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U.S. House elections without a Democratic or Republican candidate, 2020

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Ballotpedia tracked U.S. House races without a Democratic or Republican candidate in the 2020 elections. In 2020, a total of 8 U.S. House races did not have a Democratic candidate and 19 U.S. House races did not have a Republican candidate.[1] Click here for information comparing U.S. House races with only one major party candidate in 2014, 2016, and 2018.

Races without Democratic candidates

Races without Republican candidates

Map of races without a Democratic or Republican candidate

Totals over time

Change over time
Date Seats without a Democratic candidate Seats without a Republican candidate
October 28, 2020 8 19
October 21, 2020 8 19
October 14, 2020 8 19
October 7, 2020 8 19
September 30, 2020 8 19
September 23, 2020 8 19
September 16, 2020 8 19
September 9, 2020 8 19
September 2, 2020 8 19
August 26, 2020 8 19
August 19, 2020 8 19
August 12, 2020 8 19
August 5, 2020 8 19
July 29, 2020 8 19
July 22, 2020 11 22
July 15, 2020 11 22
July 8, 2020 11 21
July 1, 2020 13 21
June 24, 2020 14 21
June 17, 2020 14 21
June 10, 2020 14 21
June 3, 2020 16 22
May 27, 2020 19 25
May 20, 2020 21 27
May 13, 2020 24 27
May 6, 2020 25 31
April 29, 2020 25 31
April 22, 2020 25 33
April 15, 2020 26 38

Historical data

See also: U.S. House elections without a Democratic or Republican candidate, 1920-2018

Every two-year election cycle, some Democrats or Republicans win U.S. House elections without major-party opposition. From 1920 to 2018, there were 2,434 U.S. House races without a Republican candidate in the general election compared to 707 races without a Democratic candidate.

  • In 2018, 41 of the 435 U.S. House races lacked either a Democratic or Republican candidate in the general election. Three of the 41 races did not have a Democratic candidate on the ballot, and the remaining 38 did not have a Republican candidate running.
  • In comparison, there were 61 such seats in 2016 and 76 in 2014. The number of seats without a Democratic candidate dropped over the course of the three election cycles; it fell from 36 in 2014 to three in 2018. In comparison, 40 U.S. House races did not have a Republican candidate in 2014 compared to 38 in 2018.

The election years that had the most races without major-party opposition were 1930 (99), 1998 (95), 1942 (89), 1958 (89), and 1934 (83). Conversely, the election years with the fewest races of that nature were 1996 (21), 2010 (29), 1992 (31), 1932 (35), and 2018 (41).

On average across the 50 election cycles from 1920 to 2018, about 62.8 U.S. House races had only one major party represented on the general election ballot. During that timeframe, Democrats averaged 14.1 U.S. House races per cycle compared to 48.7 races for Republicans. In the 10 election cycles spanning 2000 to 2018, the average dropped to 57.4 races. In the 40 election cycles spanning 1920 to 1998, the average rose to 64.2 races. Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming were the only states that had a Democratic and Republican candidate on every U.S. House ballot from 1920 to 2018.

Methodology

There are several methodological approaches Ballotpedia used to calculate the number of races without a Democratic or Republican candidate on this page:

  • Write-in candidates were not counted as candidates for the purpose of races without a Democratic or Republican candidate. However, if a write-in candidate advanced from a primary to a general election and became a regular candidate on the general election ballot, that candidate was counted for the purpose of races without a Democratic or Republican candidate.
  • Candidates who unofficially withdrew from a race but still appeared on the ballot were counted as candidates for the purpose of this analysis. This meant that a race did not count as a race without a Democratic or Republican candidate if an unofficially withdrawn candidate still appeared on the ballot.
  • In California and Washington state, which have top-two primary systems, a race was counted as not having a Democratic or Republican candidate if no candidate from a major party advanced from the primary election to the general election.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ In California and Washington state, which have top-two primary systems, a race was included if no candidate from a major party advanced to the general election
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