Massachusetts Democratic US House Winning Streak Balloons to 146

Democrats have won 45 straight races by double digits in the Bay State

For the second consecutive cycle, all nine Massachusetts U.S. Representatives ran for reelection and all nine cruised to another term.

The sweep marks the 15th straight cycle in which Democrats have won every U.S. House race on the Bay State ballot since 1996 which, when combined with special elections, brings their current winning streak for the office to 146 in a row.

The party owns the longest active partisan U.S. House winning streak in the nation by more than 100 contests – with Connecticut Democrats (45 in a row), Rhode Island Democrats (32), Arkansas Republicans (28), and Wyoming Republicans (25) rounding out the Top 5.

Massachusetts Democrats also have recorded the eighth most consecutive Democratic U.S. House victories in history and the most outside of the South, where there was effective one-party Democratic rule in many states for nearly three-quarters of a century. [Connecticut owns the second largest streak outside of the South].

The last time Massachusetts Republicans picked up a U.S. House seat was 32 years ago in 1992 when nine-term incumbent Joseph Early was defeated in the 3rd CD by GOPer Peter Blute and seven-term Congressman Nicholas Mavroules lost in the 6th CD to Republican Peter Torkildsen. These two GOP incumbents held their seats during the 1994 Republican Revolution.

Since then, Democrats have recorded 146 consecutive victories in general and special elections conducted from 1996 through the 2024 cycle.

Republicans have come within 10 points of winning a Massachusetts U.S. House election in just seven of these 146 races.

Democrats have won each of the last 45 elections by double-digits with the last single-digit race coming in the 9th CD in 2014 when Chatham’s John Chapman fell 9.96 points shy of unseating Bill Keating.

Worse still, Massachusetts Republicans only fielded two U.S. House nominees across the nine congressional districts this cycle – in the 8th and 9th – which marks the lowest percentage of Republican nominees for Massachusetts U.S. House elections in the history of the party (22.2 percent of districts).

The GOP placed nominees on the ballot in 30 percent of U.S. House contests in 2006 (three of 10 districts), 33.3 percent in 2014 (three of nine), and 36.4 percent in 1986 (four of 11).

Massachusetts Republicans have now failed to nominate a candidate in at least one congressional district during each of the last 34 cycles since 1958.

Between 1856 and 1956, Republicans did not nominate a candidate in just 12 of 680 general elections (1.8 percent). Since 1958, that number has skyrocketed to 134 of 366 races (36.6 percent).

Massachusetts Democrats will need to run the table for many more cycles before moving up to seventh place on the all-time state Democratic U.S. House winning streak list. If they continue to win out, they would leapfrog Texas (198 in a row, 1931-1946) in 2036.

Georgia (410, 1892-1962), Alabama (313, 1900-1962), Mississippi (294, 1884-1962), Arkansas (258, 1890-1958), South Carolina (245, 1896-1964), and Louisiana (225, 1918-1970) own the longest historical streaks.

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