This week's question was, Between 1918 and 2016, how many wave elections took place in the U.S. House?

You answered: 11.
You are correct!

Based on our definition, of those 11 wave elections, six occurred during a president's first midterm election. There were four such waves when a Democrat was president (Obama, Clinton, Johnson, and Truman) and two with a Republican president (Harding and Hoover). Ballotpedia classifies the 1974 wave election as a second midterm wave during Richard Nixon's (R) presidency since Nixon resigned two months before that midterm. Franklin Roosevelt (D), with the longest presidency, saw two wave elections: one during his second midterm and one during his third. The remaining two waves occurred in presidential election years: 1920, when Warren G. Harding (R) flipped the presidency, and 1932, when Roosevelt defeated incumbent Hoover.

On average, the president's party lost 61 House seats across these 11 elections.

Use the chart below to explore changes in U.S. House seats from 1918 to 2016. This chart shows the change in the number of seats held by members of the incumbent president's party. Bars are colored based on the president's party at the time of the election. For example, in 2010, the most recent wave election, Barack Obama (D) was president and Democrats lost 63 U.S. House seats.

Thanks for your response!