United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they compose the legislature of the United States; the composition of the House is established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The House is composed of Representatives who sit in congressional districts that are allocated to each of the 50 states on a basis of population as measured by the U. S. Census, with each district entitled to one representative. Since its inception in 1789, all Representatives have been directly elected; the total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435. As of the 2010 Census, the largest delegation is that of California, with fifty-three representatives. Seven states have only one representative: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming; the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration.
In addition to this basic power, the House has certain exclusive powers, among them the power to initiate all bills related to revenue. The House meets in the south wing of the United States Capitol; the presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, elected by the members thereof. The Speaker and other floor leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conference, depending on whichever party has more voting members. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a unicameral body in which each state was represented, in which each state had a veto over most action. After eight years of a more limited confederal government under the Articles, numerous political leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton initiated the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which received the Confederation Congress's sanction to "amend the Articles of Confederation". All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates; the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention.
Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress: the lower house would be "of the people", elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion, a more deliberative upper house, elected by the lower house, that would represent the individual states, would be less susceptible to variations of mass sentiment. The House is referred to as the lower house, with the Senate being the upper house, although the United States Constitution does not use that terminology. Both houses' approval is necessary for the passage of legislation; the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, favored the New Jersey Plan, which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states; the Convention reached the Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise, under which one house of Congress would provide representation proportional to each state's population, whereas the other would provide equal representation amongst the states.
The Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4, 1789. The House began work on April 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time. During the first half of the 19th century, the House was in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery; the North was much more populous than the South, therefore dominated the House of Representatives. However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery. One example of a provision supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union; the war culminated in the abolition of slavery. All southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, therefore the Senate did not hold the balance of power between North and South during the war.
The years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Union's victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877; the Democratic Party and Republican Party each held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a dramatic increase in the power of the Speaker of the House; the rise of the Speaker's influence began in the 1890s, during the tenure of Republican Thomas Brackett Reed. "Czar Reed", as he was nicknamed, attempted to put into effect his view that "The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch." The leadership structure of the House developed during the same period, with the positions of Majority Leader and Minority Leader being created in 1899. While the Minority Leader
Iowa's 3rd congressional district
Iowa's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U. S. state of Iowa that covers its southwest quadrant an area including Des Moines to the borders with Nebraska and Missouri. From 2003 to 2013 it encompassed Des Moines to the western outskirts of the metropolitan area of Cedar Falls and Waterloo to the western outskirts of the Cedar Rapids area and to Lucas County and Monroe County; the district is represented by Democrat Cindy Axne. On June 22, 2001, the Iowa Legislature passed a plan to redistrict the state of Iowa; the plan went into effect in 2002 for the 108th U. S. Congress; the prior redistricting plan was effective from 1992 to 2001. Election results from presidential races: District created March 4, 1863; as of January 2019, there are five living former members of the House from the district. The most recent to die was Leonard Boswell on August 17, 2018. Iowa's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress.
New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
1902 United States House of Representatives elections
Elections to the United States House of Representatives held in 1902 occurred in the middle of President Theodore Roosevelt's first term, about a year after the assassination of President William McKinley in September 1901. Due to the increased size of the House and the reapportionment that resulted from the 1900 U. S. Census, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party both gained seats which has not occurred in any elections since; the Democrats increased their share of the House, but not by enough to regain control. With a stable economy and no cornerstone issue, Democratic gains can be linked to the effects of redistricting. Many of the new seats were in areas with high numbers of immigrants, with new immigrants tending to vote Democrat; the Populist Party disappeared from the House, with its supporters unanimously switching to the Democratic Party. Notable freshmen included Speaker John Nance Garner; this election marked the third and most recent time in American history where the incumbent President's party gained House seats in a midterm election while still losing seats in the Senate, the first two being in 1814 and 1822.
29 new seats were added in reapportionment following the 1900 Census. No states lost seats, 16 had no change in apportionment, 14 gained 1 seat, 3 gained 2 seats, 3 gained 3 seats. Two of the states that gained representation elected the new seat at-large; the previous election had 5 Populists, but the party disappeared from the U. S. House in the 1902 elections. In 1902, three states, with 8 seats among them, held elections early: June 2 Oregon September 2 Vermont September 8 Maine United States elections, 1902 United States Senate elections, 1902 57th United States Congress 58th United States Congress Republican Congressional Committee, The Republican Campaign Textbook 1902. Dubin, Michael J.. United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0786402830. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0029201701.
Moore, John L. ed.. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U. S. Elections. Congressional Quarterly Inc. ISBN 978-0871879967. "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives. Retrieved January 21, 2015. Office of the Historian
1900 United States presidential election
The United States presidential election of 1900 was the 29th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1900. In a re-match of the 1896 race, Republican President William McKinley defeated his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley's victory made him the first president to win consecutive re-election since Ulysses S. Grant had accomplished the same feat in 1872. McKinley and Bryan each faced little opposition within their own party. Although some Gold Democrats explored the possibility of a campaign by Admiral George Dewey, Bryan was re-nominated at the 1900 Democratic National Convention after Dewey withdrew from the race. McKinley was unanimously re-nominated at the 1900 Republican National Convention; as Vice President Garret Hobart had died in 1899, the Republican convention chose New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as McKinley's running mate. The return of economic prosperity and recent victory in the Spanish–American War helped McKinley to score a decisive victory, while Bryan's anti-imperialist stance and continued support for bimetallism attracted only limited support.
McKinley won 51.6 % of the popular vote. The election results were similar to those of 1896, though McKinley picked up several Western states and Bryan picked up Kentucky. McKinley was succeeded by Roosevelt; the 926 delegates to the Republican convention, which met in Philadelphia on June 19–21, re-nominated William McKinley by acclamation. Thomas C. Platt, the "boss" of the New York State Republican Party, did not like Theodore Roosevelt, New York's popular governor though he was a fellow Republican. Roosevelt's efforts to reform New York politics – including Republican politics – led Platt and other state Republican leaders to pressure President McKinley to accept Roosevelt as his new vice- presidential candidate, thus filling the spot left open when Vice President Garret Hobart died in 1899. By electing Roosevelt vice president, Platt would remove Roosevelt from New York state politics. Although Roosevelt was reluctant to accept the nomination for vice president, which he regarded as a trivial and powerless office, his great popularity among most Republican delegates led McKinley to pick him as his new running mate.
Quite unexpectedly, Roosevelt would be elevated to the presidency in September 1901, when McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York. After Admiral George Dewey's return from the Spanish–American War, many suggested that he run for president on the Democratic ticket. Dewey, had angered some Protestants by marrying the Catholic Mildred McLean Hazen in November 1899 and giving her the house that the nation had given him following the war, his candidacy was almost plagued by a number of public relations gaffes. Newspapers started attacking him as naïve after he was quoted as saying the job of president would be easy, since the chief executive was following orders in executing the laws enacted by Congress, that he would "execute the laws of Congress as faithfully as I have always executed the orders of my superiors." Shortly thereafter, he admitted never having voted in a presidential election before, mentioning that the only man he would have voted for, had he voted, would have been Grover Cleveland.
He drew more criticism when he offhandedly told a newspaper reporter that, "Our next war will be with Germany."Dewey's campaign was met with a level of pessimism by Gold Democrats on whose support his campaign depended. Some threw their support to Bryan, since they believed him to be the stronger candidate; as early as three days into his candidacy, his campaign having been damaged by the aforementioned missteps, rumors abounded regarding Dewey's impending withdrawal which proved false. Further injuries, were made when it became clear that the Democratic Party leaders of Vermont were hostile to Dewey and wholly committed to Bryan. Ohio went for Bryan, though with the caveat there that some leaders suggested that all mention to silver in the party platform be dropped. By May 5, John Roll McLean, the brother-in-law of and effective campaign manager for Dewey, defected from the campaign and was considered to now be silently supporting Bryan. By May 17, Dewey recognized that there was little chance for him to gather enough delegates among the Western and Southern states to keep Bryan from attaining two-thirds of the delegates at the convention, publicly commenting that he no longer knew why he had decided to run for president at all.
After this there was a major boom for his nomination as vice president on the ticket alongside Bryan. William Jennings Bryan was faced with little real opposition. Bryan won at the 1900 Democratic National Convention held at Kansas City, Missouri, on July 4–6, garnering 936 delegate votes for the nomination. Source: US President – D Convention. Our Campaigns.. Official or speculated candidates for the vice-presidential nomination: As the nation's third largest party, the Populists had made an organizational decision in 1896 to "fuse" with the Democratic Party on the national level - their identity kept separate by the nomination of two different candidates for vice-president. At the state level, local Populist parties were left at liberty to proceed. In the Plains states, the Populists fused with the Democrats, in some states replaced them entirely. In the South, the Populists fused with the Republican Party; the end result, though Bryan
Tennessee's 5th congressional district
The 5th Congressional District of Tennessee is a congressional district in Middle Tennessee. It has been represented by Democrat Jim Cooper since January 2003; the district is located northwest of the state's geographical center. It is composed of Davidson and Dickson counties, as well as most of Cheatham County, it is the only Tennessee congressional district. The fifth district is nearly synonymous with Tennessee's capital city, Nashville, as the district has always been centered on Nashville throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries; the city is a center for the music, publishing and transportation industries, is home to numerous colleges and universities. It is home to the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, earning it the nickname "Music City"; the district stretches west of Nashville, into Cheatham and Dickson counties, which are far less suburbanized than the communities to the south and east of Nashville. The 5th is a safe seat for the Democratic Party, due entirely to the influence of Democratic Nashville.
Some pockets of Republican influence exist in Belle Meade, portions of neighboring Cheatham County. However, they are no match for the overwhelming Democratic trend in most of Nashville. No Republican has represented Nashville in Congress since Horace Harrison in 1875. Following the 1950 census, Tennessee expanded to ten districts. Though it has since contracted back to nine districts, that marked the beginning of the continuous period where the 5th district was centered on Davidson County/Nashville. From 1941 to 1957, Nashville was represented by J. Percy Priest, the House majority whip in the 81st and 82nd Congresses. A dam in eastern Davidson County and the lake formed by the dam are both named in his memory. Priest died just before the Election of 1956, the Democrats turned to Carlton Loser. Loser won that election, to two more Congresses after that. Loser appeared to win another Democratic nomination in 1962, but his primary came under investigation for voter fraud, a court ordered a new election.
In this new election, Loser was defeated by former state senator Richard Fulton. Richard "Dick" Fulton represented the 5th from 1963 until 1977, when retired from Congress to become the second mayor of metropolitan Nashville. Following the 1970 census, while Fulton was representing the district, Tennessee contracted to eight congressional districts. During the 70s, the district encompassed Davidson and Robertson counties; this contraction of congressional districts forced the first time in thirty years where Davidson County was not the sole county in the district. Once Fulton was Nashville mayor, he was succeeded in Congress by former state senator Clifford Allen. Allen served for only a term and a half before he died in office due to complications from a heart attack he'd suffered a month earlier. In the election of 1978, the fifth district selected state senator Bill Boner, he served in Congress for ten years, succeeded Fulton as mayor of Nashville. Boner was succeeded in 1988 by Bob Clement, former president of Cumberland University and son of former governor Frank G. Clement.
Clement ended up serving seven terms as TN-District 5 Congressman, where he served Davidson and Robertson counties. He was one of the 81 Democratic congressmen who voted for the Iraq Resolution of 2002. Clement did not run for re-election in 2002, as he was running for the open US Senate seat left by retiring Fred Thompson, he won the Democratic nomination but was defeated in the general election by former governor Lamar Alexander. Clement was succeeded in Congress by Jim Cooper, like Clement, was the son of a former governor. Jim Cooper is considered a blue dog Democrat. According to On The Issues, he is deemed "moderate", but is to the left of the political center; as of summer 2016, he has served seven terms, is running for re-election. Source: Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 2004 Source: TN Department of State Source: TN Department of State Source: Source: Source: Tennessee's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C..
The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present November 7, 2006 General Election Official Returns House of Representatives member information, via Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
California's 3rd congressional district
California's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U. S. state of California. John Garamendi, a Democrat, has represented the district since January 2013; the 3rd district encompasses areas north and west of Sacramento. It consists of Colusa and Yuba counties plus portions of Glenn, Sacramento and Yolo counties. Prior to redistricting by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission of 2011, the 3rd district consisted of Alpine and Calaveras counties plus portions of Sacramento and Solano counties; the 3rd district once extended up the Sacramento Valley from Sacramento to take in rural territory up to Tehama County. Once a Democratic bastion, the district became more conservative over the years and elected a Republican in 1998; the 2001 reapportionment made the district more compact and Republican than though it was far less Republican than the neighboring 4th District. Although there was some movement in registration in favor of the Democrats, it still had a strong GOP flavor as most of Sacramento's Democratic voters lived in the neighboring 5th District.
While George W. Bush carried the district in 2004 with 58.2% of the vote, the district swung in the Democratic column in 2008 with Barack Obama narrowly winning a plurality with 49.28% of the vote over John McCain's 48.81%. However, despite Obama's win, in the congressional election held on the same day the Republicans retained the seat. After redistricting, this district became the 7th District, while a new 3rd was created with lines similar to what the old 3rd had in the 1990s; this version of the 3rd was considered a swing district, though the bulk of its population lives in Democratic-leaning areas in the outer Bay Area and in the closer-in suburbs of Sacramento. As of April 2015, there are three former members of the U. S. House of Representatives from California's 3rd congressional district that are living. List of United States congressional districts GovTrack.us: California's 3rd congressional district RAND California Election Returns: District Definitions California Voter Foundation map - CD03 California Citizens Redistricting Commission, final districts
President of the United States
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. In contemporary times, the president is looked upon as one of the world's most powerful political figures as the leader of the only remaining global superpower; the role includes responsibility for the world's most expensive military, which has the second largest nuclear arsenal. The president leads the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP; the president possesses international hard and soft power. Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, it vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic and judicial officers, concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president directs the foreign and domestic policies of the United States, takes an active role in promoting his policy priorities to members of Congress. In addition, as part of the system of checks and balances, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation; the power of the presidency has grown since its formation, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. Through the Electoral College, registered voters indirectly elect the president and vice president to a four-year term; this is the only federal election in the United States, not decided by popular vote. Nine vice presidents became president by virtue of a president's intra-term resignation. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 sets three qualifications for holding the presidency: natural-born U. S. citizenship.
The Twenty-second Amendment precludes any person from being elected president to a third term. In all, 44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, so he is counted twice, as both the 22nd and 24th president. Donald Trump of New York is the current president of the United States, he assumed office on January 20, 2017. In July 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies, acting jointly through the Second Continental Congress, declared themselves to be 13 independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. Recognizing the necessity of coordinating their efforts against the British, the Continental Congress began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the states together. There were long debates on a number of issues, including representation and voting, the exact powers to be given the central government. Congress finished work on the Articles of Confederation to establish a perpetual union between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for ratification.
Under the Articles, which took effect on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation was a central political authority without any legislative power. It could make its own resolutions and regulations, but not any laws, could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens; this institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some royal prerogatives to Congress; the members of Congress elected a President of the United States in Congress Assembled to preside over its deliberation as a neutral discussion moderator. Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the office of President of the United States, it was a ceremonial position without much influence. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies.
With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, they witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed. Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms; when the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, Alexander Hamilton led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia.
Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rh
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