D	44	44	45	45	45	45	257	15	-63	-6
2014	LD	Barack Obama	D	42	42	41	43	42	41	201	20	-13	-9
2018		Donald J. Trump	R	41	41	39	41	44	44	241	9	-40	+2
2022		Joseph R. Biden, Jr.	D	38	44	44	42	42	40	222	14	-9	+1

House Seats gained or lost by President's Party as function of seats up for reelection

Last Updated

December 6, 2022

Notes

Beginning with Obama, job approval is the average job approval during the noted half month period.
Seats held by Progressives or Independents are attributed to the major party with which they caucused.
• A "lame-duck" mid-term (Congressional) election is one that occurs when the incumbent President is constitutionally prohibited from seeking re-election in the next scheduled presidential election. Arguable exceptions are noted below.
* Harry S. Truman was not prevented from running for a 3rd term in 1952 although he chose not to seek re-election.
† Lyndon B. Johnson was not a lame-duck president in 1966, but in March 1968 he chose not to seek
re-election.
± Although Gerald Ford was not a lame-duck president and did run for re-election in 1976, the 1974 mid-term election took place only three months after the resignation of Richard Nixon and only two months following Ford's pardon of Nixon.

Source(s)

Presidential job approval data from The Gallup Poll.
• 1950 — 1994 Congressional seat gain/loss from Lyn Ragsdale, Vital Statistics on the Presidency, Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1998.
• 1934 — 1946 & 1998 — 2022 Congressional seat gain/loss; all years Senate seats to defend, by The American Presidency Project

Citations

The American Presidency Project. "Seats in Congress Gained/Lost by the President's Party in Mid-Term Elections." Santa Barbara, CA: University of California. Available from the World Wide Web: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/332343/.