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Has there ever been a presidential election where every state voted for the same party as in the House elections in the previous midterm? If so, when was it? And, if there has never been as of writing, what was the closest to that happening? What I mean is the statewide House popular vote starting in the year 1864 when the two parties were formed. Below is an example of the 2018 result.

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Note: This is not "will this happen in the next election", but it is asking if it were to happen (Biden gets 295 electoral votes and the Presidential election map stays the same as the map above), would this be the first time in American history?

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    To what are you referring when you refer to voting for a party in the midterms? Senate? Governor? House? State Legislature? What if the same state voted different parties for each position? What about people who vote differently on the President line than elsewhere on the ballot paper? Your question needs a lot more clarity before it can be answerable.
    – Joe C
    May 5, 2020 at 7:51
  • 3
    I mean the statewide popular vote for the federal House of Representatives.
    – Number File
    May 5, 2020 at 10:36

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No, this has never happened before. The election with the fewest number of states which returned a different overall party winner, in terms of the state-aggregated vote count, was the 1888 Presidential Election, where only New Jersey voted differently - the state cast 98,562 votes for Democrat candidates compared to 105,468 for Republican candidates in the 1886 House elections, but then voted for Grover Cleveland two years later.

Apart from this, the next closest election was 2020, with only Georgia and Iowa voting differently compared to their choice in the 2018 House elections; Iowa flipping from Democrat to Republican, and Georgia flipping from Republican to Democrat. The elections with the most states voting differently were 1984 and 1972, both with 35 states switching party.

No state has voted the same way in every election, but both Alaska & Hawaii have only voted differently twice; Alaska in 1972 & 1960, and Hawaii in 1984 and 1972. At the other extreme, Nevada has voted differently 22 times, and California 20 times.

enter image description here

I arrived at these conclusions through the use of historical election data from America Votes (V2) by LaDale Winling, and Wikipedia's List of United States presidential election results by state.

Below are the full results:

Year - States voting differently
2020 - Georgia, Iowa
2016 - Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Virginia
2012 - Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin
2008 - Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin
2004 - Arkansas, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin
2000 - Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin
1996 - Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin
1992 - Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin
1988 - Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia
1984 - Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin
1980 - Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin
1976 - Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming
1972 - Alabama, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
1968 - Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
1964 - Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
1960 - Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin
1956 - Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia
1952 - Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia
1948 - Alabama, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
1944 - California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
1940 - California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Wyoming
1936 - California, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Wisconsin
1932 - California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
1928 - Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia
1924 - Arizona, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin
1920 - Arizona, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah
1916 - Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
1912 - California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
1908 - Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska
1904 - Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada
1900 - Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah
1896 - Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming
1892 - California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island
1888 - New Jersey
1884 - California, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
1880 - California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon
1876 - California, Illinois, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
1872 - Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia
1868 - California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon
1864 - Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania

The code used in this answer can be found on GitHub.

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    Impressive job coming up with this.
    – Damila
    Jul 16, 2020 at 3:14

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