Fact check/John Kasich and the 1982 midterm elections
Fact check: John Kasich and the 1982 midterm elections
October 2, 2015
By Charles Aull
Ohio Governor and current GOP presidential candidate John Kasich commented on his 1982 election to Congress in his July 21 announcement speech. Speaking in his signature style—without a teleprompter or, according to his communications manager, a prepared text—he stated:
| “ | And then at the ripe old age of 30 I decided I’m going to run for Congress. My mother and father are like, Johnny, what are you doing now? OK? Well, they said I couldn’t win. I was too young. And by the way, I was — I was going to run against an incumbent in 1982; it's like the worst year. We lost 26 Republican seats that year ... And in 1982 I was the only Republican in America to defeat an incumbent Democrat all across this country ... They said — they said it couldn’t be done and we proved them wrong again.[1] | ” |
The story was part of an autobiographical sketch that Kasich used to illustrate what he portrayed as a personal history of proving his critics wrong. "They said it couldn’t be done. We proved them wrong," Kasich exclaimed on six different occasions in the speech.
The story works well for cultivating an underdog image. But is it true? Was Kasich really the only Republican in America to defeat an incumbent Democrat "all across this country," and did things really go that badly for the GOP in 1982?
The answer is yes on both accounts, though we point out four minor objections.
Kasich, the GOP and the 1982 Elections
Kasich, at the time an Ohio state senator, was indeed the lone Republican newcomer to unseat a Democratic incumbent in the U.S. House in 1982, according to a review of the Federal Election Commission's report on the 1982 election, historical data found on the U.S. House of Representatives website and contemporary news clippings. As seen in the box below, he defeated Bob Shamansky in Ohio’s 12th District 50.47 percent to 47.28 percent. Libertarian candidate Russell Lewis came in third place with 2.25 percent of the vote. No other Republican hopefuls had any such luck that year in the House.
| U.S. House, Ohio District 12 General Election, 1982 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  John Kasich |
50.5% | 88,335 | |
| Democratic | Bob Shamansky Incumbent | 47.3% | 82,753 | |
| Libertarian | Russell Lewis | 2.3% | 3,939 | |
| Total Votes | 175,027 | |||
Kasich's claim about the beating Republicans took that year is also accurate. Capitalizing on the 10 percent unemployment rate and the sluggish economy that plagued then-President Ronald Reagan's (R) first two years in office, Democrats won a total of 26 seats in the House along with a handful of governorships and state houses. Some observers at the time even claimed that Reagan's conservative coalition in Congress had been all but destroyed. Kasich’s victory over Shamansky was a bright spot in what was otherwise a grim night for the GOP.
The facts of Kasich's claim about his victory in 1982 and the political history of that year check out.
Minor objections
There are four minor objections one could raise about Kasich's statement. None of them, however, invalidate it.
1. Other Races in 1982
Kasich was indeed the only Republican to unseat a Democrat in the House—but not "all across this country." Republicans had some success in the upper chamber and in several state-level races.
In the U.S. Senate, for example, Nevada Republican Chic Hecht unseated six-term Democrat Howard Cannon 50-47 and helped Republicans maintain their 54-46 majority despite two losses in New Jersey and New Mexico. In the 1982 New Hampshire gubernatorial race, Republican John Sununu defeated Democratic incumbent Hugh Gallen (who died from a blood infection less than two months after losing). Finally, in state legislatures throughout the U.S., Republicans managed to pick up over 70 Democratic seats, according to Dr. Carl Klarner, an expert on state elections who maintains a research database on state house races that extends back into the 1970s.
But it would be hard to make the case that Kasich was actually claiming to have been the only Republican to defeat a Democratic incumbent in the entire country and in every political office up for election in 1982. He was almost certainly talking about the House when he made this statement. This was signaled by his lead-in, "and then at the ripe old age of 30 I decided I'm going to run for Congress."
2. Ohio's 12th District
A second minor criticism concerns the political history of Ohio's 12th Congressional District. Historically, it leans Republican, and Shamansky’s 53-47 win over 11-term Republican Samuel Devine in 1980 was something of a fluke. One reporter at the time called it a "major upset," while in 1982 another reporter stated Shamansky's chances of re-election were a "long shot." Republicans held the seat from 1939 to 1981, and they have continued to hold it ever since Kasich brought it back into the fold in 1983. Seen in this light, defeating Shamansky, a first-term incumbent, is perhaps less impressive than it might seem on the surface.
With that being said, it would make little sense to criticize him for not getting into these details in a presidential announcement speech. Moreover, the incumbency re-election rate in 1982 was 90 percent, meaning that, with the exception of Shamansky and a few others, almost every other incumbent managed to win another term that year.
3. Redistricting
A third issue is that the district that Shamansky won in 1980 was redistricted shortly after his victory. Ohio's 12th District lost portions of Democratic-leaning Columbus and gained the region's more conservative rural areas. One estimate suggested that when Shamansky ran for re-election in 1982, he had upwards of 50,000 new voters to court.
4. New York's 14th and 22nd Congressional Districts
Fourth and finally, two other House Democrats did in fact lose to Republicans in 1982. Democrat Leo C. Zeferetti lost to Republican Guy V. Molinari in New York's 14th District, and Democrat Peter A. Peyser lost to Republican Benjamin A. Gilman in New York's 22nd.
These situations were considerably different from Kasich and Shamansky's, though, because Zeferetti, Molinari, Peyser and Gilman were all incumbents. In both cases, two incumbents had been pushed into the same district as a result of redistricting. Molinari was a first-term member of the House when he defeated Zeferetti in 1982, while Gilman had been in Congress since 1973. Kasich, by contrast, was a newcomer.
Although the two Republicans from New York did defeat Democratic incumbents, this was a consequence of winning their own re-election bids.
Conclusion
John Kasich said he was the only Republican to unseat a Democrat in 1982, a year that he noted also saw significant losses for the GOP. After looking into four minor objections, we conclude that this statement is accurate on both accounts.
Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.
Sources
Twitter, "Chris Schrimpf," July 21, 2015
Federal Election Commission, "Federal Elections, 1982," accessed September 25, 2015
U.S. House of Representatives, "Congress Profiles: 98th Congress," accessed September 25, 2015
U.S. House of Representatives, "Congress Profiles: 97th Congress," accessed September 25, 2015
The New York Times, "G.O.P Challengers Get Low Priority," September 16, 1982
The New York Times, "Democrats Regain Control of the House," November 4, 1982
CQ Almanac, "House Vote: Major Midterm Setback for the Republicans," November 4, 1982
Chicago Tribune, "Election May Force G.O.P. Policy Changes," November 4, 1982
Email exchange with Dr. Carl Klarner on August 14, 2015
Johns, A. (ed.) (2015). A Companion to Ronald Reagan. Malden, MA: Wily-Blackwell.
The New York Times, "Democrats Regain Control of the House," November 4, 1982
OpenSecrets.org, "Reelection Rates over the Years," accessed September 29, 2015
CQ Almanac, "Redistricting Bitter Disappointment to GOP," November 4 1982
The Washington Post, "Election 80/The Midwest," November 5, 1980
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Notes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
