The Future of the House Republicans
With each passing day, House Republicans are setting a new record. Between Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower, neither party had ever served in the minority in the House for more than sixteen years at a time. But since losing a short-lived majority in the 1954 midterm, House Republicans have served in the minority for forty years. This unprecedented time in the wilderness has some remarkable features. Of 256 House Democrats, only three have ever served in the minority: Jamie Whitten (Mississippi), Jack Brooks (Texas), and Sidney Yates (Illinois). (Whitten is retiring in 1994.) Of 178 House Republicans, not one has ever served in the majority. Twenty-seven current members thirteen Republicans and fourteen Democrats had not even been born when the GOP last had a majority. Despite this unique situation, political scientists have paid scant attention to the House GOP. We analyze how House Republicans are coping with their permanent minority status in light of the changing circumstances of the mid-1990s. We ask: