Research Guides: Election Data Resources: U.S. Congressional Elections

ICPSR

Social science data repository.

ICPSR -Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window

Election Datasets in ICPSR

American National Election Studies
The ANES series is one of the premier sources for data on voting behavior and political attitudes.
Date Range | 1948 - present
Campaign Expenditures in the United States Series
The Campaign Expenditures in the United States series is made available by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Date Range | 1981 - 2002
Electoral Data for Counties in the United States: Presidential and Congressional Races
This collection contains county-level returns for elections to the United States presidency and to the United States House of Representatives.
Date Range | 1840 -1972
United States Historical Election Returns Series
ICPSR's holdings of historical election data consists of several discrete datasets that contain county- and state-level returns for all elections to the offices of president, governor, United States senator, and United States representative.
Date Range | 1788 - 1990

Roper Center

Polling question results from the US since 1935 from all of the major polling organizations.

Roper iPoll This link opens in a new window

Election Day Exit Polls
Exit days polls
Date Range | 1972 to 2018
State Election Day Exit Polls
This collection consists of numerous studies for congressional and/or gubernatorial vote questions in addition to questions on important statewide and local issues at the time of the polls.
State Primary Exit Polls
rimary exit polls datasets include standard demographic makeup of interviewee and questions pertinent to the issues of each state.

DIME

Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections

Resource for the study of campaign finance and ideology in American politics. The DIME+ data repository on congressional activity extends DIME to cover detailed data on legislative voting, lawmaking, and political rhetoric.

CCES

Cooperative Congressional Election Study

The CCES is a 50,000+ person national stratified sample survey administered by YouGov. The survey consists of two waves in election years.

Harvard | Cooperative Congressional Election Study
Date Range | 2005 - 2018

Statistical Abstract of the US

Data and statistics generated by United States research from departments and agencies.

Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
Historical Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window

CQ Press

Produces a number of publications reporting primarily federal government.

Vital Statistics on American Politics
Statistics on elections and political parties, public opinion and voting, the media, the three branches of U.S. government, foreign, military, social and economic policy, and much more.
America Votes Election Returns by State
Thorough, extensive in scope, and meticulously researched, America Votes includes official, state-certified election returns and key data by county and by district for the House, Senate, and gubernatorial elections. Link goes to 2017-2018 edition. See Read next section for additional volumes.
Date Range | 2011 - present
Guide to U.S. Elections | 2016
Thoroughly revised and infused with new data, analysis, and discussion of issues relating to elections through 2015, the Guide will include chapters on: Analysis of the campaigns for presidency, from the primaries through the general election Data on the candidates, winners/losers, and election returns Details on congressional and gubernatorial contests from the primaries through the general elections supplemented with vast historical data.
Date Range | 1776 - 2015
Voter Turnout in the United States
Voter turnout statistics for general and primary elections for presidential, congressional, and state gubernatorial races.
Date Range | 1788 - 2009

Additional Resources

MIT Election Lab | U.S. Senate Election Returns
State-level returns for U.S. Senate elections.
Date Range | 1976 - 2018
MIT Election Lab | U.S. House Election Returns
District -level returns for U.S. House elections
Date Range | 1976 - 2018
Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Elections
Popular site of U.S. election data that provides tables, graphs, and maps for presidential (1789-present), senatorial (1990+), and gubernatorial (1990+) elections.
OpenElections
Election returns by state and precinct.
Date Range | 2000 - present
U.S. House Primary Election Results
Primary election returns from all Democratic and Republican primaries for the US House of Representatives for 1956-2010 at the Congressional District level. Also includes district-specific variables, as well as data about candidate backgrounds and gender for recent years.
Date Range | 1956-2010
A New Nation Votes
Searchable collection of early American election returns, including elections for state House and Senate, governor, sheriffs, commissioners, city councils, mayors, and much more. Narrow by state, year, office, jurisdiction, party, and election type. Full datasets for each state can also be downloaded.
Date Range | 1787 - 1825
Harvard Dataverse | U.S. House Primary Election Results
Election return data from all Democratic and Republican primaries for the US House of Representatives. Includes district-specific variables, as well as data about candidate backgrounds and gender in recent years.
Date Range | 1956-2010
U.S. House of Representatives | Election Statistics
Official state-by-state vote counts in federal elections.
Date Range | 1920 - present
Brookings Institute | Vital Statistics on Congress
Data on the United States Congress, including electoral data.