2020 United States House of Representatives elections

United States House of Representatives

**September 4 – November 3, 2020**

← 2018
2022 →

## Overview

**Leader**
Nancy Pelosi
Kevin McCarthy

**Political party**
Democratic
Republican

**District**
California 12
California 23

**Seats before**
232
197

**Seats after**
**222**
213

**Seat change**
-10
+16

**Popular vote**
**77,526,619**
72,760,036

**Percentage**
**50.8%**
47.7%

**Political party**
Libertarian

**Seats before**
1

**Seats after**
0

**Seat change**
-1

**Popular vote**
1,098,989

**Percentage**
0.7%

## Results

Dark blue indicates Democratic gain, light blue indicates Democratic hold. Dark red indicates Republican gain, light red indicates Republican hold.

### Elected Speaker

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic
Nancy Pelosi
Democratic

The **2020 United States House of Representatives elections** were held before and on November 3, 2020, to elect representatives from all 435 congressional districts across each of the 50 U.S. states, as well as six non-voting delegates from the District of Columbia and the inhabited U.S. territories. Special House elections were also held on various dates throughout 2020. The election took place during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

In the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections, the Democrats had won 235 seats. Leading up to the 2020 elections, the Democrats were projected by many polls to expand their majority by up to 15 seats due to the unpopularity of then-President Donald Trump. While Democrats ultimately retained control of the House following the 2020 elections, they lost a total of 13 seats and entered 2021 with a narrow 222–213 House majority. Election Day 2020 was the first time since 2004 that the Republican Party made net gains in the House during a presidential election year.

Republicans exceeded expectations in the 2020 House elections, winning back a number of seats that they lost in 2018 while successfully defending competitive seats that Democrats had hoped to flip. No Republican incumbent was defeated for re-election, while 13 incumbent Democrats were ousted by Republicans; also, several successful Democratic candidates won by smaller-than-expected margins. Many have cited Trump's presence on the ballot as having fueled high Republican turnout, while others have emphasized the Republican Party's efforts to promote their female and minority candidates.

## Results

The widest margins of victory in the 2020 House of Representatives elections came from eleven seats across the country where no opposition candidate was fielded. Also of note, in Georgia's 14th congressional district, while the Democratic nominee appeared on the ballot the candidate decided to withdraw from the race. Beyond that, seven members of Congress and one candidate who primaried an incumbent only saw minor third party opposition. Additionally, eight races saw intra party opposition in the general election, including that of Speaker Pelosi (California and Washington have all party primaries for House races).

The narrowest race overall was that of Iowa's 2nd congressional district, where Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by four votes, or 0.002% of the vote. Also of note was New York's 22nd congressional district, where former Republican U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney defeated incumbent Democrat Anthony Brindisi in a rematch of the race two years prior.

Three Democrats and Five Republicans were defeated in primaries, the most in a non-redistricting year since 1974. In the general election, 13 Democrats lost re-election to Republicans while no Republican lost re-election to a Democrat. Republicans won an open seat held by Democrats and Libertarians respectively, while Democrats flipped three open Republican seats. Seventy-Seven races where closer than 10% in margin, five of those races were closer than 1%.