United States House of Representatives elections in Rhode Island, 2018
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 7
- Early voting: N/A
- Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 6
- Online registration: Yes
- Same-day registration: No
- Voter ID: Photo ID required
- Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
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September 12, 2018 |
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The 2018 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Rhode Island took place on November 6, 2018. Voters elected two candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's two congressional districts.
Partisan breakdown
Heading into the November 6 election, the Democratic Party held both of the two congressional seats from Rhode Island.
| Members of the U.S. House from Rhode Island—Partisan Breakdown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | As of November 2018 | After the 2018 Election | |
| Democratic Party | 2 | 2 | |
| Republican Party | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 2 | 2 | |
Incumbents
Heading into the 2018 election, the incumbents for the two congressional districts were:
| Name | Party | District |
|---|---|---|
| David Cicilline | 1 | |
| Jim Langevin | 2 |
2016 Pivot Counties
Rhode Island featured one congressional district that intersects with one or more Pivot Counties. These 206 Pivot Counties voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012.
The 206 Pivot Counties were located in 34 states. Iowa, with 31, had the most such counties. The partisan makeup of the 108 congressional districts intersecting with Pivot Counties was more Republican than the partisan breakdown of the U.S. House. Of the 108 congressional districts that had at least one Pivot County, 63 percent were held by a Republican incumbent, while 55.4 percent of U.S. House seats were won by a Republican in the 2016 elections.[1]
Candidates
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District 1
General election candidates
General election candidates
- David N. Cicilline (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Patrick Donovan (Republican Party)
Did not make the ballot:
- Daniel Guilmette (Independent)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
- David N. Cicilline (Incumbent) ✔
- Christopher Young
Did not make the ballot:
Republican primary candidates
Independent candidates
Disqualified
- Daniel Guilmette[2]
District 2
General election candidates
General election candidates
- Jim Langevin (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Salvatore Caiozzo (Republican Party)
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
- Jim Langevin (Incumbent) ✔
Republican primary candidates
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Wave election analysis
- See also: Wave elections (1918-2016)
The term wave election is frequently used to describe an election cycle in which one party makes significant electoral gains. How many seats would Republicans have had to lose for the 2018 midterm election to be considered a wave election?
Ballotpedia examined the results of the 50 election cycles that occurred between 1918 and 2016—spanning from President Woodrow Wilson's (D) second midterm in 1918 to Donald Trump's (R) first presidential election in 2016. We define wave elections as the 20 percent of elections in that period resulting in the greatest seat swings against the president's party.
Applying this definition to U.S. House elections, we found that Republicans needed to lose 48 seats for 2018 to qualify as a wave election.
The chart below shows the number of seats the president's party lost in the 11 U.S. House waves from 1918 to 2016. Click here to read the full report.
| U.S. House wave elections | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | President | Party | Election type | House seats change | House majority[3] | |
| 1932 | Hoover | R | Presidential | -97 | D | |
| 1922 | Harding | R | First midterm | -76 | R | |
| 1938 | Roosevelt | D | Second midterm | -70 | D | |
| 2010 | Obama | D | First midterm | -63 | R (flipped) | |
| 1920 | Wilson | D | Presidential | -59 | R | |
| 1946 | Truman | D | First midterm | -54 | R (flipped) | |
| 1994 | Clinton | D | First midterm | -54 | R (flipped) | |
| 1930 | Hoover | R | First midterm | -53 | D (flipped) | |
| 1942 | Roosevelt | D | Third midterm | -50 | D | |
| 1966 | Johnson | D | First midterm[4] | -48 | D | |
| 1974 | Ford | R | Second midterm[5] | -48 | D | |
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2018
- U.S. House battlegrounds, 2018
- U.S. House primaries, 2018
Footnotes
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
- ↑ Rhode Island Department of State, "Candidates for Representative In Congress District 1," accessed July 27, 2018
- ↑ Denotes the party that had more seats in the U.S. House following the election.
- ↑ Lyndon Johnson's (D) first term began in November 1963 after the death of President John F. Kennedy (D), who was first elected in 1960. Before Johnson had his first midterm in 1966, he was re-elected president in 1964.
- ↑ Gerald Ford's (R) first term began in August 1974 following the resignation of President Richard Nixon (R), who was first elected in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972. Because Ford only served for two full months before facing the electorate, this election is classified as Nixon's second midterm.
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