Date 3 November 1998 | ||
The 1998 United States elections were held on November 3, 1998 in the middle of Democratic President Bill Clinton's second term. The elections showed little change, and the composition in both houses of the United States Congress were not significantly altered.
In the Senate elections, neither party made gains, as Republicans won Senate seats from Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio. Democrats won seats in New York, North Carolina, and Indiana.
The parallel House of Representatives elections saw a significant disruption of the historic six-year itch trend, where the President's party loses seats in the second-term midterm elections, as the Democrats picked up 5 seats in the House. This also marked the second time in U.S. history since the Civil War that the President's party gained seats in a midterm election, the first being 1934 and the third being 2002. This is also the only time this has happened during the president's second term rather than their first.
Furthermore, neither party made net gains in governorships. Texas Governor George W. Bush's landslide re-election solidified his status as a front-runner for the 2000 Republican nomination.