The president’s party usually loses seats
The president’s party has usually lost House seats at midterm. Compare 2026 with any past midterm, and line up approval ratings day by day. The 2026 seat change is not final.
2026 vs. history
Donald Trump’s Republican party -41 House seats so far: the net change in races projected as of this snapshot. It is not final, so it is not ranked against completed midterms. The typical midterm since 1946: -22 House seats for the president’s party. In the Senate, seven seats had been called as flips; Alaska and Mississippi were uncalled. The 2026 approval figure is a polling average of all adults; earlier years are Gallup.
| 2026 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|
| President | Donald Trump (R) | Barack Obama (D) |
| Term | 2nd term | 1st term |
| House seats, president's party | -41 | -63 |
| Senate seats, president's party | -7 | -6 |
| Approval at the election | 38% (Silver Bulletin average) | 45% (Gallup) |
| House: before → after | 218 → ? (called) | 256 → 193 |
| Context | PRELIMINARY as of Nov. 5, 2026. Democrats had won the Senate (7 called flips; AK and MS uncalled) and the House. The House figure of -41 is the net change in races NBC News had projected (43 Democratic pickups, 2 Republican), with 21 races uncalled — not a final change. Gallup ended presidential job-approval polling in February 2026 (last Gallup reading 36% in December 2025). The Silver Bulletin average of all adults was 38.3% approve on Nov. 4, and the SSRS Voter Poll found 37% of voters approving. | Great Recession, ACA backlash, Tea Party; lost House source ↗ |
Approval over the course of the term
Each line is a president’s job approval, lined up by days since the term began, so you can compare everyone at the same point. Solid lines are Gallup; dashed is a polling average (Gallup ended its approval series in February 2026). Check up to 7 at a time.
Where they stood at Trump's current point: day 655 of the term (~1.8 years in)
- Clinton · 1st term (1993)45%
- Obama · 1st term (2009)45%
- Reagan · 1st term (1981)43%
- Trump · 2nd term (2025) · Silver Bulletin average38%
- Trump · 2nd term (2025)Gallup ended its series
Every midterm on record
Seats gained or lost by the president’s party. Blue = Democratic president, red = Republican, gray = earlier parties.
Approval vs. seats lost
Since 1946: the less popular the president, the worse the midterm. 2026 is outlined in gold.
194619501954195819621966197019741978198219861990199419982002200620102014201820222026Presidential approval at the midterm →House seats won/lost
The full record
| Year | President | House | Senate | Approval | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026* | Donald Trump | -41 | -7 | 38% | PRELIMINARY as of Nov. 5, 2026. Democrats had won the Senate (7 called flips; AK and MS uncalled) and the House. The House figure of -41 is the net change in races NBC News had projected (43 Democratic pickups, 2 Republican), with 21 races uncalled — not a final change. Gallup ended presidential job-approval polling in February 2026 (last Gallup reading 36% in December 2025). The Silver Bulletin average of all adults was 38.3% approve on Nov. 4, and the SSRS Voter Poll found 37% of voters approving. ↗ |
| 2022 | Joe Biden | -9 | +1 | 40% | Post-COVID inflation, Dobbs decision; lost House narrowly; gained Senate seat ↗ |
| 2018 | Donald Trump | -41 | +2 | 40% | Lost House; gained Senate seats ↗ |
| 2014 | Barack Obama | -13 | -9 | 42% | Lost Senate ↗ |
| 2010 | Barack Obama | -63 | -6 | 45% | Great Recession, ACA backlash, Tea Party; lost House ↗ |
| 2006 | George W. Bush | -30 | -6 | 38% | Iraq War, scandals, Katrina; lost House and Senate. House -30 per APP (232 to 202 R, House Clerk party divisions); Wikipedia's table gives -32. ↗ |
| 2002 | George W. Bush | +8 | +2 | 63% | Post-9/11 rally; regained Senate control (lost in 2001 via Jeffords switch) ↗ |
| 1998 | Bill Clinton | +4 | 0 | 66% | Lewinsky impeachment backlash; first 2nd-term House gain for president's party since 1822 ↗ |
| 1994 | Bill Clinton | -54 | -8 | 46% | Republican Revolution / Contract with America; lost House (first time since 1954) and Senate. Senate -8 per APP (election result); Sen. Richard Shelby's switch to the GOP the day after the election made it -9 (47 D) by the time the 104th Congress opened. ↗ |
| 1990 | George H. W. Bush | -8 | -1 | 58% | Budget deal/tax pledge reversal; Gulf crisis ↗ |
| 1986 | Ronald Reagan | -5 | -8 | 63% | Lost Senate control ↗ |
| 1982 | Ronald Reagan | -26 | +1 | 42% | 1981-82 recession, ~10% unemployment. Senate +1 per APP (53 to 54 R at start of Congress); Wikipedia's table gives 0. ↗ |
| 1978 | Jimmy Carter | -15 | -3 | 49% | Inflation. Senate -3 per APP (61 to 58 D); Wikipedia's table gives -2. ↗ |
| 1974 | Gerald Ford | -48 | -5 | 54% | Ford succeeded Nixon (Aug 1974); Watergate and Nixon pardon. Senate.gov party division: the 93rd Congress had 42 Republicans; the 94th opened Jan. 14, 1975 with 37 Republicans, 60 Democrats, 2 other, and 1 vacancy (New Hampshire). ↗ |
| 1970 | Richard Nixon | -12 | +2 | 58% | Vietnam ↗ |
| 1966 | Lyndon B. Johnson | -47 | -4 | 44% | Johnson succeeded JFK (1963), elected 1964 (counted as 2nd term); first midterm of his presidency; Vietnam, urban unrest. Senate -4 per APP (68 to 64 D); Wikipedia's table gives -3. ↗ |
| 1962 | John F. Kennedy | -4 | +3 | 61% | Cuban Missile Crisis weeks before Election Day. Senate +3 per APP; Wikipedia's table gives +4 (counts differ on special elections/timing). ↗ |
| 1958 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | -48 | -13 | 57% | Recession of 1958, Sputnik; Senate expanded with Alaska. Senate -13 per APP (47 to 34 R, with Alaska's two new seats); Wikipedia's table gives -12. ↗ |
| 1954 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | -18 | -1 | 61% | Lost House and Senate; McCarthy censure era. Senate -1 per APP (48 to 47 R); Wikipedia's table gives -2. ↗ |
| 1950 | Harry S. Truman | -28 | -6 | 39% | Elected in own right 1948; Korean War. Senate -6 per APP; Senate.gov's start-of-Congress counts (54 to 49 D) imply -5. ↗ |
| 1946 | Harry S. Truman | -56 | -12 | 27% | Truman succeeded FDR (1945); post-war inflation and strikes; lost House and Senate. Seat changes per APP (House -56, Senate -12); Wikipedia's table gives -54/-10. Approval 27% is APP's late-October 1946 Gallup reading (the 33% previously shown was from Sept. 13–18). ↗ |
| 1942 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | -45 | -8 | — | World War II; low wartime turnout ↗ |
| 1938 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | -72 | -7 | — | Recession of 1937-38, court-packing backlash ↗ |
| 1934 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | +9 | +9 | — | New Deal; rare gains in both chambers ↗ |
| 1930 | Herbert Hoover | -52 | -6 | — | Great Depression; Democrats organized House after special elections; Republicans won 218 of 435 at the election but Democrats organized the House after deaths/special elections ↗ |
| 1926 | Calvin Coolidge | -9 | -6 | — | Coolidge succeeded Harding (1923), elected 1924 ↗ |
| 1922 | Warren G. Harding | -77 | -7 | — | Post-war recession ↗ |
| 1918 | Woodrow Wilson | -22 | -4 | — | World War I armistice week; lost House and Senate ↗ |
| 1914 | Woodrow Wilson | -61 | +3 | — | First Senate midterm with direct popular election of all seats (17th Amendment); House expanded to 435 after 1910 census ↗ |
| 1910 | William Howard Taft | -56 | -9 | — | Progressive-conservative GOP split; lost House ↗ |
| 1906 | Theodore Roosevelt | -27 | +2 | — | Elected in own right 1904 ↗ |
| 1902 | Theodore Roosevelt | +9 | 0 | — | Roosevelt succeeded McKinley (1901); House expanded after 1900 census (357->386) ↗ |
| 1898 | William McKinley | -21 | +6 | — | Spanish-American War ↗ |
| 1894 | Grover Cleveland | -127 | -4 | — | Non-consecutive 2nd term; Panic of 1893; largest House loss on record (-127); lost House and Senate ↗ |
| 1890 | Benjamin Harrison | -93 | -4 | — | McKinley Tariff backlash; lost House ↗ |
| 1886 | Grover Cleveland | -16 | +2 | — | ↗ |
| 1882 | Chester A. Arthur | -33 | 0 | — | Arthur succeeded Garfield (1881); lost House; House expanded after 1880 census (293->325) ↗ |
| 1878 | Rutherford B. Hayes | -4 | -7 | — | Post-Reconstruction; Greenback surge; lost Senate ↗ |
| 1874 | Ulysses S. Grant | -93 | -10 | — | Panic of 1873, scandals; lost House to Democrats (first since 1850s) ↗ |
| 1870 | Ulysses S. Grant | -32 | -5 | — | Reconstruction ↗ |
| 1866 | Andrew Johnson | +9 | 0 | — | Johnson succeeded Lincoln (1865); Reconstruction fight with Radical Republicans; Wikipedia counts Democrats (38->47) though Johnson was not a party Democrat; Party-divisions page lists 49 Democrats in 40th Congress. Andrew Johnson ran in 1864 on the National Union ticket and was not a party Democrat; the +9 House figure counts Democrats (38 to 47), so it is not a true gain for a president's party. ↗ |
| 1862 | Abraham Lincoln | -23 | +1 | — | Civil War; seceded states unrepresented (House total 183); kept majority with Unionist allies ↗ |
| 1858 | James Buchanan | -35 | -4 | — | Panic of 1857, Lecompton controversy; lost House ↗ |
| 1854 | Franklin Pierce | -75 | -3 | — | Kansas-Nebraska Act backlash; opposition fragmented (Know Nothing/Anti-Nebraska/Whig/Republican); lost House ↗ |
| 1850 | Millard Fillmore | -22 | -3 | — | Held weeks after the Compromise of 1850 under President Millard Fillmore (who succeeded Zachary Taylor in July 1850). Whigs lost 22 House seats (108 to 86) and 3 Senate seats (25 to 22 as California entered the Union). ↗ |
| 1846 | James K. Polk | -30 | +2 | — | Mexican-American War; lost House to Whigs ↗ |
| 1842 | John Tyler | -69 | -3 | — | Tyler succeeded W.H. Harrison (1841) and was expelled from the Whigs; Whig losses counted; House shrank after 1840 census (242->223); Whigs lost House ↗ |
| 1838 | Martin Van Buren | -3 | -7 | — | Panic of 1837 ↗ |
| 1834 | Andrew Jackson | 0 | +1 | — | Bank War; Senate shading shows anti-Jacksonian control after election ↗ |
| 1830 | Andrew Jackson | -10 | +1 | — | Pro-Jacksonian faction counted ↗ |
| 1826 | John Quincy Adams | -9 | -2 | — | Anti-Jacksonian (Adams) faction counted; lost both chambers to Jacksonians ↗ |
| 1822 | James Monroe | +34 | 0 | — | Era of Good Feelings; House expanded after 1820 census (186->213) ↗ |
| 1818 | James Monroe | +13 | +2 | — | Era of Good Feelings; Federalists collapsing ↗ |
| 1814 | James Madison | +5 | -3 | — | War of 1812; House expanded after 1810 census ↗ |
| 1810 | James Madison | +13 | 0 | — | War Hawk Congress elected ahead of War of 1812 ↗ |
| 1806 | Thomas Jefferson | +2 | +1 | — | ↗ |
| 1802 | Thomas Jefferson | +35 | +5 | — | House expanded after 1800 census (106->142 seats); gain inflated by reapportionment ↗ |
| 1798 | John Adams | +3 | 0 | — | Quasi-War with France, Alien and Sedition Acts; one of the few midterm gains ↗ |
| 1794 | George Washington | -4 | +3 | — | First election with nascent partisan factions. Anti-Administration (Democratic-Republican) candidates grew from about 54 to 59 House seats as the House grew from 105 to 106, while Pro-Administration (Federalist) members fell from 51 to 47; Federalists retained control of the Senate (19–13). ↗ |
| 1790 | George Washington | +3 | 0 | — | Pro-Administration faction counted; elections held 1790-91 over staggered dates ↗ |
* Preliminary: votes still being counted.
Sources: seat changes for 1946–2022 from the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara), with differences from Senate.gov or the House Clerk noted per row; earlier years from Wikipedia’s midterm table. Gallup approval via the American Presidency Project. The 2025–26 polling average is from the Silver Bulletin, because Gallup ended its presidential-approval series in February 2026.