United States House of Representatives elections, 2012

United States House of Representatives elections, 2012

2010 ← November 6, 2012 → 2014

All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and all 6 non-voting delegates 218 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader John Boehner Nancy Pelosi Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat Ohio-8th California-12th Last election 242 seats, 51.7% 193 seats, 44.9% Seats won 234 201 Seat change 8 8 Popular vote 58,228,253 59,645,531 Percentage 47.6% 48.8% Swing 4.1% 3.9%

Results:   Democratic hold   Democratic gain   Republican hold   Republican gain

Speaker before election John Boehner Republican Elected Speaker John Boehner Republican

John Boehner
Republican

John Boehner
Republican

The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It coincided with the re-election of President Barack Obama. Elections were held for all 435 seats representing the 50 U.S. states and also for the delegates from the District of Columbia and five major U.S. territories. The winners of this election cycle served in the 113th United States Congress. This was the first congressional election using districts drawn-up based on the 2010 United States Census.

Although Democratic candidates received a nationwide plurality of more than 1.4 million votes (1.2%) in all House elections, the Republican Party won a 33-seat advantage in the state-apportioned totals, thus retaining its House majority by 17 seats. This disparity – common in close elections involving single-member district voting – has on occasion been attributed to gerrymandering in the congressional redistricting process following the 2010 United States Census. However, some analysts have argued that Republicans would have won the House even without taking into account the impact of gerrymandering. An alternative explanation was that the large number of Democratic votes in urban centers led to "unintentional gerrymandering," as compact districts naturally led to "wasted votes" in districts that easily elected Democratic candidates. The GOP also had a greater number of incumbents, who tend to have an advantage in elections.