United States House of Representatives elections, 1876

November 7, 1876^{[Note 1]}

All 293 seats to the United States House of Representatives 147 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Samuel J. Randall	James A. Garfield
Party	Democratic	Republican
Last election	183 seats^{[Note 2]}	106 seats^{[Note 3]}
Seats won	157^[1]^{[Note 4]}^{[Note 5]}	136^{[Note 5]}
Seat change	26	30
Popular vote	4,175,350	3,887,508
Percentage	50.2%	46.8%
Swing	4.5%	3.2%

Speaker before election

Vacancy
Democratic

Elected Speaker

Samuel Randall
Democratic

Elections to the United States House of Representatives were held in 1876 (with one state in 1877) for Representatives to the 45th Congress. These elections coincided with the (heavily contested) election of President Rutherford B. Hayes and the United States Centennial.

Hayes' Republican Party was able to recover from the Democratic Party many of the seats it had lost two years before as the economy improved slightly. However, the Democrats retained a majority and were able to use the disinterest of the people in Republican Reconstruction-led projects to help keep crucial seats. Republican Congressional leadership had a difficult time distancing itself from the corruption of the Grant administration or the legislature's impact on the economy downturn.

Election summaries

↓
157	136
Democratic	Republican

State	Type	Total seats	Democratic	Republican
State	Type	Total seats	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Alabama	District^{[Note 6]}	8	8	2	0	2
Arkansas	District	4	4^{[Note 7]}		0
California	District	4	2	1	2	1
Colorado	At-large	1	1	1	0	1
Connecticut	District	4	3		1
Delaware	At-large	1	1		0
Florida	District	2	2	1	0	1
Georgia^{[Note 8]}	District	9	9^{[Note 7]}		0
Illinois	District	19	8	2	11	4
Indiana^{[Note 8]}	District	13	4	4	9	4
Iowa^{[Note 8]}	District	9	0	1	9	1
Kansas	District	3	0	1	3	1
Kentucky	District	10	10	1	0	1
Louisiana	District	6	5	1	1	1
Maine^{[Note 8]}	District	5	0		5
Maryland	District	6	6		0
Massachusetts	District	11	2	1	9	4
Michigan	District	9	1	2	8	2
Minnesota	District	3	0		3
Mississippi	District	6	6	2	0	2
Missouri	District	13	9	4	4	4
Nebraska	At-large	1	0		1
Nevada	At-large	1	0		1
New Hampshire^{[Note 9]}	District	3	1	1	2	1
New Jersey	District	7	4	1	3	1
New York	District	33	16	1	17	1
North Carolina	District	8	7		1
Ohio^{[Note 8]}	District	20	8	5	12	5
Oregon^{[Note 8]}	At-large	1	0	1	1	1
Pennsylvania	District	27	10	7	17	7
Rhode Island	District	2	0		2
South Carolina	District	5	2	2	3	2
Tennessee	District	10	8	1	2	1
Texas	District	6	6		0
Vermont^{[Note 8]}	District	3	0		3
Virginia	District	9	8		1
West Virginia^{[Note 8]}	District	3	3		0
Wisconsin	District	8	3		5
Total		293	157^[1]^{[Note 4]} 53.6%	27	136^[1] 46.4%	31

House seats

Democratic			53.58%
Republican			46.42%

The previous election included 4 Independents, in Illinois and Massachusetts.

[[File:45 us house membership.png|thumb|left|350px|

House seats by party holding plurality in state
80.1-100% Democratic	80.1-100% Republican
60.1-80% Democratic	60.1-80% Republican
Up to 60% Democratic	Up to 60% Republican

]]

[[File:45 us house changes.png|thumb|right|350px|

Net gain in party representation
6+ Democratic gain	6+ Republican gain
3-5 Democratic gain	3-5 Republican gain
1-2 Democratic gain	1-2 Republican gain
no net change

]]

Election dates

In 1845, Congress passed a law providing for a uniform nationwide date for choosing Presidential electors.^[2] This law did not affect election dates for Congress, which remained within the jurisdiction of State governments, but over time, the States moved their Congressional elections to this date as well. In 1876–77, there were still 8 states with earlier election dates, and 1 state with a later election date.

Early elections (1876):
- June 5 Oregon
- September 5 Vermont
- September 11 Maine
- October 4 Georgia
- October 10 Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, West Virginia

Late election (1877):
- March 13, 1877 New Hampshire

All races

California

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
California 1	William Adam Piper	Democratic	1874	Lost re-election Republican gain	Horace Davis (R) 53.3% William A. Piper (D) 46.7%
California 2	Horace F. Page	Republican	1872	Incumbent re-elected	Horace F. Page (R) 56.7% G. J. Carpenter (D) 43.3%
California 3	John K. Luttrell	Democratic	1872	Incumbent re-elected	John K. Luttrell (D) 51.1% Joseph McKenna (R) 48.9%
California 4	Peter D. Wigginton	Democratic	1874	Lost re-election Republican gain	Romualdo Pacheco (R) 50% Peter D. Wigginton (D) 50%

Florida

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
Florida 1	William J. Purman	Republican	1872	Lost re-election Democratic gain	Robert H. M. Davidson (D) 51.2% William J. Purman (R) 48.8%
Florida 2	Jesse J. Finley	Democratic	1874^{[Note 10]}	Lost re-election Republican gain	Horatio Bisbee, Jr. (R) 50.0% Jesse J. Finley (D) 50.0%

The election in the 2nd district was extremely close, with initial returns showing a difference between the two candidates of only 3 votes. Finley challenged Bisbee's election and was eventually seated on February 20, 1879

South Carolina

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
South Carolina 1	Joseph Rainey	Republican	1870 (special)	Re-elected	Joseph Rainey (R) 52.2% John S. Richardson (D) 47.8%
South Carolina 2	Seat declared vacant by Congress on July 19, 1876 due to contested election of previous incumbent Edmund W. M. Mackey (IR)			Republican hold	Richard H. Cain (R) 62.1% Michael P. O'Connor (D) 37.9%
South Carolina 3	Solomon L. Hoge	Republican	1874	Retired Democratic gain	D. Wyatt Aiken (D) 58.0% Lewis C. Carpenter (R) 42.0%
South Carolina 4	Alexander S. Wallace	Republican	1868	Lost re-election Democratic gain	John H. Evins (D) 57.6% Alexander S. Wallace (R) 42.4%
South Carolina 5	Robert Smalls	Republican	1874	Re-elected	Robert Smalls (R) 51.9% George D. Tillman (D) 48.1%

Notes

↑ The majority of states held their elections on this date. Nine states held elections on different dates between June 5, 1876 and March 13, 1877.
↑ Included 1 Independent Democrat.
↑ Included 3 Independent Republicans.
1 2 Includes 2 Independent Democrats, Jordan E. Cravens of AR-03, and Alexander H. Stephens of GA-07.
1 2 There is a significant discrepancy for the party totals in the U.S House resulting from the 1874 elections between Dubin (p. 241, who records 150 Democrats, 2 Independent Democrats, and 141 Republicans), and Martis (pp. 130–131). The discrepancy seems to be accounted for by the fact that Dubin's party figures represent the party totals on the first day of the 45th United States Congress, while Martis' figures take into account the results of later contested elections (all of which were decided in favor of the Democratic candidates who challenged the election results).
↑ At-large seats eliminated in redistricting.
1 2 Includes 1 Independent Democrat.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Elections held early
↑ Elections held late
↑ After disputed election

References

1 2 3 Martis, pp. 130–131.
↑ Statutes at Large, 28th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 721.

Bibliography

Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998). United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0786402830.
Martis, Kenneth C. (January 1, 1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0029201701.
Moore, John L., ed. (1994). Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (Third ed.). Congressional Quarterly Inc. ISBN 978-0871879967.
"Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives. Retrieved January 21, 2015.

External links

Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)

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