2012 United States House of Representatives elections
District Incumbent Party First elected Result Candidates
Minnesota 1 Tim Walz Democratic 2006 Incumbent re-elected Y Tim Walz ( Democratic ) 57.6% Allen Quist ( Republican ) 42.4%
Minnesota 2 John Kline Republican 2002 Incumbent re-elected Y John Kline ( Republican ) 54.1% Mike Obermueller ( Democratic ) 45.9%
Minnesota 3 Erik Paulsen Republican 2008 Incumbent re-elected Y Erik Paulsen ( Republican ) 58.2% Brian Barnes ( Democratic ) 41.8%
Minnesota 4 Betty McCollum Democratic 2000 Incumbent re-elected Y Betty McCollum ( Democratic ) 62.4% Tony Hernandez ( Republican ) 31.6% Steve Carlson ( Independence ) 6.1%
Minnesota 5 Keith Ellison Democratic 2006 Incumbent re-elected Y Keith Ellison ( Democratic ) 74.5% Chris Fields ( Republican ) 25.5%
Minnesota 6 Michele Bachmann Republican 2006 Incumbent re-elected Y Michele Bachmann ( Republican ) 50.6% Jim Graves ( Democratic ) 49.4%
Minnesota 7 Collin Peterson Democratic 1990 Incumbent re-elected Y Collin Peterson ( Democratic ) 60.4% Lee Byberg ( Republican ) 34.9% Adam Steele ( Independence ) 4.7%
Minnesota 8 Chip Cravaack Republican 2010 Incumbent lost re-election . New member elected . Democratic gain Y Rick Nolan ( Democratic ) 54.5% Chip Cravaack ( Republican ) 45.5%
Minnesota
Main article : 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Minnesota See also : List of United States Representatives from Minnesota
The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It coincided with the reelection of President Barack Obama. Elections were held for all 435 seats representing the 50 U.S. states and also for the delegates from the District of Columbia and five major U.S. territories. The winners of this election cycle served in the 113th United States Congress. This was the first congressional election using districts drawn up based on the 2010 United States Census. Although Democratic candidates received a nationwide plurality of more than 1.4 million votes (1.2%) in all House elections, the Republican Party won a 33-seat advantage in the state-apportioned totals, thus retaining its House majority by 17 seats. Democrats had picked up 27 seats, enough to win back control of the House, but most of these gains were canceled out due to Republican gains as well as reapportionment, leaving the Democrats with a net gain of eight seats. This disparity - common in close elections involving single-member district voting - has generally been attributed to targeted, widespread Republican gerrymandering in the congressional redistricting process following the 2010 United States Census. Some analysts believe that in addition to Republican gerrymandering, another factor that helped the GOP maintain control of Congress (despite receiving fewer votes) was unintentional gerrymandering, as the high concentration of Democrats in urban centers led to wasted votes in districts that easily elected Democratic candidates. The GOP also had a greater number of incumbents, and incumbents tend to have an advantage in elections. In the 20th century, the party with a plurality of the popular vote was unable to receive a majority in the House on four occasions; only two of those occurrences took place after World War II (in 1952 and 1996, in which the GOP held a majority in the House). The 1942 election was the last time that the Democrats held a majority in the House without winning the popular vote.