The 1986 United States House of Representatives elections was held on November 4, 1986, to elect U.S. Representatives to serve in the 100th United States Congress. They occurred in the middle of President Ronald Reagan's second term in office, while he was still relatively popular with the American public. As in most mid-term elections, the President's party — in this case, the Republican Party — lost seats, with the Democratic Party gaining a net of five seats and cementing its majority. These results were not as dramatic as those in the Senate, where the Republicans lost control of the chamber to the Democrats. Overall results Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk Retiring incumbents Forty incumbents retired. Democrats Nineteen incumbent Democrats retired. : Richard Shelby: To run for U.S. senator : Tim Wirth: To run for U.S. senator : Don Fuqua : Wyche Fowler: To run for U.S. senator : Berkley Bedell : John Breaux: To run for U.S. senator : Catherine Small Long : Barbara Mikulski: To run for U.S. senator : Parren Mitchell : Michael D. Barnes: To run for U.S. senator : Tip O'Neill : Harry Reid: To run for U.S. senator : Stan Lundine: To run for Lieutenant Governor of New York : Charles Orville Whitley : John F. Seiberling : James R. Jones: To run for U.S. senator : Jim Weaver: To run for U.S. senator : Robert W. Edgar: To run for U.S. senator : Tom Daschle: To run for U.S. senator Republicans Twenty-one incumbent Republicans retired. : John McCain: To run for U.S. senator : Eldon Rudd : Eugene A. Chappie : Ed Zschau: To run for U.S. senator : Bobbi Fiedler: To run for U.S. senator : Ken Kramer: To run for U.S. senator : George M. O'Brien : John E. Grotberg : Elwood Hillis : T. Cooper Evans : Gene Snyder : Henson Moore: To run for U.S. senator : John R. McKernan Jr.: To run for Governor of Maine : Marjorie Holt : William Carney : Tom Kindness: To run for U.S. senator : Thomas F. Hartnett: To run for Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina : Carroll A. Campbell Jr.: To run for Governor of South Carolina : Tom Loeffler: To run for Governor of Texas : David Smith Monson : G. William Whitehurst Special elections Sorted by election date Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida