1806 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania

Summary

Elections to the United States House of Representatives were held in Pennsylvania on October 14, 1806, for the 10th Congress.

United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania,

← 1804 October 14, 1806 1808 →

All Pennsylvania seats to the United States House of Representatives
  Majority party Minority party
 
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Last election 17 1
Seats won 15 3
Seat change Decrease 2 Increase 2

Background edit

In the previous elections, 17 Democratic-Republicans and 1 Federalist had been elected to represent Pennsylvania. There were two subsequent special elections which did not result in any seats changing parties. One seat held by a Democratic-Republican had become vacant and was not yet filled at the time of the election.

As in the previous election, there was a breakaway faction of the Democratic-Republican Party allied with the Federalists known as the tertium quids or Constitutional Republicans, which ran candidates in several districts. Several of the elected quids aligned with the Federalists on the federal level.

Congressional districts edit

Pennsylvania was divided into 11 districts, of which four were plural districts with 11 Representatives between them, with the remaining 7 Representatives elected from single-member districts. The districts were:

Note: Many of these counties covered much larger areas than they do today, having since been divided into smaller counties

Election results edit

Fifteen incumbents (14 Democratic-Republicans and the sole Federalist) ran for re-election, of whom eleven won re-election. The incumbents Isaac Anderson (DR) and Christian Lower (DR), both of the 2nd district did not run for re-election and one seat in the 1st district was vacant, the previous incumbent Michael Leib (DR) having resigned February 14, 1806. Two seats changed from Democratic-Republican to Federalist control.

Election results are unavailable for the 8th district.

1806 United States House election results
District Democratic-Republican Quid Federalist Unknown
1st
3 seats
John Porter[1] 4,857 21.1% John Sergeant 1,578 6.8% William Graham 4,223 18.3%
Jacob Richards (I) 4,770 20.7% Joseph Hemphill 2,922 12.7%
Joseph Clay (I) 4,700 20.4%
2nd
3 seats
Robert Brown 5,180 18.0% William Milnor[2] 4,824 16.8%
John Pugh 4,761 16.6% Frederick Conrad (I) 4,659 16.2%
John Hahn 4,750 16.5% William Latimore 4,589 16.0%
3rd
3 seats
John Whitehill (I) 5,666 15.5% John Hiester 6,709 18.3%
Roger Davis 5,545 15.2% Matthias Richards 6,625 18.1%
William Witman 5,539 15.1% Robert Jenkins[2] 6,487 17.7%
4th
2 seats
Robert Whitehill (I) 6,024 47.7% Oliver Pollock 225 1.8%
David Bard (I) 5,388 42.7%
Evers Doty 983 7.8%
5th Daniel Montgomery, Jr. 3,161 57.7% Andrew Gregg (I) 2,321 42.3%
6th James Kelly[2] (I) 2,979 100%
7th John Rea (I) 1,511 52.7% Henry Woods 503 17.6% Andrew Dunlap 852 29.7%
8th William Findley (I) 100%
9th John Smilie (I) 1,987 100%
10th William Hoge 1,203 62.0% John Hamilton (I) 737 38.0%
11th Samuel Smith 3,339 55.9% John Wilkins[2] 2,621 44.1%

Special election edit

Joseph Clay (DR) of the 1st district resigned March 18, 1808. A special election was held October 11, 1808, the same day as the 1808 general elections.

1808 Special election results
District Democratic-Republican Federalist
1st Benjamin Say 7,598 55.7% Charles W. Hare 6,046 44.3%

References edit

  • Electoral data and information on districts are from the Wilkes University Elections Statistics Project
  1. ^ Won special election to 9th Congress
  2. ^ a b c d Aligned with Federalists