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4 of the 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There were four special elections in 2011 to fill vacant seats in the United States House of Representatives.
Two seat switched parties, swapping from Republican to Democratic, and two other seats were held by the same parties.
Elections are listed by date and district.
District | Incumbent | This race | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member | Party | First elected | Results | Candidates | |
New York 26 | Chris Lee | Republican | 2008 | Incumbent resigned February 9, 2011 due to a personal scandal.[1] New member elected May 24, 2011.[2] Democratic gain. |
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California 36 | Jane Harman | Democratic | 2000 | Incumbent resigned February 28, 2011 to become head of the Wilson Center.[3] New member elected July 12, 2011. Democratic hold. |
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Nevada 2 | Dean Heller | Republican | 2006 | Incumbent resigned May 9, 2011 to join the U.S. Senate.[4] New member elected September 13, 2011.[5] Republican hold. |
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New York 9 | Anthony Weiner | Democratic | 1998 | Incumbent resigned June 21, 2011 due to personal scandals.[6] New member elected September 13, 2011.[7] Republican gain. |
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Incumbent representative Chris Lee resigned on February 9, 2011, after a scandal erupted over him soliciting a woman on Craigslist. The special election was held on May 24, 2011. In an upset victory, Democrat Kathy Hochul narrowly beat Republican Assemblywoman Jane Corwin with 47% of the vote.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Kathy Hochul | 47,519 | 42.68 | |
Working Families | Kathy Hochul | 5,194 | 4.66 | |
Total | Kathy Hochul | 52,713 | 47.34 | |
Republican | Jane Corwin | 35,721 | 32.08 | |
Conservative | Jane Corwin | 9,090 | 8.16 | |
Independence | Jane Corwin | 2,376 | 2.13 | |
Total | Jane Corwin | 47,187 | 42.38 | |
Tea Party | Jack Davis | 10,029 | 9.01 | |
Green | Ian Murphy | 1,177 | 1.06 | |
Write-in | 232 | 0.21 | ||
Total votes | 111,338 | 100.00 | ||
Democratic gain from Republican |
Jane Harman resigned on February 28, 2011, to become head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[3] The special primary election occurred on May 17, 2011. Democrat Janice Hahn received the highest number of votes, with Republican Craig Huey taking second place. Because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, a special general election was held on July 12, 2011, between the top two vote recipients. The runoff election was won by Janice Hahn.[8]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Janice Hahn | 47,000 | 54.89 | |
Republican | Craig Huey | 38,624 | 45.11 | |
Total votes | 85,624 | 100.00 | ||
Democratic hold |
Incumbent representative Dean Heller resigned after being appointed to the United States Senate following the resignation of John Ensign.
Republican Mark Amodei won the election with 58% of the vote to Democrat Kate Marshall's 36%.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Mark Amodei | 75,180 | 57.92 | |
Democratic | Kate Marshall | 46,818 | 36.07 | |
Independent | Helmuth Lehmann | 5,372 | 4.14 | |
Independent American | Timothy Fasano | 2,421 | 1.87 | |
Total votes | 129,791 | 100.00 | ||
Republican hold |
Incumbent representative Anthony Weiner resigned on June 21, 2011, following a series of sexting scandals.
The special election was held on September 13, 2011. Despite the district being heavily Democratic, Republican businessman Bob Turner narrowly won against Democratic Assemblyman David Weprin by under 4,000 votes.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Bob Turner | 32,526 | 45.05 | |||
Conservative | Bob Turner | 4,816 | 6.67 | |||
Total | Bob Turner | 37,342 | 51.72 | |||
Democratic | David Weprin | 31,285 | 43.33 | |||
Working Families | David Weprin | 1,425 | 1.97 | |||
Independence | David Weprin | 946 | 1.31 | |||
Total | David Weprin | 33,656 | 46.62 | |||
Socialist Workers | Chris Hoeppner | 143 | 0.20 | |||
Total votes | 72,197 | 100.00 | ||||
Republican gain from Democratic |