United States elections, 2015
| Off-year elections | |
| Election day | November 3 |
|---|---|
| Congressional special elections | |
| Seats contested | 3 |
| Net change | 0 |
| Gubernatorial elections | |
| Seats contested | 3 |
| Net change | 0 |
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|
| Map of the 2015 gubernatorial races Light Blue: Democratic Pickup Light red: Republican Pickup Dark red: Republican Hold Gray: no election |
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The 2015 United States elections were held (for the most part) on Tuesday, November 3. The off-year election included a special election for Speaker of the House. There were also gubernatorial and state legislative elections in a few states; as well as numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local offices on the ballot.
In total, three congressional seats and three governorships were contested, but neither party had a net change. The Republicans however picked up other various statewide offices. This led NPR to call the 2015 elections "a stinging rebuke to President Obama ... cap[ping] off yet another disappointing election cycle for Democrats," who have performed poorly against the Republicans in midterm and off-year elections during the tenure of President Obama.
The following special elections were held to replace Senators or House Representatives who either died or resigned while in office:
After John Boehner of Ohio's 8th congressional district announced his resignation from the position of Speaker of the House on September 25, a special election to replace him was initially scheduled for October 8. However, after initial frontrunner Kevin McCarthy, the current House Majority leader of California's 23rd congressional district, suddenly withdrew from the race the day of the nomination vote, Republican leadership decided to move the election further back, to an unknown date later in October, if not beyond that. Both the second Republican frontrunner, Jason Chaffetz of Utah's 3rd congressional district, and Chairman of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, and Bill Flores of Texas's 17th congressional district, withdrew on October 20 and 22, respectively, to express their support for Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate in 2012, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and representative of Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, who entered the race on October 22 after long being considered a potential frontrunner. The only other Republican candidate was Daniel Webster of Florida's 10th congressional district, a member of the highly-conservative Freedom Caucus that caused both Boehner to resign and McCarthy to withdraw. The Democratic candidate was former Speaker and current House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California's 12th congressional district. On October 29, Ryan was elected Speaker with 236 of the 432 votes cast. Pelosi received 184, and Webster received 9. Jim Cooper, John Lewis, and Colin Powell all received 1 each.
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