ABSTRACT
In most years, midterm congressional elections produce little in the way of noteworthy developments. Sparks may fly in a few individual races, but far more often than not the basic political landscape remains the same. Although only a handful of midterm elections in U.S. history brought fundamental political change, two of the last four are among them. In 1994, the Republican Party won control of both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate for the first time in over 40 years. Republicans maintained a majority in the House throughout the next 12 years, and also controlled the Senate for all but a brief time in this period. In 2006, however, Democrats recaptured both the House and the Senate. For only the second time in over half a century, the majority party in Congress suffered a harsh rebuke.
