1978 United States House of Representatives elections
House elections for the 96th U.S. Congress
The 1978 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives on November 7, 1978, to elect members to serve in the 96th United States Congress. They occurred in the middle of Democratic President Jimmy Carter's term, amidst an energy crisis and rapid inflation. The Democratic Party lost a net of 15 seats to the Republican Party, and thus lost their two-thirds supermajority, but still maintained a large 277-seat majority.
As of 2025, this was the last midterm election where the Democrats managed to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives under a Democratic president, the last midterm election in which a registered third party member was elected, and the last time overall in which any party won at least 270 House seats.
Overall results
382 incumbent members sought reelection, but 5 were defeated in primaries and 19 defeated in the general election for a total of 358 incumbents winning.
Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk
Special elections
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
The seven incumbents were all automatically re-elected when no opponents filed to run against them in the Sept. 16 jungle primary. They did not appear on the ballot.
Leach and Wilson were the top two finishers in the 4th District's jungle primary and advanced to the Nov. 7 general election.
“1978 United States House of Representatives elections” enters the record as house elections for the 96th U.S. Congress. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what United, States and House can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“1978 United States House of Representatives elections” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, United, States and House provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4450587. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978 and 2025.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1978 United States House of Representatives elections”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1978 United States House of Representatives elections primary sources, 1978 United States House of Representatives elections archive and United research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1978 United States House of Representatives elections”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1978 United States House of Representatives elections” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.