Map of U.S. House elections results from 1888 elections for 51st Congress on election day (a number of Southern seats were later successfully contested and the results overturned)
The 1888 United States House of Representatives elections were held for the most part on November 6, 1888, with three states holding theirs early between June and September. They occurred at the same time as the election of PresidentBenjamin Harrison. Elections were initially held for 325 seats of the United States House of Representatives, representing 38 states, to serve in the 51st United States Congress. Six new states would later join the union and increase the House to 332 seats. Special elections were also held throughout the year.
Harrison's Republican Party gained a majority in the House at the expense of the Democratic Party, even though incumbent President Grover Cleveland actually received more votes counted than Harrison. However, as in other elections in the period, widespread vote suppression and fraud was common on behalf of Democrats and against black Republicans in the South. The Republican House majority in uncontested elections unseated a number of initially reported as victorious Democratic candidates in favor of Republican candidates who contested their election loss. The issue of tariffs played a key role in this election. The Democrats, with the support of farmers and laborers, wanted to lower tariffs in order to promote free trade, while the Republicans, backed by industry and big business, believed that higher tariffs were necessary to protect American manufacturing. Especially in industrializing regions, voters chose the Republican view on tariffs, as they gave the party a slim majority in the House.
Seven seats were added, for the six new states of, in order of admission (number of House seats for each new state listed in parentheses): North Dakota (1), South Dakota (2), Montana (1), Washington (1), Idaho (1), and Wyoming (1).
In the 1st district, initial returns showed William H. Cate (Democratic) winning the election, but the election was contested by Lewis P. Featherstone (Labor), and on May 5, 1890, he was declared the winner.
In the 7th district, Elliott was initially declared re-elected, but Miller successfully challenged the election and was seated in his place in September 1890.
^ abIncludes the late elections of six new states that joined the union in 1889 and 1890.
^ abThere are significant discrepancies between the party counts provided by Martis (pp. 142–43) and Dubin (p. 285) in regards to the 51st Congress, mainly due to the fact that Martis counts the results of many later contested elections (which were generally decided in favor of the challenging Republican candidate, resulting in the unseating of a number of Democratic members). Dubin records 169 Republicans and 161 Democrats on the first day of the 1st session of the 51st Congress; Dubin reports 177 Republicans, 154 Democrats, and one Labor Party member at the start of the 2nd session of the 51st Congress, figures that nearly match Martis' numbers.
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