Mr.Phips
Junior Chimp
Posts: 8,547
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« on: August 05, 2012, 12:05:46 AM » |
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Despite a fairly weak economy, high inflation, and low Carter approval ratings, Democrats managed to lose just 11 House seats that year despite having a nearly two to one majority in the House, meaning that they held a whole bunch of very unfriendly districts. Also, in 1977 and 1978 special elections, Republicans picked up four Democratic held seats, all in districts Carter carried(Ed Koch's old in Manhattan went 63%-37% for Carter and even 58%-42% for McGovern).
What is even more surprising that year is that Democrats had the additional disadvantage of having a whole bunch of open seats and in many cases, they were in very unfriendly districts. However, Democrats were able to hold many of these seats. FL-01 was won easily by Democrat Earl Hutto despite going for Ford in 1976, FL-15 was held easily by Dan Mica despite going for Ford. Then there was TX-19, which was held by a Democrat despite going 58%-42% for Ford. There was WA-02, which went for Ford yet was held by a Democrat. Same with MT-01. This is interesting, because in 2010, Democrats could not even hold some open seats like PA-07, WI-07, and NH-02 that went for Obama by double digits.
Democrats even managed to defeat a pair of Republican incumbents in Michigan in districts that went for Ford by about 20 points.
The question is, why were Democrats able to do so well in the 1978 House elections. They should have been losing 30-40 seats that year rather than just 11.
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