Democratic House candidates received more than 8.6 million votes than did their Republican counterparts — the biggest such midterm margin for either party in over 40 years.

According to an NBC News report current as of noon Wednesday, Democratic House candidates got 58,990,609 votes to Republicans’ 50,304,975 — a margin of 53.1 percent to 45.2 percent.

With two races still outstanding, that 8-million vote edge translated into a Democratic advantage in the next U.S. House of 234 to 199 — a 38-seat pickup over the partisan split in the current Congress.

The 8.6-million vote midterm margin was the largest any party has had since the 1974 elections, held less than three months after Republican President Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal. The 8.7-million-vote advantage, however, was on a much smaller U.S. population, and it translated into a much larger percentage margin (58 percent to 41 percent) and a bigger pickup of seats onto what was already a healthy Democratic majority. The 49 seats Democrats gained that election gave them an advantage of 291 to 144.

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