2014 United States elections

The 2014 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, in the middle of Democratic President Barack Obama's second term. A typical six-year itch midterm election suffered by most second-term presidents, this election saw the Republican Party retaining control of the House of Representatives and winning control of the Senate, while furthering their gains in the governorships and state legislatures. Because of these Republican gains, the election was commonly cited as a "red wave" election.^[1]

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2014 United States elections

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Election day	November 4
Incumbent president	Barack Obama (Democratic)
Next Congress	114th
Senate elections
Overall control	Republican gain
Seats contested	36 of 100 seats (33 seats of Class II + 3 special elections)
Net seat change	Republican +9
Map of the 2014 Senate races      Democratic hold      Republican hold      Republican gain A box in a state indicates that both Senate seats were up for election.
House elections
Overall control	Republican hold
Seats contested	All 435 seats to the 114th Congress
Popular vote margin	Republican +5.7%
Net seat change	Republican +13
Map of the 2014 House races      Democratic hold      Democratic gain      Republican hold      Republican gain
Gubernatorial elections
Seats contested	39 (36 states, 3 territories)
Net seat change	Republican +2
Map of the 2014 gubernatorial races      Democratic hold      Republican hold      Democratic gain      Republican gain      Independent gain

Close

Republicans won a net gain of nine Senate seats, the largest Senate gain for either party since the 1980 United States elections. In the House, Republicans won a net gain of thirteen seats, giving them their largest majority since the 1928 elections. In state elections, Republicans won a net gain of two gubernatorial seats and flipped control of ten legislative chambers. Various other state, territorial, and local elections and referendums were held throughout the year.

With total spending reaching $3.7 billion, the midterm election, at the time, was the most expensive in history, being surpassed by the 2018 midterm election four years later. The 2014 election also saw the lowest turnout since 1942, with just 36.4% of eligible voters voting. Coupled with the 2010 midterms earlier in the Obama administration, this election marked the first time since the Reagan Administration that a two-term president's party suffered net losses in both houses of Congress in both midterm elections.

Major issues of the election included income inequality,^[2] and the Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as "Obamacare"), which Republicans sought to repeal.^[3] Democrats promoted their proposal to increase the minimum wage.^[2] In the lead-up to the 2014 election, Republicans harshly criticized the Obama administration for four ebola cases in the United States that were diagnosed weeks prior to the election.^[4][5][6] The American media intensely covered the ebola scare.^[7] However, immediately after the election, Republicans dropped Ebola as an issue.^[8] Studies found that Republican rhetoric and media coverage of the Ebola scare helped Republican candidates in the 2014 election.^[7][9][10]

Although it generated much debate in early 2014, the Keystone Pipeline ultimately received little attention in the election, with environmentalists instead focused on fighting global warming and supporting the EPA's proposed regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.^[11][12][13] Another potentially important issue, net neutrality, received little attention during the campaign.^[14]

National exit polling showed that 45% of voters said the economy was their most important issue.^[15][16] This was a decline from 2010 and 2008 (when 59% of voters and 63% of voters, respectively, named it as their top issue), but was still the most common issue cited by voters as most important to them.^[15] Smaller numbers of voters named health care, foreign policy, or illegal immigration as their top issues,^[16] or same-sex marriage, Ebola, or the legalization of marijuana as their top issues.^[15]

With a final total of 247 seats (56.78%) in the House and 54 seats in the Senate, the Republicans ultimately achieved their largest majority in the U.S. Congress since the 71st Congress in 1929.^[17]

Numerous elections were held for officeholders in numerous cities, counties, school boards, special districts, and others around the country.^[27]

Nationwide voter turnout was 36.4%, down from 40.9% in the 2010 midterms and the lowest since the 1942 elections, when just 33.9% of voters turned out, though that election came during the middle of World War II.^[33][34][35]

The states with the highest turnout were Maine (59.3%), Wisconsin (56.9%), Alaska (55.3%), Colorado (53%), Oregon (52.7%) Minnesota (51.3%), Iowa (50.6%), New Hampshire (48.8%), Montana (46.1%) and South Dakota (44.6%), all of which except for Iowa and Montana featured a competitive gubernatorial race and all of which except for Maine and Wisconsin also featured competitive Senate races.^[34][35] The states with the highest turnout that had no Senate or gubernatorial race that year were North Dakota (44.1%) and Washington state (38.6%).^[34][35]

The states with the lowest turnout were Indiana (28%), Texas (28.5%), Utah (28.8%), Tennessee (29.1%), New York (29.5%), Mississippi (29.7%), Oklahoma (29.8%), New Jersey (30.4%) and West Virginia and Nevada (31.8%). Indiana and Utah had no Senate or gubernatorial elections and the others all had races for at least one of the posts, but they were not considered competitive.^[34][35] Turnout in Washington, D.C. was (30.3%).^[34][35]

According to CNN, Americans aged between 18 and 29 accounted for 13% of voters,^[36] down from 19% in the presidential election two years before.^[37]

Analysis by the Pew Research Center found that 35% of non-voters cited work or school commitments, which prevented them from voting, 34% said they were too busy, unwell, away from home or forgot to vote, 20% either didn't like the choices, didn't know enough or didn't care and 10% had recently moved, missed a registration deadline or didn't have transportation.^[38]

The New York Times counts apathy, anger and frustration at the relentlessly negative tone of the campaigns as the reasons of low turnout and stated, "Neither party gave voters an affirmative reason to show up at the polls."^[39]

A series of milestones were set for women, African-Americans, and Hispanics, among others, in the U.S. Congress and American politics in general. These include:

• Republican Saira Blair, elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates, became the youngest elected official to state office in American history, at age 18.^[54]
• Republican Terry Branstad, the governor of Iowa, was re-elected to a sixth four-year term as governor, thus becoming the longest-serving governor in U.S. history (surpassing George Clinton of New York).^[55]
• Republican Shelley Moore Capito, elected to the Senate from West Virginia, became the first female senator in West Virginia's history.^[56]
• Republican Joni Ernst, elected to the Senate from Iowa, became the first female combat veteran elected to the U.S. Senate, the first woman ever elected on a statewide level in Iowa, and the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress from Iowa.^[57]
• Democrat Nellie Gorbea, elected Secretary of State of Rhode Island, became the first Hispanic to be elected to a statewide office in New England.^[58]
• Democrat Maura Healey, elected Massachusetts Attorney General, became the first openly gay state attorney general elected in America.^[59]
• Republican Will Hurd, elected to the House from Texas, was the first African-American Republican elected to Congress in Texas.^[60]
• Republican Mia Love, elected to the House from Utah, was the first African-American woman elected to Congress as a Republican, the first Haitian-American person elected to the U.S. Congress, and the first African-American elected to Congress from the state of Utah.^[61]
• Republican Martha McSally, the first American woman to fly in combat since the 1991 lifting of the prohibition of women in combat, as well as the first woman to command a USAF fighter squadron, was elected to the House from Arizona.^[62][63]
• Republican Alex Mooney, elected to the House from West Virginia, became the first Latino elected to Congress in West Virginia's history.^[64]
• Democrat Gina Raimondo, elected Governor of Rhode Island was the first woman elected governor in Rhode Island and first to restrict transportation related to a neighboring Democratic state (New York State).
• Republican Tim Scott, elected to the Senate from South Carolina, was the first African-American in history to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate in a former Confederate state,^[65] and also became the first African-American to be elected to both the House and the Senate.^[66]
• Republican Elise Stefanik, elected to the House from New York, was the youngest woman elected to Congress at age 30. She beat the previous record-holder and fellow New Yorker, Elizabeth Holtzman, who was elected at age 31 in 1972.^[67]

Bold indicates a change in partisan control. Note that not all states held gubernatorial, state legislative, and United States Senate elections in 2014.

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