House Majority

There are a few races still to be decided. Two won't be held until December. Both of those are in Louisiana and both favor Democrats. Two have the Democrat with the lead (MD 01, VA 05), and three have the Republican with a lead (AK 01, CA 04, WA 08).

The NYT says we now have 254 seats, the Republicans have 174, and the seven undecideds are probably going to go 4 to the Dems, 2 to the Reps, and one true toss-up (WA 08), so we can count on 258 seats and we might get 259.

How does that compare to past Congresses? Let's look at when the Dems had at least 250 House members:

313 - 73rd - FDR
322 - 74th - FDR
333 - 75th - FDR
262 - 76th - FDR
267 - 77th - FDR
263 - 81st - Truman
283 - 86th - Eisenhower
262 - 87th - JFK
258 - 88th - LBJ
295 - 89th - LBJ
255 - 92nd - Nixon
291 - 94th - Ford
292 - 95th - Carter
277 - 96th - Carter
269 - 98th - Reagan
253 - 99th - Reagan
258 - 100th - Reagan
260 - 101st - Bush
267 - 102nd - Bush
258 - 103rd - Clinton

I've highlighted where the Congress was within 4 people of 258. Hmm. Quite a history there. There were the amazing super majorities of the New Deal era (over 300), a big spike at the end of Eisenhower, another big spike under LBJ and the Great Society, and a final big spike after Nixon. The Republicans have not commanded even this many members since Herbert Hoover, and look at what they have shoved through with much smaller majorities.

What this says to me is that there is a large enough majority in the House to push the agenda firmly left if the members have the will power to do it.

Anglachel