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U.S. Elections

This guide offers starting points for U.S. elections and topics in U.S. elections research.

History of Congressional Elections

Election Statistics from 1920 to Present

Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories.

Congress Profiles

Profiles of every Congress, 1789-Present. Includes: Party Divisions, number of representatives, short histories of each congress, and further readings

Black Americans in Congress

Since 1870, when Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first African Americans to serve in Congress, a total of 172 African Americans have served as U.S. Representatives, Delegates, or Senators. This Web site, based on the publication Black Americans in Congress, contains biographical profiles of former African-American Members of Congress, links to information about current Black Members, essays on institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of African Americans in Congress, and images of each individual Member, supplemented by other historical photos.

A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825

Searchable election data for all offices by state, years in office, jurisdiction, party, and election type, from 1787-1825.

Congressional Elections (Historical and Contemporary)

MIT Election Data Lab

Contains House and Senate results by state or district, 1976-2018.

ICPSR: Electoral Data for Counties in the United States: Presidential and Congressional Races, 1840-1972

This collection contains county-level returns for elections to the United States presidency and to the United States House of Representatives for the years 1840 to 1972. The variables for the presidential vote include the percentages of ballots cast for major and "significant" minor party candidates (with residual votes collapsed into an "other" category), total numbers of votes for all candidates in an election, and estimates of voter turnout in the presidential elections. There are similar variables for the congressional vote except that returns are reported for parties and not for candidates. Congressional district numbers are also reported for each county for every election.

U.S. House Primary Election Results (1956-2010)

Election return data from all Democratic and Republican primaries for the US House of Representatives for 1956-2010. Includes district-specific variables, as well as data about candidate backgrounds and gender in recent years. For an appendable version of the 2012-2018 data, see Miller/Camberg 2020: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/CXVMSY

ICPSR United States Historical Election Returns Series

The United States Historical Election Returns series was developed by ICPSR and was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Covers: "Candidate Name and Constituency Totals, 1788-1990" ; "General Election Data for the United States, 1950-1990 " ; "United States Historical Election Returns, 1788-1823 " ; "United States Historical Election Returns, 1824-1968"

Vital Statistics on Congress by Brookings

Contains historic data on: Demographics of members of Congress ; Congressional elections ; Campaign finance in Congressional elections ; Congressional committee data ; Congressional staff and operating expenses ; Legislative productivity in Congress and Congressional workload ; Congressional action on the federal budget; Political polarization in Congress and changing voting alignments. General inclusive dates: 1900 to present.