In the November 2018 election, there will be Democrats on the ballot in all but three U.S. House districts. The Republican Party has never had that many candidates. The Democrats have not had candidates in so many districts since 1974, when they only missed one district, Ohio’s 3rd. The other years in which the Democratic Party had that many candidates were 1964 (they missed one), 1962 (they missed one), and 1958 (they missed two).

The only three districts in 2018 that the Democrats missed are California’s 8th district, Georgia’s 8th district, and North Carolina’s 3rd district. In California’s 8th district, the top-two system blocked any Democrat from qualifying for the general election ballot. There were two Republicans and three Democrats. The two Republicans received 44,482 and 24,933 votes. The three Democrats received 23,675, 10,990, and 5,049 votes.

In 2018, Republicans have candidates for U.S. House on the ballot in 398 districts. For purposes of this blog post, the 435 regular seats, plus the District of Columbia’s Delegate seat, are counted, for a total of 436 districts. If purists object to including the D.C. Delegate post, then the Republicans have candidates in 397 districts.