Who Won the Most Votes for the U.S. House in 2022?
Three of the Top 10 vote-getters came from the state of Wisconsin
All 435 U.S. Representatives get a single vote in congress, but the number of votes they received to get elected into the chamber, to be sure, varies significantly.
One U.S. House member’s name was checked on the ballot by tens of thousands more constituents than the second-largest vote-getter during last November’s general election.
Democrat and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) received 295,998 votes in 2022 – nearly 30,000 more than the next U.S. Representative.
Jayapal, whose district includes most of Seattle, won 27,258 more votes than her former Progressive Caucus co-chair, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin’s 2nd CD.
Pocan, who represents the Madison area, received 268,740 votes.
While redistricting and reapportionment conducted after each U.S. Census attempts to make the number of residents in (non at-large) congressional districts roughly equal, the number of votes received by a candidate can be impacted by many factors beyond incumbency and their personal political skills, such as partisan gerrymandering, the voting culture of the state/district, whether or not a candidate runs unopposed or has a major party opponent, and the number of voting age citizens within a district’s population.
Jayapal did face a Republican opponent in 2022, who won 14.2 percent in the +36-point Democratic tilt district.
Pocan, meanwhile, is one of three Wisconsinites among the Top-10 vote-getters across the 2022 U.S. House electoral scorecards.
Also among the Top 10 were Wisconsin’s 5th CD Republican Scott Fitzgerald (243,741 votes) at #7 and 6th CD Republican Glenn Grothman (239,231) at #10, the latter running unopposed in the general election.
To be sure, Wisconsin has faced criticism for its gerrymandered congressional (and state legislative) districts and reformers are expecting to see court-ordered new lines drawn in the coming months.
Only one at-large U.S. Representative made the Top 10 list – South Dakota Republican Dusty Johnson came in at #4 with 253,821 votes. Johnson did not face a Democratic opponent for the second consecutive cycle, and won 77.4 percent of the vote against a Libertarian nominee.
Rounding out the Top 10 are:
- #3: Pennsylvania 13th CD Republican John Joyce (260,345 votes)
- #5: Pennsylvania 3rd CD Democrat Dwight Evans (251,115)
- #6: Colorado 2nd CD Democrat Joe Neguse (244,107)
- #8: Georgia 5th CD Democrat Nikema Williams (243,687)
- #9: Michigan 6th CD Democrat Debbie Dingell (241,759)
Joyce ran unopposed in 2022 and Evans only faced a Socialist Workers Party nominee.
While the average district population size continues to increase each decade, Jayapal’s 295,998 votes is far from a U.S. House electoral record.
During the 2020 election, at the end of the last redistricting period when many districts are under- and over-represented prior to reapportionment (and a presidential election cycle), there were many winning candidates who received well over 300,000 votes.
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“239231 @ #10”: If the Badger State were not required to tabulate the votes of UNOPPOSED candidates (as are – or at least _were_ the case in AR, FL, and LA) then Mr Grothman would not (indeed, COULD NOT) make the “top ten vote-getters of 2022” list, since, well…
‘HR Speakership’: The three-week drama (and its resolution) bears tangential resemblance to the one in late 1998 – a besieged incumbent speaker unable to retain his position, nationally well-known aspirants derailed or deterred in their bids, and a comparatively unknown member ultimately ascending to the post, arguably because the rank-and-file members of the Conference grew desperate.