NATIONAL POLITICS: 1982 ELECTIONS

The Ninety-seventh Congress

The Republicans' margin in the Senate was unchanged after the 1982 congressional elections, with the GOP holding onto its majority, owing in large part to a nationally financed campaign that tipped the balance in favor of the Republicans in every close contest. Only five new senators were sworn in at the opening of the Ninety-eighth Congress. Big changes took place in the House of Representatives, where redistricting and fallout from the recession of the early 1980s resulted in the election of 81 new congressmen, 57 of them Democrats, increasing their edge in the House to 103 seats. The majority of the new Democrats campaigned on promises to defend the social programs the Reagan administration was trying to cut back, while promising to hold down the creation of new ones. Most of them also called themselves fiscal conservatives and blamed the recession on Reagan's supply-side economic measures. Several Republican incumbents from districts hurt badly by the economic downturn lost their seats because they allowed themselves to become too closely associated with Reagan's economic programs. When reapportionment had shifted 17 House seats to the Sun Belt, many had predicted that the House would become more conservative. The Republicans had hoped to take a dozen of these new districts in the South and Southwest, but Democrats, most of them moderates, won in 10. The Democrats also managed to withstand the losses of districts in the Northeast and Midwest. In the ten northern states that lost seats in the reapportionment, Republicans ended up with 18 fewer seats than they had after the 1980 elections. Their losses were a setback for the Republicans but not a major upset. Hereafter the Reagan administration would have to compromise with liberal and moderate Democrats rather than counting on a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats to push through its programs relatively intact.

Governorships

The Democrats also gained seven governorships, while suffering the defeat of only one Democratic incumbent. Among the Democratic victors were Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who won back the governorship he lost in 1980; Bruce Babbitt, reelected as governor of Arizona; Richard Riley, elected to a second term in South Carolina; George C. Wallace of Alabama, a onetime segregationist who won a fourth term by putting together a coalition of blacks and working-class whites; and newcomers Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, Robert Kerrey of Nebraska, and Mario Cuomo of New York.

Source:

Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 38 (1982).

Senate	97th Congress	98th Congress	Net Gain/Loss
Democrats	45	46^*	+1
Republicans	54	54	0
Independents	1	0	−1

^* By the 1984 elections there were 45 Democrats and 55 Republicans in the Senate.

House	97th Congress	98th Congress	Net Gain/Loss
Democrats	241	269^*	+26
Republicans	192	166	−26
Independents	0	0	0

^* By the 1984 elections there were 267 Democrats and 168 Republicans in the House.

Governors	1980	1982	Net Gain/Loss
Democrats	27	34	+7
Republicans	23	16	−7
Independents	0	0	0