#381 The Elections of 1994 (Midterm Elections Series #4)

In 1994, the Republican Party took both houses of Congress for the first time in more than four decades, defeating a Democratic Party that, just two years earlier, had pulled off a "trifecta" (winning both houses of Congress and the Presidency in a single election), and ushering in an era of GOP congressional control that would persist into the 21stcentury. How did the party that had spent most of the post-WWII era on the sidelines reemerge as a political force in the 1990s? Why did the majority of southern voters support Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction? And why did the man of the moment – Newt Gingrich – fall from grace even as his party's star continued to rise?

In this episode, Nicole Hemmer join us to dig into the political revolution that remade the Republican Party and forever changed politics.

Nicole Hemmer is the director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency and associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University. She is also the author of multiple books, including Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out her podcast, This Day.

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This is part 3 of our midterm election series, in which we look at some of the most consequential congressional elections in American history. With the midterms of 2026 just around the corner, we hope these episodes will put things in context and convince you that midterm elections are just as, and sometimes more important, than the Presidential elections that only roll around every 4 years. If you enjoy this conversation, make sure to listen to our other episodes in the series on 1858 (Episode 378), 1874 w/ Jefferson Cowie (episode 379) and 1946 (episode 380).

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.