The Effect of Incumbency on Voting in Congressional Elections, 1964-1974

The institutionalization of the House of Representatives early in the twentieth century marked the beginning of incumbency as an enduring characteristic of congressional elections. Between 1956 and 1976, 94 percent of all House members who sought reelection were reelected.1 Moreover, during this same period the number of incumbents involved in close re-election contests sharply declined.2 In 1976 only 16 percent of all House incumbents were re-elected with less than 60 percent of the vote, and only 9 percent were re-elected with less than 55 percent of the vote.3 As members of Congress have become increasingly invulnerable to electoral defeat, the advantage of incumbency in congressional elections has received greater scrutiny. Various studies have attempted to assess both the electoral advantage which incumbents possess and the causes of such advantage.4 However, there has been very little examination of incumbency in relation