The 2018 midterm elections were historic for a number of reasons, but one notable record-breaking statistic had to do with popular vote turnout for U.S. House races.
Both Republicans and Democrats broke the turnout record for a single party by millions of votes, as noted by Dave Wasserman, House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
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Democrats raked in more than 60 million votes as of Wednesday evening, beating out the GOP’s 50.6 million.
New: Dems just surpassed 60 million House votes. For perspective, the previous midterm record was 44.5 million, set by Republicans in 2010. https://t.co/0pm7oW1pFE
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 29, 2018
Both statistics dwarfed the prior record held by Republicans boosted by the Tea Party movement in 2010. That number was slightly above 44.5 million according to the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
This year’s numbers are likely to get slightly higher as some straggler ballots remain to be counted and some states have yet to certify their results.
Democrats in the House flipped 40 seats, not only giving themselves control of the lower chamber, but also the biggest sweep since the Watergate era. Next year Democrats will have 235 seats; Republicans will have 200.
