The "Republican Revolution","Revolution of '94",or "Gingrich Revolution" are political slogans that refer to the Republican Party (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. mid-term elections,which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of Representatives,and a pick-up of eight seats in the Senate. On November 9,1994,the day after the election,Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama,a conservative Democrat,changed parties,becoming a Republican;on March 3,1995,Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell switched to the Republican side as well,increasing the GOP Senate majority.
James Merrill Jeffords was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sworn into the Senate in 1989,he served as a Republican until 2001,when he left the party to become an independent and began caucusing with the Democrats. Jeffords retired from the Senate in 2007. Prior to serving in the Senate,he served as the U.S. representative for Vermont's at-large congressional district from 1975 to 1989.
Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart is a Cuban-American attorney and politician. He was the U.S. representative for Florida's 21st congressional district from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. He retired from Congress in 2011 and his younger brother,Mario Díaz-Balart,who had previously represented Florida's 25th congressional district,succeeded him. He is currently chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute. After leaving Congress,he started a law practice and a consulting firm,both based in Miami,Florida.
Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II is an American lobbyist and politician. He was President and CEO of PhRMA,a pharmaceutical company lobby group. Tauzin was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1980 to 2005,representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district.
Ralph Moody Hall was an American politician who served as the United States representative for Texas's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 2015. He was first elected in 1980,and was the chairman of the House Committee on Science,Space and Technology from 2011 to 2013. He was also a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. In 2004,he switched to the Republican Party after having been a member of the Democratic Party for more than 50 years.
The Solid South or the Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed from the end of Reconstruction in 1877,to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. During this period,the Democratic Party overwhelmingly controlled southern state legislatures,and most local,state and federal officeholders in the South were Democrats. During the late 1800s and early 1900s,Southern Democrats disenfranchised blacks in all Southern states,along with a few non-Southern states doing the same as well. This resulted essentially in a one-party system,in which a candidate's victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself. White primaries were another means that the Democrats used to consolidate their political power,excluding blacks from voting in primaries.
Southern Democrats are affiliates of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States. Most of them voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by holding the longest filibuster in American Senate history while Democrats in non-Southern states supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After 1994 the Republicans typically won most elections in the South.
Michael Patrick Forbes is an American former politician from the state of New York. Forbes represented a Long Island district in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001,first as a Republican and then as a Democrat. He was an influential member of the House Appropriations Committee throughout his tenure on Capitol Hill. Forbes left Congress after being defeated in the 2000 Democratic primary election. He subsequently moved to Texas,where he has since devoted his life to service in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2013,he was ordained a permanent deacon by Bishop Joe S. Vasquez.
Herbert Leon "Sonny" Callahan was an American businessman and politician from Alabama. After being elected as a Democrat from Mobile to the state house and senate,he shifted to the Republican Party after losing a race for Lieutenant Governor of Alabama in 1982. He was repeatedly elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives,serving from 1985 to 2003. Afterward he established his own lobbying firm and continued to be active in the Republican Party.
In American politics,a conservative Democrat is a member of the Democratic Party with conservative political views,or with views that are conservative compared to the positions taken by other members of the Democratic Party. Traditionally,conservative Democrats have been elected to office from the Southern states,rural areas,the Rust Belt,and the Midwest. In 2019,the Pew Research Center found that 14% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identify as conservative or very conservative,38% identify as moderate,and 47% identify as liberal or very liberal.
Floyd Davidson Spence was an American attorney and a politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina. Elected for three terms to the South Carolina House of Representatives from Lexington County as a Democrat,in 1962 Spence announced his decision to switch to the Republican Party,as he was unhappy with shifts in the national party.
Edward Zorinsky was an American politician who served as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate from 1976 until his death in 1987. He represented Nebraska and had previously served as mayor of Omaha,elected as a Republican. He was the first Jew elected to statewide office in Nebraska.
Marvin Henry "Mickey" Edwards is an American politician who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives,serving Oklahoma's 5th congressional district from 1977 to 1993.
Matthew Gilbert "Marty" Martínez was a Congressional representative who was both a member of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party from California's 30th congressional district from 1982 to 1993 and California's 31st congressional district from 1993 to 2001. Martínez switched parties to become a Republican after being defeated in a 2000 primary.
Edward John Gurney Jr. was an attorney and an American politician based in Florida,where he served as a Representative and a United States Senator. Born and reared in Portland,Maine,Gurney moved to Florida after his service in World War II. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1962,Gurney was the second Republican elected to Congress from Florida in the 20th century.
Louis Frey Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1969 until 1979. He represented Florida's 5th congressional district from 1969 to 1973 and the 9th district from 1973 to 1979,until he ran unsuccessfully in 1978 for the Republican nomination for governor to succeed the term-limited Democrat Reubin Askew of Pensacola.
Connecticut is divided among five congressional districts from which citizens elect the state's representatives to the United States House of Representatives. After the re-apportionment following the 2000 census,Connecticut lost one representative,reducing the state's delegation from six to five. The redistricting process was shared between the Republican governor at the time,John G. Rowland,and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Before the census,the state's House delegation was split evenly between Republicans and Democrats,and the solution finally agreed upon by the redistricting committee would ensure an even match-up between incumbents,the 6th district's Nancy L. Johnson,a Republican,and the 5th district's James H. Maloney,a Democrat. In the 2002 elections,Johnson defeated Maloney by a surprisingly large margin in the new 5th district.
Party divisions of United States Congresses have played a central role on the organization and operations of both chambers of the United States Congress—the Senate and the House of Representatives—since its establishment as the bicameral legislature of the Federal government of the United States in 1789. Political parties had not been anticipated when the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787,nor did they exist at the time the first Senate elections and House elections occurred in 1788 and 1789. Organized political parties developed in the U.S. in the 1790s,but political factions—from which organized parties evolved—began to appear almost immediately after the 1st Congress convened. Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as "pro-administration" and would eventually form the Federalist Party,while those in opposition joined the emerging Democratic-Republican Party.
Robert Lee Fulton Sikes was an American politician of the Democratic Party who represented the Florida Panhandle in the United States House of Representatives from 1941 to 1979,with a brief break in 1944 and 1945 for service during World War II.
The 1994 United States elections were held on November 8,1994. The elections occurred in the middle of Democratic President Bill Clinton's first term in office,and elected the members of 104th United States Congress. The elections have been described as the "Republican Revolution" because the Republican Party captured unified control of Congress for the first time since 1952. Republicans picked up eight seats in the Senate and won a net of 54 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans also picked up a net of ten governorships and took control of many state legislative chambers.
