policy process. He received approximately 8 percent
of the vote in the 1996 election cycle.
The Congressional Elections The Republicans
had gained control over Congress with a successful
1994 campaign, when the party swept the Democrats
out of their forty-year majority in both houses with the
Contract with America campaign. House Speaker
Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the movement’s leader,
claimed that more Americans agreed with Republi-
cans than with Democrats. Over three hundred con-
gressional candidates signed onto the Contract with
America campaign that supported, among other
items, congressional term limits, deep tax cuts, indi-
vidual property rights, and a balanced budget
amendment. Many of them won their elections be-
cause a number of Democrats retired from districts
where the Contract with America Republican candi-
dates sought office.
Once in office, these congressional freshmen di-
vided the Republican Party into two groups: hard-
line conservatives and liberal Republicans. Republi-
can senators were less likely to support the tenets of
the party’s House members. Many of their objectives
failed because of this political infighting. Further-
more, Republicans were hamstrung because they
had been out of congressional power for so many
years that they did not have a strong legislative talent
base to shepherd many of their bills through the leg-
islative process. Many freshmen accepted large cam-
paign contributions from political action commit-
tees (PACs), contributions that Republicans accused
their Democratic rivals of accepting in the 1994 elec-
tions. Yet the Republicans appeared unified, thereby
solidifying a strong Democratic base in Congress. In
the end, both groups appeared strong as they sought
reelection in 1996.
In late 1995, the Republicans, led by Gingrich,
threatened to shut down the federal government if
President Clinton did not meet their political de-
mands. Clinton countered by stating that they
wanted to cut federal funding for education and
health care for the elderly. The president portrayed
their shutdown as executive blackmail, claiming that
government employees would not be able to feed
their families and that tourists would not be able to
visit national monuments or parks because the Re-
publicans had shut down the government. Gingrich
also claimed that he was ignored by President
Clinton in November, 1995, on anAir Force Oneflight
to Israel, where they attended Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral. The White House coun-
tered by releasing photos of Gingrich sitting near
President Clinton and other national leaders on the
plane. Gingrich’s popularity decreased when Ameri-
cans learned that he asked his former wife for a di-
vorce as she awoke from cancer surgery. In order to
avoid being considered as part of the new conserva-
tive wing of the party, several moderate Republicans
led a compromise initiative that reduced federal
domestic spending by 9 percent. Their overall legis-
lative accomplishments were lackluster, and these
freshmen faced a more challenging reelection cam-
paign cycle.
Many Democrats had chosen to retire rather than
face conservative Republicans in the 1994 election
cycle. The South, once a Democratic stronghold,
was largely Republican, and many of its Democratic
members were not seeking reelection or repre-
sented racial minority districts that voted Demo-
cratic. Congressional members on all sides of the po-
litical spectrum realized that spending cuts could
reduce available funds for government projects and
constituent services at home. They needed large
amounts of money to maintain their seats and party
control. As a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling
on campaign financing, federal campaigns had in-
creased access to more political party contributions.
Labor unions, Christian Right organizations, and
corporations donated millions to political parties
and campaigns to prevent their opponents from be-
ing elected to or back to office.
Two weeks prior to election day in 1996, the Dem-
ocrats were poised to win back both houses of Con-
gress. The Republican Party released new campaign
advertisements encouraging voters not to send Pres-
ident Clinton the “blank check” that a Democratic
Congress would give him. The voters agreed and, by
and large, sent conservative, more confrontational
Republicans to Congress. The Democrats saw a net
gain of eight seats in the House and a two-seat net
loss in the Senate.Impact Bolstered by strong support from the Reli-
gious Right, the South was now as loyal to the Repub-
lican Party as they were to the Democrats just forty
years earlier. More women were elected to Congress
than had been previously. Elsewhere, Democrats
made moderate gains. Further analysis showed that
those who supported Democrats had a more positiveThe Nineties in America Elections in the United States, 1996 305