United States House elections, 1980

United States House of Representatives elections, 1980

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November 4, 1980

1982 →

All 435 seats to the United States House of Representatives
218 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Tip O'Neill	Bob Michel
Party	Democratic	Republican
Leader's seat	Massachusetts-8th	Illinois-18th
Last election	277 seats	158 seats
Seats won	243	192
Seat change	34	34
Popular vote	39,347,947	37,322,627
Percentage	50.5%	47.9%
Swing	3.2%	3.1%

Speaker before election

Tip O'Neill
Democratic

Elected Speaker

Tip O'Neill
Democratic

The 1980 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1980 which coincided with the election of Ronald Reagan as President. Reagan's victory also allowed many Republican House candidates to secure election, and the Republicans gained a net of 35 seats from the Democratic Party. The Democrats nonetheless retained a significant majority, unlike the Senate elections, where Republicans gained control of the chamber. However, many Democratic congressmen from the south (known as "Boll weevils") frequently took conservative stances on issues, allowing Republicans to have a working ideological majority for some of President Reagan's proposals during his first two years in office.

This election marked the first time since Reconstruction that Republicans were given a sizable majority of Representatives from a Deep South state (South Carolina). It was also the first time that the new Libertarian Party received the third-largest share of the popular vote in both chambers of Congress.

Summary of the November 4, 1980 United States House of Representatives election results

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

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