It’s practically a guarantee that Democrats in the House and Senate will see big gains come Tuesday. This could give us our biggest majorities in decades. So it begs the question, how far do we need to go back to find a congressional majority this big?
Current House breakdown:
236D/199R
The last Dem majority was in 1992, so starting there and working our way back here are the prior Democratic House majorities.
1992 – 259D/176R
A pickup of 23 seats is needed to equal this majority.
1990 – 268D/167R
A pickup of 32 seats is needed.
1982 – 269D/166R
A pickup of 33 seats is needed.
1978 – 277D/158R
A pickup of 41 seats is needed.
1976 – 292D/143R
A pickup of 56 seats is needed.
Making my prediction I’ll say our House majority after this election will look a lot like our 1990 or 1982 majorities. Though it could get as high as our 1978 majority.
As far as the senate goes, it appears that our new majority will our largest since at least 1978 when we held 58 seats and could get close to our 1976 majority of 61 seats.
These will, on balance, be more progressive Democrats on the full range of issues — certainly than the Democratic Caucus was in the late 70s and early 80s.