Mike Gallagher to leave congress next month

[President Johnson]

Ugh, one of my fav House members, too.  

Hey House historian peeps: have we ever had a hung House, where neither party has a ruling majority (if that's even possible)?

Sometime in 1931 seems like:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections


And in the 1850s absolutely:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854–55_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections

(link is broken though)

Somewhat off topic, but just wondering why the congress opened in December of 1931 after the 1930 elections. They did nothing for nine months during the Great Depression after the term begun in March 1931? Lmao.

[Vosem]

How was 1930 NOT a Democratic landslide?

Amusingly, because the 1920 redistricting cycle was skipped, 1930 was absurdly malapportioned in favor of Democrats -- the national popular vote was R+8, but this meant a basically-tied House because of the Democratic advantage in maps (in practice it meant Democratic control because Republicans had a mild tendency to be older/sicker/less interested/lost special elections).

The Democratic party had atrophied a lot during the 1920s and so they were really unable to run a campaign at all in large parts of the country in the 1930 cycle. But 1920s Republicans were so absurdly bad at rigging things that Democrats just kinda took the House anyway on an R+8 NPV, paving the way for the FDR victory two years later. (Also, my understanding is that while the stock market crash happened in 1929, and suffering in elite circles was already happening, what was happening in 1930 still seemed like a fairly normal recession; the really epochal rise in unemployment, from ~10% to ~25%, didn't happen until the first half of 1931. (1930 saw a rise from ~5% to ~10% -- bad but not what we think of as "the Great Depression".) Things were quite bad when the midterm happened, but they weren't apocalyptically bad yet, and people didn't expect them to get apocalyptically bad.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How was 1930 NOT a Democratic landslide?

Amusingly, because the 1920 redistricting cycle was skipped, 1930 was absurdly malapportioned in favor of Democrats -- the national popular vote was R+8, but this meant a basically-tied House because of the Democratic advantage in maps (in practice it meant Democratic control because Republicans had a mild tendency to be older/sicker/less interested/lost special elections).

Is that why the Supreme Court allowed it? Seems odd it did considering it would have to have a bunch of Wilson appointees at that time.

[Pericles]

If anyone wants to switch parties, now is the time to do it.

[Progressive Pessimist]

This'll mean Mike Johnson can only afford 1 defection before he'll need to start relying on Democratic votes to govern.

Good thing Speaker DB Cooper doesn't actually care about governing.

[Beet]

Wait, he's taking a job at defense contractor Palantir? That's a big conflict of interest with his work on the China committee, but I guess no one will care.

[Steve from Lambeth]

At this rate, we're going to have Phil McNulty from BBC Sport's football office resigning from Congress before January. Which wouldn't make sense, but then I don't think anything that's happened in recent months has made sense.

Did Gallagher consult with his family on the use of Courier New for this statement? I have literally seen typewritten documents with more creative font choice.

[Fuzzy Bear]

A lot of Republicans are just not on board with that the shell for MAGA that the GOP has become, and it seems resgning is their only way to regain their freedom. Another bad sign for Trump.

Perhaps these folks need to discover the damage thair Globalist economics that they have advocated have devastated ordinary working Americans. 

There are millions of Republicans like me who have no use for the Ken Bucks and the Mitt Romneys.  These people sold out America.  Before Donald Trump, there was Ross Perot, and THOSE voters were the forerunners of Trump who were sick of the GOP shipping their jobs overseas in the name of "Free Markets".

The scumbags who are bailing should be "toast" as far as Republican voters are concerned.  They are not brave and principled; they are narcissistic cowards.

[MasterJedi]

A lot of Republicans are just not on board with that the shell for MAGA that the GOP has become, and it seems resgning is their only way to regain their freedom. Another bad sign for Trump.

Perhaps these folks need to discover the damage thair Globalist economics that they have advocated have devastated ordinary working Americans. 

There are millions of Republicans like me who have no use for the Ken Bucks and the Mitt Romneys.  These people sold out America.  Before Donald Trump, there was Ross Perot, and THOSE voters were the forerunners of Trump who were sick of the GOP shipping their jobs overseas in the name of "Free Markets".

The scumbags who are bailing should be "toast" as far as Republican voters are concerned.  They are not brave and principled; they are narcissistic cowards.

Always projection from the MAGA cult.

[Mr. Smith]

At this rate, we're going to have Phil McNulty from BBC Sport's football office resigning from Congress before January. Which wouldn't make sense, but then I don't think anything that's happened in recent months has made sense.

Did Gallagher consult with his family on the use of Courier New for this statement? I have literally seen typewritten documents with more creative font choice.

It's not Comic Sans dude, just chill out.

[Liminal Trans Girl]

At this rate, we're going to have Phil McNulty from BBC Sport's football office resigning from Congress before January. Which wouldn't make sense, but then I don't think anything that's happened in recent months has made sense.

Did Gallagher consult with his family on the use of Courier New for this statement? I have literally seen typewritten documents with more creative font choice.

It's not Comic Sans dude, just chill out.

Okay Boomer

[quesaisje]

A lot of Republicans are just not on board with that the shell for MAGA that the GOP has become, and it seems resgning is their only way to regain their freedom. Another bad sign for Trump.

Perhaps these folks need to discover the damage thair Globalist economics that they have advocated have devastated ordinary working Americans. 

There are millions of Republicans like me who have no use for the Ken Bucks and the Mitt Romneys.  These people sold out America.  Before Donald Trump, there was Ross Perot, and THOSE voters were the forerunners of Trump who were sick of the GOP shipping their jobs overseas in the name of "Free Markets".

The scumbags who are bailing should be "toast" as far as Republican voters are concerned.  They are not brave and principled; they are narcissistic cowards.

Mike Gallagher is resigning because he loves the globe? I thought it was over banana republic crap.

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

OSR’s comment did a good job of summing up a lot of things, but to add…

How was 1930 NOT a Democratic landslide?

The Civil War

It really is striking how much of a North-South divide there was when you look at Democratic gains in 1930. It isn’t until 1932 that the gains really hit the Midwest and West. Hell, the Dems even gained two seats in Maine in 1932. 1932 is also when the populist prairie progressive parties began taking hold in Minnesota and (in 1934) Wisconsin.

Something else that’s important to note is that congressional seats weren’t reapportioned after the 1920, so there was probably a fair shift on that basis alone (as Wiki notes in the 1932 article).

[username5243]

Marge apparently wants to expel him right now rather than let him wait

https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1771629767747371162?s=12&t=qR9xt2kOpZ1DyvGEsCm9Fg

[President Johnson]

Marge apparently wants to expel him right now rather than let him wait

https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1771629767747371162?s=12&t=qR9xt2kOpZ1DyvGEsCm9Fg

In your guts, you know she's nuts.

[DrScholl]

We'll have to wait until someone writes a book and tells about what really happened in the Republican caucus. Clearly there is enough negativity occurring to make members want to resign before completing their terms.

[The Mikado]

Something else that’s important to note is that congressional seats weren’t reapportioned after the 1920, so there was probably a fair shift on that basis alone (as Wiki notes in the 1932 article).

Thanks for pointing this out. It's always wild when someone mentions it and we've had this conversation here many times on Atlas but the US just deciding not to do reapportionment and redistricting after the 1920 census is one of the most blatantly undemocratic actions in US history, especially post-Civil War.

The districts up until 1930 were still based on the 1910 census which was horribly outdated after 20 years.

[Ye We Can]

Ugh, one of my fav House members, too.  

Hey House historian peeps: have we ever had a hung House, where neither party has a ruling majority (if that's even possible)?

1916.  Neither party achieved a majority of the house, so the Democrats elected Champ Clark Speaker with a coalition of 214 Democrats +3 Progressives +1 Socialist despite Republicans having 215 representatives.