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Democratic hold Republican hold No election |
There were six special elections to the United States House of Representatives in 2021 during the 117th United States Congress.
All of the elections were won by the party previously holding the seat. Therefore, there were no net changes in party.
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Congressional Elections: Crash Course Government and Politics #6
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Transcription
Hi, I'm Craig and this is Crash Course Government and Politics, and today we're going to talk about what is, if you ask the general public, the most important part of politics: elections. If you ask me, it's hair styles. Look at Martin Van Buren's sideburns, how could he not be elected? Americans are kind of obsessed with elections, I mean when this was being recorded in early 2015, television, news and the internet were already talking about who would be Democrat and Republican candidates for president in 2016. And many of the candidates have unofficially been campaigning for years. I've been campaigning; your grandma's been campaigning. Presidential elections are exciting and you can gamble on them. Is that legal, can you gamble on them, Stan? Anyway, why we're so obsessed with them is a topic for another day. Right now I'm gonna tell you that the fixation on the presidential elections is wrong, but not because the president doesn't matter. No, today we're gonna look at the elections of the people that are supposed to matter the most, Congress. Constitutionally at least, Congress is the most important branch of government because it is the one that is supposed to be the most responsive to the people. One of the main reasons it's so responsive, at least in theory, is the frequency of elections. If a politician has to run for office often, he or she, because unlike the president we have women serving in Congress, kind of has to pay attention to what the constituents want, a little bit, maybe. By now, I'm sure that most of you have memorized the Constitution, so you recognize that despite their importance in the way we discuss politics, elections aren't really a big feature of the Constitution. Except of course for the ridiculously complex electoral college system for choosing the president, which we don't even want to think about for a few episodes. In fact, here's what the Constitution says about Congressional Elections in Article 1 Section 2: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature." So the Constitution does establish that the whole of the house is up for election every 2 years, and 1/3 of the senate is too, but mainly it leaves the scheduling and rules of elections up to the states. The actual rules of elections, like when the polls are open and where they actually are, as well as the registration requirements, are pretty much up to the states, subject to some federal election law. If you really want to know the rules in your state, I'm sure that someone at the Board of Elections, will be happy to explain them to you. Really, you should give them a call; they're very, very lonely. In general though, here's what we can say about American elections. First stating the super obvious, in order to serve in congress, you need to win an election. In the House of Representatives, each election district chooses a single representative, which is why we call them single-member districts. The number of districts is determined by the Census, which happens every 10 years, and which means that elections ending in zeros are super important, for reasons that I'll explain in greater detail in a future episode. It's because of gerrymandering. The Senate is much easier to figure out because both of the state Senators are elected by the entire state. It's as if the state itself were a single district, which is true for states like Wyoming, which are so unpopulated as to have only 1 representative. Sometimes these elections are called at large elections. Before the election ever happens, you need candidates. How candidates are chosen differs from state to state, but usually it has something to do with political parties, although it doesn't have to. Why are things so complicated?! What we can say is that candidates, or at least good candidates, usually have certain characteristics. Sorry America. First off, if you are gonna run for office, you should have an unblemished record, free of, oh I don't know, felony convictions or sex scandals, except maybe in Louisiana or New York. This might lead to some pretty bland candidates or people who are so calculating that they have no skeletons in their closet, but we Americans are a moral people and like our candidates to reflect our ideals rather than our reality. The second characteristic that a candidate must possess is the ability to raise money. Now some candidates are billionaires and can finance their own campaigns. But most billionaires have better things to do: buying yachts, making even more money, building money forts, buying more yachts, so they don't have time to run for office. But most candidates get their money for their campaigns by asking for it. The ability to raise money is key, especially now, because running for office is expensive. Can I get a how expensive is it? "How expensive is it?!" Well, so expensive that the prices of elections continually rises and in 2012 winners of House races spent nearly 2 million each. Senate winners spent more than 10 million. By the time this episode airs, I'm sure the numbers will be much higher like a gajillion billion million. Money is important in winning an election, but even more important, statistically, is already being in Congress. Let's go to the Thought Bubble. The person holding an office who runs for that office again is called the incumbent and has a big advantage over any challenger. This is according to political scientists who, being almost as bad at naming things as historians, refer to this as incumbency advantage. There are a number of reasons why incumbents tend to hold onto their seats in congress, if they want to. The first is that a sitting congressman has a record to run on, which we hope includes some legislative accomplishments, although for the past few Congresses, these don't seem to matter. The record might include case work, which is providing direct services to constituents. This is usually done by congressional staffers and includes things like answering questions about how to get certain government benefits or writing recommendation letters to West Point. Congressmen can also provide jobs to constituents, which is usually a good way to get them to vote for you. These are either government jobs, kind of rare these days, called patronage or indirect employment through government contracts for programs within a Congressman's district. These programs are called earmarks or pork barrel programs, and they are much less common now because Congress has decided not to use them any more, sort of. The second advantage that incumbents have is that they have a record of winning elections, which if you think about it, is pretty obvious. Being a proven winner makes it easier for a congressmen to raise money, which helps them win, and long term incumbents tend to be more powerful in Congress which makes it even easier for them to raise money and win. The Constitution give incumbents one structural advantage too. Each elected congressman is allowed $100,000 and free postage to send out election materials. This is called the franking privilege. It's not so clear how great an advantage this is in the age of the internet, but at least according to the book The Victory Lab, direct mail from candidates can be surprisingly effective. How real is this incumbency advantage? Well if you look at the numbers, it seems pretty darn real. Over the past 60 years, almost 90% of members of The House of Representatives got re-elected. The Senate has been even more volatile, but even at the low point in 1980 more than 50% of sitting senators got to keep their jobs. Thanks, Thought Bubble. You're so great. So those are some of the features of congressional elections. Now, if you'll permit me to get a little politically sciencey, I'd like to try to explain why elections are so important to the way that Congressmen and Senators do their jobs. In 1974, political scientist David Mayhew published a book in which he described something he called "The Electoral Connection." This was the idea that Congressmen were primarily motivated by the desire to get re-elected, which intuitively makes a lot of sense, even though I'm not sure what evidence he had for this conclusion. Used to be able to get away with that kind of thing I guess, clearly David may-not-hew to the rules of evidence, pun [rim shot], high five, no. Anyway Mayhew's research methodology isn't as important as his idea itself because The Electoral Connection provides a frame work for understanding congressman's activities. Mayhew divided representatives' behaviors and activities into three categories. The first is advertising; congressmen work to develop their personal brand so that they are recognizable to voters. Al D'Amato used to be know in New York as Senator Pothole, because he was able to bring home so much pork that he could actually fix New York's streets. Not by filling them with pork, money, its money, remember pork barrel spending? The second activity is credit claiming; Congressmen get things done so that they can say they got them done. A lot of case work and especially pork barrel spending are done in the name of credit claiming. Related to credit claiming, but slightly different, is position taking. This means making a public judgmental statement on something likely to be of interest to voters. Senators can do this through filibusters. Representatives can't filibuster, but they can hold hearings, publicly supporting a hearing is a way of associating yourself with an idea without having to actually try to pass legislation. And of course they can go on the TV, especially on Sunday talk shows. What's a TV, who even watches TV? Now the idea of The Electoral Connection doesn't explain every action a member of Congress takes; sometimes they actually make laws to benefit the public good or maybe solve problems, huh, what an idea! But Mayhew's idea gives us a way of thinking about Congressional activity, an analytical lens that connects what Congressmen actually do with how most of us understand Congressmen, through elections. So the next time you see a Congressmen call for a hearing on a supposed horrible scandal or read about a Senator threatening to filibuster a policy that may have significant popular support, ask yourself, "Is this Representative claiming credit or taking a position, and how will this build their brand?" In other words: what's the electoral connection and how will whatever they're doing help them get elected? This might feel a little cynical, but the reality is Mayhew's thesis often seems to fit with today's politics. Thanks for watching, see you next week. Vote for me; I'm on the TV. I'm not -- I'm on the YouTube. Crash Course: Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios. Support for Crash Course US Government comes from Voqal. Voqal supports nonprofits that use technology and media to advance social equity. Learn more about their mission and initiatives at Voqal.org. Crash Course is made by all of these nice people. Thanks for watching. That guy isn't nice.
Summary
Elections are listed by date and district.
District | Incumbent | This race | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member | Party | First elected | Results | Candidates | |
Louisiana 5 | Ralph Abraham | Republican | 2014 | Incumbent's term expired January 3, 2021. Representative-elect Luke Letlow died December 29, 2020, of COVID-19. New member elected March 20, 2021. Republican hold. |
|
Louisiana 2 | Cedric Richmond | Democratic | 2010 | Incumbent resigned January 15, 2021, to serve as the director of the Office of Public Liaison and as a Senior Advisor to Joe Biden. New member elected April 24, 2021, after no candidate received a majority vote in the March 20 jungle primary. Democratic hold. |
|
New Mexico 1 | Deb Haaland | Democratic | 2018 | Incumbent resigned March 16, 2021, to become U.S. Secretary of the Interior. New member elected June 1, 2021. Democratic hold. |
|
Texas 6 | Ron Wright | Republican | 2018 | Incumbent died February 7, 2021, of COVID-19. New member elected July 27, 2021, after no candidate received a majority vote in the May 1 jungle primary.[4] Republican hold. |
|
Ohio 11 | Marcia Fudge | Democratic | 2008 (Special) | Incumbent resigned March 10, 2021, to become U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. New member elected November 2, 2021. Democratic hold. |
|
Ohio 15 | Steve Stivers | Republican | 2010 | Incumbent resigned May 16, 2021, to become the president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. New member elected November 2, 2021. Republican hold. |
|
Louisiana's 5th congressional district
Republican representative-elect Luke Letlow died on December 29, 2020, before taking office.[5] His seat was left vacant at the start of the next session of Congress. A special nonpartisan election was called by Governor John Bel Edwards for March 20, 2021.[6] Despite a large field of Republican candidates, the election was won by Letlow's widow, Julia Letlow, who won a majority of the vote outright, eliminating the need for a runoff.[7]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Julia Letlow | 67,203 | 64.86 | |
Democratic | Sandra Christophe | 28,255 | 27.27 | |
Republican | Chad Conerly | 5,497 | 5.31 | |
Republican | Robert Lansden | 929 | 0.90 | |
Republican | Allen Guillory | 464 | 0.45 | |
Independent | Jim Davis | 402 | 0.39 | |
Republican | Sancha Smith | 334 | 0.32 | |
Republican | M.V. Mendoza | 236 | 0.23 | |
Independent | Jaycee Magnuson | 131 | 0.13 | |
Republican | Richard H. Pannell | 67 | 0.06 | |
Republican | Horace Melton III | 62 | 0.06 | |
Republican | Errol Victor Sr. | 36 | 0.03 | |
Total votes | 103,616 | 100.00 | ||
Republican hold |
Louisiana's 2nd congressional district
Incumbent Democrat Cedric Richmond resigned on January 15, 2021, to join the Biden administration, becoming the director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and a Senior Advisor to the President.[8][9] A special nonpartisan election was called by Governor John Bel Edwards for March 20, with a runoff scheduled for April 24.[10]
No candidate reached the 50% threshold needed to win the first round on March 20. Troy Carter and Karen Carter Peterson both qualified for the April 24 runoff. Carter defeated Carter Peterson in the runoff 55% to 45%.[11]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Troy Carter | 34,402 | 36.38 | |
Democratic | Karen Carter Peterson | 21,673 | 22.92 | |
Democratic | Gary Chambers Jr. | 20,163 | 21.31 | |
Republican | Claston Bernard | 9,237 | 9.77 | |
Republican | Chelsea Ardoin | 3,218 | 3.40 | |
Republican | Greg Lirette | 2,349 | 2.48 | |
Republican | Sheldon C. Vincent Sr. | 754 | 0.80 | |
Democratic | Desiree Ontiveros | 699 | 0.74 | |
Independent | Belden Batiste | 598 | 0.63 | |
Democratic | Harold John | 403 | 0.43 | |
Libertarian | Mindy McConnell | 323 | 0.34 | |
Democratic | J. Christopher Johnson | 288 | 0.30 | |
Democratic | Jenette M. Porter | 244 | 0.26 | |
Democratic | Lloyd M. Kelly | 122 | 0.13 | |
Independent | Brandon Jolicoeur | 94 | 0.10 | |
Total votes | 94,567 | 100.00 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Troy Carter | 48,513 | 55.25 | |
Democratic | Karen Carter Peterson | 39,297 | 44.75 | |
Total votes | 87,810 | 100.00 | ||
Democratic hold |
New Mexico's 1st congressional district
Incumbent Democrat Deb Haaland was nominated to become the U.S. Secretary of the Interior for the Biden administration and has been confirmed by the Senate.[12][13][14] She resigned from her seat on March 16, 2021. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham called a special election to be held on June 1.[15][16]
Nominees for the general election were chosen by each state party's central committee. Among a number of candidates, state legislators Melanie Stansbury and Antoinette Sedillo Lopez advanced to the second round of voting, in which Stansbury narrowly prevailed.[17] She would then defeat Republican nominee Mark Moores, as well as Aubrey Dunn Jr., the former state land commissioner who ran as an independent.[18]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Melanie Stansbury | 79,837 | 60.36 | |
Republican | Mark Moores | 47,111 | 35.62 | |
Independent | Aubrey Dunn Jr. | 3,534 | 2.67 | |
Libertarian | Chris Manning | 1,734 | 1.31 | |
Write-in | 46 | 0.03 | ||
Total votes | 132,262 | 100.00 | ||
Democratic hold |
Texas's 6th congressional district
Incumbent Republican Ron Wright died on February 7, 2021. A special nonpartisan election to fill the seat was called by Governor Greg Abbott for May 1, with a runoff on July 27.[4]
No candidate reached the 50% threshold necessary to win the first round on May 1. Susan Wright and Jake Ellzey qualified for the runoff.[20] Elizey defeated Wright 53%-46% in the runoff election on July 28, 2021.[21]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Susan Wright | 15,852 | 19.21 | |
Republican | Jake Ellzey | 10,851 | 13.85 | |
Democratic | Jana Sanchez | 10,497 | 13.39 | |
Republican | Brian Harrison | 8,476 | 10.81 | |
Democratic | Shawn Lassiter | 6,964 | 8.89 | |
Republican | John Anthony Castro | 4,321 | 5.51 | |
Democratic | Tammy Allison Holloway | 4,238 | 5.41 | |
Democratic | Lydia Bean | 2,920 | 3.73 | |
Republican | Michael Wood | 2,503 | 3.19 | |
Republican | Michael Ballantine | 2,224 | 2.84 | |
Republican | Dan Rodimer | 2,086 | 2.66 | |
Democratic | Daryl J. Eddings Sr. | 1,652 | 2.11 | |
Republican | Mike Egan | 1,543 | 1.97 | |
Democratic | Patrick Moses | 1,189 | 1.52 | |
Democratic | Manuel R. Salazar III | 1,119 | 1.43 | |
Republican | Sery Kim | 888 | 1.13 | |
Republican | Travis Rodermund | 460 | 0.59 | |
Independent | Adrian Mizher | 351 | 0.45 | |
Democratic | Brian K. Stephenson | 271 | 0.35 | |
Libertarian | Phil Gray | 265 | 0.34 | |
Democratic | Matthew Hinterlong | 252 | 0.32 | |
Republican | Jennifer Garcia Sharon | 150 | 0.19 | |
Democratic | Chris Suprun | 102 | 0.13 | |
Total votes | 78,374 | 100.00 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Jake Ellzey | 20,837 | 53.27 | |
Republican | Susan Wright | 18,279 | 46.73 | |
Total votes | 39,116 | 100.00 | ||
Republican hold |
Ohio's 11th congressional district
Incumbent Democrat Marcia Fudge was nominated to become the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for the Biden administration and was confirmed by the Senate.[24][25] She resigned from her seat on March 10, 2021. Governor Mike DeWine called a special election to fill the remainder of Fudge's eighth term for November 2, with the primary being held on August 3, concurrently with the election for the 15th district.[26][27][28]
County councilor Shontel Brown won a competitive primary against Our Revolution president Nina Turner.[29] She would then handily win the general election, defeating Laverne Gore by a 58-point margin.[30]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Shontel Brown | 82,913 | 78.88 | |
Republican | Laverne Gore | 22,198 | 21.12 | |
Total votes | 105,111 | 100.00 | ||
Democratic hold |
Ohio's 15th congressional district
Incumbent Republican Steve Stivers resigned on May 16, 2021, to accept the position as president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.[32] Governor Mike DeWine called a special election to fill the remainder of Stivers's sixth term for November 2, with the primary being held on August 3, concurrently with the election for the 11th district.[33][34]
The crowded Republican primary was won by coal mining lobbyist Mike Carey, defeating state legislators Ron Hood, Jeff LaRe, and Bob Peterson, among others.[35] He defeated Democratic nominee Allison Russo by a comfortable margin.[30]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Mike Carey | 94,501 | 58.30 | |
Democratic | Allison Russo | 67,588 | 41.70 | |
Total votes | 162,089 | 100.00 | ||
Republican hold |
References
- ^ a b "U. S. Representative -- 5th Congressional District". Louisiana Secretary of State. March 20, 2021.
- ^ a b c "U. S. Representative -- 2nd Congressional District". Louisiana Secretary of State. March 20, 2021.
- ^ "June 1, 2021 special election". New Mexico Secretary of State. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ a b Dearman, Eleanor (May 12, 2021). "July date is set for Texas congressional runoff for Ron Wright's U.S. House seat". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
- ^ Jim Acosta, Jamie Gangel and Paul LeBlanc. "Congressman-elect Luke Letlow dies after battling COVID-19". CNN. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ Hilburn, Greg. "Here's how the late Luke Letlow's congressional seat will be filled following his COVID death". The News-Star. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ Seitz-Wald, Alex (March 20, 2021). "Republican Julia Letlow wins special congressional election in Louisiana, NBC News projects". NBC News. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ^ Murphy, Paul (November 16, 2020). "Cedric Richmond will be Senior Advisor to the President; to resign House seat before inauguration". WWL-TV. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ Sarah Mucha; Gregory Krieg; Dan Merica; Kate Sullivan (November 16, 2020). "Former Black caucus chair Cedric Richmond to leave Congress and join Biden White House". CNN. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ "Special Election - U.S. House of Representatives Second Congressional District" (PDF). State of Louisiana. January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
- ^ "Louisiana Special Election Results 2021". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ Eilperin, Juliet; Grandoni, Dino. "Biden picks Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be first Native American interior secretary". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
- ^ Reimann, Nicholas. "Biden Taps Rep. Deb Haaland As First-Ever Native American Cabinet Pick". Forbes. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
- ^ Boyd, Dan. "Breaking: Haaland reportedly picked as Biden's interior secretary". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
- ^ "Deb Haaland Confirmed As 1st Native American Interior Secretary". NPR.org. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
- ^ "Vote set for June 1 to fill Haaland seat in New Mexico's 1st District". Roll Call. March 17, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
- ^ Boetel, Ryan (March 31, 2021). "Stansbury chosen as Democratic nominee for special election". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
- ^ "Melanie Stansbury: Tonight New Mexico delivered". CNN. June 2, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
- ^ "June 1 2020 special election". New Mexico Secretary of State. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ Cohen, Ethan; Levy, Adam; Foran, Clare. "Republicans Susan Wright, Jake Ellzey advance to runoff in Texas' 6th District special election". CNN. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
- ^ "Texas Special Runoff Election Results: Sixth Congressional District". The New York Times. July 27, 2021. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
- ^ "Texas' 6th Congressional District's election results". www.texastribune.org. Texas Tribune. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
- ^ "Texas Election Results". Retrieved July 27, 2021.
- ^ "Biden to nominate Marcia Fudge to lead Department of Housing and Urban Development". CBS News. December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ Shear, Michael D.; Kaplan, Thomas; Glueck, Katie (December 8, 2020). "Presidential Transition Live Updates: Biden Picks Marcia Fudge for Housing Secretary and Tom Vilsack to Lead U.S.D.A." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ "2021 Elections Calendar". Ohio Secretary of State. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
- ^ "Gov. Mike DeWine sets Aug. 3 primary date for special election to succeed Marcia Fudge". cleveland.co. March 18, 2021. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
- ^ Eaton, Sabrina (December 8, 2020). "President-elect Joe Biden picks Rep. Marcia Fudge to be Housing and Urban Development secretary, report says". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ Mutnick, Ally (August 4, 2021). "Establishment prevails as Brown beats Turner in Ohio special election". Politico. Bedford Heights. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
- ^ a b "Mike Carey, Shontel Brown, who won US House seats in Ohio, sworn into office". The Indian Express. November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
- ^ a b "OFFICIAL RESULTS FOR THE 2021 SPECIAL CONGRESSIONAL GENERAL ELECTION". Ohio Secretary of State. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
- ^ "Rep. Steve Stivers will resign from Congress to join Ohio Chamber". NBC4 WCMH-TV. April 19, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
- ^ Clay, Jarrod (April 26, 2021). "Gov. DeWine calls special election for Ohio's 15th Congressional District". WTTE. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
- ^ "Governor DeWine calls special election for Ohio's 15th Congressional District". Highland County Press. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
- ^ "15th District special election: Mike Carey wins GOP primary, AP declares". The Columbus Dispatch. August 3, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2022.