House and Senate Elections

<h1>Text Preview</h1> <p> <P>The United States Congress is made up of 535 members, 435 Representatives, and 100 senators. The number of House members is not fixed by the Constitution, which states in Article I, Section II, Clause III, “Representatives…shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers…” The Constitution does fix the size of the Senate in Article I, Section III, Clause I, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each State.” It also provides that each senator will serve a six-year term.<br></P> <P>In 1929, Congress decided that there were an adequate number of members in the House of Representatives and fixed its size at 435 members. These 435 seats are then <b>apportioned</b> among the states every ten years, depending on the population of each state. Representatives are elected every two years and can serve an unlimited number of terms.<br></P> <P>Candidates who run for the House must be 25 years of age when seated, must have been a citizen of the United States for seven years, and must be an inhabitant of the state from which they are elected. It is also customary for the candidate to live in the district that he or she represents.</P> </p> <p> <P>Voters in 435 congressional districts across the United States choose members of the House of Representatives. The United States employs <b>single-member districts, </b>meaning voters in each district elect one person to represent them. House members represent relatively small constituencies, enabling them to communicate with residents on a regular basis. <br></P> <P>House districts that typically have close elections are called <b>marginal districts</b>. These are areas where the winner gets less than 55 percent of the vote. Conversely, House districts in which the incumbents win with more than 55 percent of the vote are known as <b>safe districts</b>. Even though several incumbent House members lost their re-election bids in the 1990s, most House districts remain safe. However, the 1992 and 1994 elections brought a change to the House of Representatives; 35 Democrats lost their seats to Republicans, and the South became a Republican stronghold.</P> </p> <p> <P>Senate elections differ from House elections in that senators serve for six years with one-third of the Senate running for re-election every two years. In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution required the popular election of senators. This changed the practice of state legislators appointing United States senators. <br></P> <P>Costs for Senate races can run above five million dollars per candidate in a typical election, with the average successful Senate campaign costing close to seven million dollars. Incumbents are often able to gain national support for their campaign as opposed to the state or local support given to their challengers.<br></P> <P>To qualify for the Senate, a candidate must be 30 years of age when seated, must have been a citizen of the United States for nine years, and must be a resident of the state in which he or she is running. It is important to note that since there are fewer senators than representatives, and the Senate debates foreign affairs and ratifies treaties, senators are in the national spotlight more often.</P> </p> <p> <P>While House representatives are chosen in single-member districts, senators are elected <b>at-large</b>, meaning they represent the entire state. This gives senators more diverse constituencies, so they often know fewer of their constituents than House members do. The combination of fewer elections and more diverse constituents results in a less personal connection between senators and their voters.<br></P> <P>When there is an <b>open seat</b> in Congress, or the incumbent is not running for re-election, there is a great deal of competition between political parties. If the support for each party in a district or a state is fairly even, each party will offer their strongest candidate and support that candidate with as many resources as possible. Since there is a near 50-50 split between the parties in the House and the Senate, the winner of the majority of open seats can dictate which party controls the chambers of the House and Senate. </P> </p> <p id="TextCopyright">Copyright 2006 The Regents of the University of California and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education</p>