Election Forecast

With the 1962 elections only a fortnight away, conservatives around the nation looked forward to important gains in their struggle to tame the wilder reaches of the New Frontier. In most cases, these hopes were tied to the fortunes of the Republican Party. In special circumstances, they had flourished independently of it. National interest has focused on the House of Representatives, where— unlike the Senate—there is at least a possibility of GOP control, and where President Kennedy would account himself fortunate to hold his own.

The off-year trend, which historically subtracts congressional seats from the party in power is running in the Republicans’ favor, and predictions of House gains have ranged all the way up into the 40s. More realistic estimates now place the number of seats Republicans may gain at around twenty—quite enough to put an already recalcitrant Congress in thrall to a dependable conservative majority.

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M. Stanton Evans

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House of Representatives

With the 1962 elections only a fortnight away, conservatives around the nation looked forward to important gains in their struggle to tame the wilder reaches of the New Frontier. In most cases, these hopes were tied to the fortunes of the Republican Party. In special circumstances, they had flourished independently of it. National interest has focused on the House of Representatives, where— unlike the Senate—there is at least a possibility of GOP control, and where President Kennedy would account himself fortunate to hold his own.

The off-year trend, which historically subtracts congressional seats from the party in power is running in the Republicans’ favor, and predictions of House gains have ranged all the way up into the 40s. More realistic estimates now place the number of seats Republicans may gain at around twenty—quite enough to put an already recalcitrant Congress in thrall to a dependable conservative majority.