1882 United States House of Representatives elections

1882 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1880 November 7, 1882[a] 1884 →
All 325 seats in the United States House of Representatives 163 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader John G. Carlisle J. Warren Keifer Party Democratic Republican Leader's seat Kentucky 6th Ohio 8th Last election 128 seats 151 seats Seats won 196[1][b] 117[1][b] Seat change 68 34 Popular vote 3,968,021 3,376,726 Percentage 48.90% 41.61% Swing 1.22% 3.33%   Third party Fourth party   Party Readjuster Greenback Last election 2 seats[c] 10 seats Seats won 4[1][d] 2[1] Seat change 2 8 Popular vote 99,992 248,327 Percentage 1.23% 3.06% Swing 0.61% 2.49%   Fifth party Sixth party   Party Liberal Independent Last election 0 seats 1 seats[f] Seats won 1[e] 5[g][h] Seat change 1 4 Popular vote 113,789 282,297 Percentage 1.40% 3.48% Swing New 2.38%
Elections results from the 1882 elections
Speaker before election Joseph Keifer Republican Elected Speaker John Carlisle Democratic

The 1882 United States House of Representatives elections were held for the most part on November 7, 1882, with five states holding theirs early between June and October. They occurred during President Chester A. Arthur's term. Elections were held for 325 seats of the United States House of Representatives, representing 38 states, to serve in the 48th United States Congress. They were the first elections after reapportionment following the 1880 United States census, increasing the size of the House. Special elections were also held throughout the year.

Arthur's Republican Party was badly defeated, losing its majority to the opposition Democratic Party after a campaign that focused on the resistance of Republican leaders to reforming the Spoils system under which government jobs were handed to supporters of winning candidates. After the election, Arthur agreed with the Democrats to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing a professional civil service. However, his actions were too late, as the image of the Republican Party as corrupt was already engrained in the minds of voters.

This would nonetheless be the last occasion a Republican was elected to the House from Florida until 1954,^[2] for the disenfrachisement of almost all blacks in the 1890s would leave that state completely devoid of Republican support until the “Hoovercrat” bolt against Al Smith.^[3] This election also saw the decline of the pro-paper money Greenback Party, and the pick up of several Virginian seats by the Readjuster Party which promoted fiscal responsibility and shunned elitism, though the Virginia-based Readjuster Party all but disappeared following this election and fused with the state Republican Party.^[4]

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