The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 8, 2022, as part of the 2022 United States elections during President Joe Biden's term. Representatives were elected from all 435 U.S. congressional districts across each of the 50 states to serve in the 118th United States Congress, as well as 5 non-voting members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the District of Columbia and four of the five inhabited insular areas. Numerous other federal, state, and local elections, including the 2022 U.S. Senate elections and the 2022 U.S. gubernatorial elections, were also held simultaneously. These were the first elections after the 2020 redistricting cycle.
The Republican Party, led by Kevin McCarthy, won control of the House, defeating Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party, which had held a majority in the House since 2019, as a result of the 2018 elections. Although most observers and pundits predicted large Republican gains, they instead narrowly won 4 seats over the 218 seats needed for a majority, as Democrats won several upsets in districts considered Republican-leaning or won by Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, such as . Republicans also won some upsets in districts that Joe Biden won by double-digits, including . Observers attributed Democrats' surprise over-performance to, among other factors, the issue of abortion in the United States after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and the underperformance of multiple statewide and congressional Republican candidates who held extreme views, including refusal to accept the party's 2020 electoral loss. On the other hand, Democrats' political prospects were weighed down by the 2021âÂÂ2022 inflation spike, which Republicans blamed on President Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress. The elections marked the first time since 1875 that Democrats won all districts along the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time since 2004 that Republicans gained House seats in consecutive elections.
Gerrymandering during the 2020 U.S. redistricting cycle had a significant impact on the 2022 election results. Republicans made gains as a result of gerrymandering in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas, while Democrats made gains as a result of gerrymandering in Illinois and New Mexico. Defensive gerrymanders helped both parties hold competitive seats in various states, while Republican gains in New York and Democratic gains in North Carolina and Ohio were made possible because their state supreme courts overturned gerrymanders passed by their state legislatures.
The narrow margin by which Republicans won their House majority resulted in historic legislative difficulties in the 118th Congress. Due to a number of Republican holdouts affiliated with the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy was not elected Speaker of the House until the 15th round of voting, thus marking the first time since 1923 that a speaker was not elected in the first round. This was the smallest Republican majority since 2000, before Republicans were re-elected with a smaller majority in 2024.
Forty-six states used the first-past-the-post voting plurality system to elect their representatives. Instant-runoff voting was used in two states (Alaska and Maine) and runoff system was used in two states (Georgia and Louisiana).
As mail-in voting has increased in U.S. elections, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, the results in some congressional races were not known immediately following the election, which was more competitive and closer than expected, as a widely predicted red wave election did not materialize. Instead, Democrats lost fewer seats than expected at less than 10 and fewer than the average (25) for the president's party since the end of World War II. Several tossup or lean Republican races were won by Democrats, including upsets in , , and congressional districts; Washington 3rd's seat was particularly notable because the Cook Political Report had labeled the district as lean Republican and FiveThirtyEight had Marie Gluesenkamp Perez's chance of winning at 2-in-100. Democrats also narrowly missed a further upset for the seat held by Republican Lauren Boebert; it was so close that it needed a recount.
Democrats performed better than expected in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, benefitting from a coattail effect, and performed well in Colorado and New England but suffered substantial losses in New York. In Florida and New York, Republicans achieved state-specific red waves, and red states became redder. Gerrymandering during the 2020 U.S. redistricting cycle gave each party advantages in various states; due to advantageous maps, Republicans performed well or made gains in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee, and Democrats made gains in Illinois and New Mexico. As of November 10, 14 seats were flipped, with Republicans gaining 11 of them for a net gain of 8 seats; Republicans needed to maintain a net gain of at least 5 seats to regain the House. Republicans won the popular vote by a 3 percent margin and would have won it even if Democrats had contested more seats than they did, which may have cost them about 1âÂÂ2 percent in the final popular vote margin. According to Harry Enten of CNN, the final popular vote margin was the second-closest midterm margin for a U.S. House election in the last 70 years.
The unprecedented degree of Republican underperformance during the election defied election analysts' predictions of heavy gains, given that while a majority of voters trusted Democrats on abortion, they were disappointed with the performance of Joe Biden and Democrats on issues facing the country, such as the economy and inflation, crime, and immigration. This has been variously attributed by political commentators to the issue of abortion after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022; candidate quality among Republicans who held extremist or unpopular views, such as denial of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results; and youth turnout, among others. According to Ron Brownstein of CNN in 2023, exit polls showed that House Democrats won independent voters by 2 percentage points, making it the first time the party holding the White House did so in a midterm election since at least 1982.
Biden described the results as a "strong night" for Democrats, and he urged for cooperation in Congress. Senator Lindsey Graham commented: "It's certainly not a red wave, that's for darn sure. But it is clear that we will take back the House." On November 9, when the results for the House were still uncertain, the Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy launched his bid to succeed long-time House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In a letter asking for support among Republicans, he wrote: "I trust you know that earning the majority is only the beginning. Now, we will be measured by what we do with our majority. Now the real work begins."
Control of the House would not be known until November 16, after Mike Garcia was projected to win reelection in , giving Republicans a total of at least 218 seats; and giving Republicans a narrow majority. The size of the majority remained in doubt with several races still to be called more than one week after Election Day. On November 17, after Republicans were projected to win back the House, Pelosi announced that she would not seek reelection as Speaker of the House, and Hakeem Jeffries was later selected as the Democratic nominee by acclamation. On November 15, McCarthy won an internal Republican caucus poll as the party's nominee for Speaker of the House; as several members of the Republican caucus did not vote for him and had expressed opposition to his speakership, it cast doubt on how the 2023 U.S. speaker election, which began on January 3, would unfold. McCarthy's speaker bid was the first of a party leader since 1923 that did not succeed on the first ballot.
The 2022 election results are compared below to the 2020 election. The table does not include blank and over or under votes, both of which were included in the official results.
In total, 49 representatives and one non-voting delegate (30 Democrats and 20 Republicans) retired, 17 of whom (nine Democrats and eight Republicans) sought other offices.
Three seats were left vacant on the day of the general election due to resignations or death in 2022, two of which were not filled until the next Congress.
Two Democrats resigned before the end of their terms.
One Republican died in office.
Fourteen incumbents lost renomination in the primary elections and nine incumbents lost reelection in the general elections.
Six Democrats, half of whom were freshmen, lost renomination.
Eight Republicans, two of whom were freshmen, lost renomination.
Six Democrats lost re-election to Republicans.
Three Republicans, two of whom were freshmen, lost re-election to Democrats.
The 2020 United States census determined how many of the 435 congressional districts each state receives for the 2020 redistricting cycle. Due to population shifts, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia each lost one seat. Conversely, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon each gained one seat; and Texas gained two seats.
Six new districts were created, and two districts were restored, after the 2020 redistricting process:
The following districts were eliminated and became obsolete:
The following districts had multiple incumbent representatives running, a product of multiple districts merging in redistricting.
Of the 435 districts created in the 2020 redistricting, eighteen had no incumbent representative.
Eight Democrats were elected in newly created seats.
Ten Republicans were elected in newly created seats.
This is a list of House seats where the winner of the 2020 presidential election and the incumbent in the district were from different parties. The results for the 2020 elections accounted for redistricting and was representative of the new district boundaries.
This is a list of districts that voted for Trump in 2020 but had a Democratic incumbent:
This is a list of districts that voted for Biden in 2020 but had a Republican incumbent:
Seventy-four races were decided by 10% or lower.
In February 2022, The Guardian reported that "America is poised to have a staggeringly low number of competitive seats in the US House, an alarming trend that makes it harder to govern and exacerbates political polarization." The 2020 redistricting cycle resulted in 94% of the U.S. House running in relatively safe seats, often due to gerrymandering.
There were nine special elections in 2022 to the 117th United States Congress, listed here by date and district.
|- ! | | | 1992 | data-sort-value=January 11, 2022 | Incumbent died April 6, 2021.<br />New member elected January 11, 2022.<br />Democratic hold. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2002 | data-sort-value=June 7, 2022 | Incumbent resigned January 1, 2022, to become CEO of TMTG.<br />New member elected June 7, 2022.<br />Republican hold. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2012 | data-sort-value=June 14, 2022 | Incumbent resigned March 31, 2022, to join Akin Gump.<br />New member elected June 14, 2022.<br />Republican gain. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2004 | data-sort-value=June 28, 2022 | Incumbent resigned March 31, 2022, due to criminal conviction.<br />New member elected June 28, 2022.<br />Republican hold. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2018 | data-sort-value=August 9, 2022 | Incumbent died February 17, 2022.<br />New member elected August 9, 2022.<br />Republican hold. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 1973 | data-sort-value=August 16, 2022 | Incumbent died March 18, 2022.<br />New member elected August 16, 2022.<br />Democratic gain. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2018 | data-sort-value=August 23, 2022 | Incumbent resigned May 25, 2022, to become Lieutenant Governor of New York.<br /> New member elected August 23, 2022.<br />Democratic hold. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2010 | data-sort-value=August 23, 2022 | Incumbent resigned May 10, 2022, to join Prime Policy Group.<br />New member elected August 23, 2022.<br />Republican hold. | nowrap |
|- ! | | | 2012 | data-sort-value=November 8, 2022 | Incumbent died August 3, 2022.<br />New member elected November 8, 2022.<br />Republican hold; winner also elected to next term. | nowrap |
California lost its 53rd district following the 2020 census.
Colorado gained its 8th district following the 2020 census.
Florida gained its 28th district following the 2020 census.
Illinois lost its 18th district following the 2020 census.
Michigan lost its 14th district following the 2020 census.
Montana regained its 2nd district following the 2020 census.
New York lost its 27th district following the 2020 census.
North Carolina gained its 14th district following the 2020 census.
Ohio lost its 16th district following the 2020 census.
Oregon gained its 6th district following the 2020 census.
Pennsylvania lost its 18th district following the 2020 census.
Texas gained its 37th and 38th districts following the 2020 census.
West Virginia lost its 3rd district following the 2020 census.
|- ! | Amata Coleman Radewagen | | 2014 | Incumbent re-elected. | nowrap | Amata Coleman Radewagen (Republican)
|- ! | Eleanor Holmes Norton | | 1990 | Incumbent re-elected. | nowrap |
|- ! | Michael San Nicolas | | 2018 | | Incumbent retired to run for governor of Guam.<br />Republican gain. | nowrap |
|- ! | Gregorio Sablan | | 2008 | Incumbent re-elected. | nowrap | Gregorio Sablan (Democratic)
|- ! | Stacey Plaskett | | 2014 | Incumbent re-elected. | nowrap | Stacey Plaskett (Democratic)