The Mini-Midterms: Five Takeaways from Six Decades of House Special Elections
A Commentary By Kyle Kondik
Thursday, April 15, 2021
KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE There have been nearly 300 U.S. House special elections since the mid-1950s. These elections more often flipped against the party that holds the White House just like what often happens to the president’s party in midterm House elections but the president’s party has scored some noteworthy wins, too, which can cloud the predictive value of special elections.
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Six decades of special House election trends
Almost exactly 47 years ago April 16, 1974 Republicans suffered what would be the fourth of five U.S. House special election losses in the first half of that year. Bob Traxler (D), who would go on to serve two decades in the U.S. House, defeated James Sparling Jr. (R) in MI-8.
captioning sponsored by public affairs television this week on bill moyers journal. judicial elections are really the national scandal that few people know about. moyers: the supreme court opens judicial elections to the highest corporate bidder. people don t go pouring money into campaigns because they want fair and impartial treatment. they want results. moyers: justice for sale. stay tuned. moyers: welcome to the journal . that famous definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing has come to define this present moment of american politics. the power of money drives cynicism into the heart of all levels of government. everything- and everyone- comes with a price tag attached; from a seat at the table in the white house to a seat in congress, to the fate of health care reform, our environment, and efforts to hold wall street accountable. on the right and the left and in the vast middle more and more americans doubt
captioning sponsored by public affairs television this week on bill moyers journal. judicial elections are really the national scandal that few people know about. moyers: the supreme court opens judicial elections to the highest corporate bidder. people don t go pouring money into campaigns because they want fair and impartial treatment. they want results. moyers: justice for sale. stay tuned. moyers: welcome to the journal . that famous definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing has come to define this present moment of american politics. the power of money drives cynicism into the heart of all levels of government. everything- and everyone- comes with a price tag attached; from a seat at the table in the white house to a seat in congress, to the fate of health care reform, our environment, and efforts to hold wall street accountable. on the right and the left and in the vast middle more and more americans doubt
moyers: welcome to the journal . that famous definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing has come to define this present moment of american politics. the power of money drives cynicism into the heart of all levels of government. everything- and everyone- comes with a price tag attached; from a seat at the table in the white house to a seat in congress, to the fate of health care reform, our environment, and efforts to hold wall street accountable. on the right and the left and in the vast middle more and more americans doubt that representative democracy can survive this corruption of money. last month, the supreme court carried cynicism to new heights with its decision in the citizens united case. a case, you will recall, spun from a legal dispute over the airing on a pay-per-view channel of a documentary attacking hillary clinton. the decision could have been made very narrowly. instead, the conservative majority of five j