Biased Elections in the House of Representatives :: Politics Political Essays

Biased Elections in the House of Representatives Elections for the United States Congress have become increasingly biased in favor of the incumbents. The problem is especially prevalent in the House of Representatives, which is designed to be the legislature closest to the people, and therefore most reflective of the people’s views. However, unlike elections for governors or presidents, the congressional races are generally not competitive races. While an incumbent president does have some advantages over a challenger, they are not guaranteed the win. In fact, two of the last four presidents lost their bid for re-election, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George Bush in 1992. However, in the last four House elections, on average, 92.7% of the incumbents seeking re-election won (Vital Statistics on Congress). There are many reasons for this trend in the House, and just as many possible solutions, but most are likely to fail. However, if the House is to remain truly representative of the people and of the changing times, clearl y something must be done. It is at first surprising that incumbents don’t always win in the Senate also. But this is not the case. The incumbent success rate since World War II is only 75% in the Senate, a much more reasonable number. Because the Senate carries more prestige than the House, it is not surprising that Senate races would be more hotly contested. Most people who run for the Senate already hold a public office of some kind, or for some other reason have good name recognition. These two things explain the competition in the Senate, both candidates are generally competent representatives, and people are already familiar with them. However, most candidates running for a House seat do not have a prestigious political background. Because of this, a candidate must either have some other form of name recognition or have a lot of money to get it. Unfortunately, most people don’t have either of these, and this is why the House incumbents win 93% of the time. One possible solution to this problem, the one Americans are currently enacting, is to do nothing. While the incumbent success rate for re-election is extraordinarily high, there is still turnover in the House due to retirement for various reasons and losses in campaigns. For example, in the 1994 elections, 48 people retired and 38 incumbents were defeated in the election.