Elections for the U.S. House of Representatives work on a fixed two-year cycle: every seat is on the ballot in every even-numbered year, candidates run in a specific district within their home state, and the rules for getting on the ballot and winning are set mostly by the states within a thin federal frame. Understanding how House of Representatives elections work means understanding four moving parts: who is eligible to run, how the districts are drawn, how candidates reach the ballot, and how votes are counted.
The Two-Year Cycle
House members serve two-year terms, the shortest of any federal elected office.1house.gov. The House Explained Because every term expires at the same time, all 435 voting seats are contested together. Federal law fixes Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 2 USC 7 – Time of Election
The framers designed this short cycle so the House would track shifts in public opinion closely. The practical effect is that House campaigns are essentially continuous. A newly elected member often starts preparing for re-election almost immediately after taking office.
Who Can Run
The Constitution sets a low bar. Article I, Section 2 lists three qualifications: a candidate must be at least 25 years old, must have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and must be an inhabitant of the state they want to represent.3Cornell Law Institute. Qualifications of Members of the House of Representatives The wording matters: the requirement is state residency, not district residency. A candidate can run in any district within their home state.
There’s a timing point worth knowing. Residency applies at the time of the election, but congressional practice treats the age and citizenship thresholds as needing to be met only by the time the member-elect is sworn in.3Cornell Law Institute. Qualifications of Members of the House of Representatives So a 24-year-old who turns 25 before January can legally run and serve.
These three qualifications are exclusive. Neither Congress nor any state can add to them. No state may impose term limits on its congressional delegation, require a certain level of education, or condition eligibility on financial disclosure. The framers wanted minimal barriers to seeking this office, and courts have enforced that.
Two constitutional mechanisms do sit outside the eligibility list. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment bars anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution as a government official and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion, or gave aid or comfort to its enemies, from serving in Congress; Congress can lift that bar with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.4Congress.gov. Overview of the Insurrection Clause (Disqualification Clause) Separately, the House can expel a sitting member by a two-thirds vote under Article I, Section 5, entirely on its own authority and independent of any criminal charges.5Cornell Law Institute. Overview of Expulsion Clause
How the 435 Seats Get Divided Into Districts
The Constitution requires a national population census every ten years.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 13 USC 141 – Population and Other Census Information After each census, the federal government reallocates the 435 House seats among the 50 states through apportionment. The 435 number is not constitutional; Congress fixed it by statute in 1911.1house.gov. The House Explained The formula, the Method of Equal Proportions, has been used since 1941.7United States Census Bureau. Computing Apportionment Every state is guaranteed at least one seat.
Once a state knows how many seats it has, it must draw district lines so each representative serves roughly the same number of people. The Supreme Court set that equal-population rule in Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), holding that Article I requires districts within a state to have populations as close to equal “as nearly as is practicable.”8Justia. Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964)
Who Draws the Lines
In most states, the state legislature draws and approves the new maps. Some states use independent or bipartisan commissions to reduce the risk that the party in power draws lines to entrench itself. That manipulation of boundaries for partisan advantage is called gerrymandering. In Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts cannot strike down maps for partisan gerrymandering, treating such claims as political questions outside the judiciary’s reach.9Supreme Court of the United States. Rucho v. Common Cause, No. 18-422 (2019) State courts applying state constitutions can still intervene, and several have done so in recent cycles.
The Voting Rights Act Constraint
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits drawing districts in a way that dilutes the voting power of racial or language minority groups.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 10301 – Denial or Abridgement of Right to Vote on Account of Race or Color Common violations include “packing,” which crams minority voters into as few districts as possible, and “cracking,” which spreads them thinly so they cannot form a majority anywhere. Courts can order states to create majority-minority districts when a sufficiently large and geographically concentrated minority group is being shut out of fair representation.
Getting on the Ballot and Raising Money
Federal campaign finance rules kick in the moment a candidate raises or spends more than $5,000. At that threshold, the candidate must register a campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission and begin filing financial reports.11Federal Election Commission. Registering as a Candidate For the 2025–2026 cycle, individual donors can give up to $3,500 per election to a candidate’s campaign, with separate limits for the primary and general.12Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits for 2025-2026 That limit is adjusted for inflation every two years.
Getting a name onto the printed ballot is a separate process controlled entirely by the states. Most states require candidates to collect a minimum number of petition signatures, pay a filing fee, or both. Signature requirements and fees vary widely. Some states also permit write-in candidates, though the rules for qualifying as one differ by jurisdiction. FEC registration is the only federally mandated step; every other ballot access requirement is state-level.
Primary Elections
Before the general election, most candidates must first win their party’s nomination through a primary. Primary rules are set by each state, and the variation is substantial.13U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Primary Election Types In a closed primary, only voters registered with a party can vote in that party’s contest. In an open primary, any registered voter can participate regardless of party affiliation. Many states sit in between, letting unaffiliated voters choose a party ballot while excluding voters registered with a competing party.
A handful of states have moved away from the traditional party primary altogether. Alaska uses a nonpartisan primary where all candidates appear on a single ballot and the top four advance to the general. Other states use a “top-two” system where the two highest vote-getters advance regardless of party, which occasionally produces a general election between two members of the same party.
How the General Election Is Decided
The November general election is the final contest for each House seat. In the vast majority of districts, whoever gets the most votes wins, even without reaching 50 percent. This plurality system means that in a competitive three-way race, someone can win a seat with well under a majority.
A few states break from this pattern. Georgia requires congressional candidates to win a majority, and if no one clears that threshold, the top two finishers compete in a runoff 28 days later. Alaska and Maine use ranked-choice voting in their general elections: voters rank candidates by preference and the lowest-performing candidates are eliminated in rounds until someone reaches a majority. These alternatives remain the exception, but they change how campaigns operate in the districts that use them.
Special Elections When a Seat Opens Mid-Term
When a House seat becomes vacant between regular elections because a member dies, resigns, or is expelled, the Constitution requires the state’s governor to call a special election to fill it.14Cornell Law Institute. U.S. Constitution Article 1 Section 2 Clause 4 – House Vacancies Clause This is a sharp break from the Senate, where many states allow the governor to appoint a temporary replacement. Nobody gets appointed to a House seat.
States generally require special elections for any vacancy occurring during the first session of a Congress. If a seat opens later in the term, closer to the next scheduled election, some states may leave the seat empty rather than run a special election with only months remaining.15U.S. House of Representatives. Vacancies and Successors Federal law also includes an emergency provision allowing the governor to call a special election when more than 100 House seats are vacant at once.
Territorial Delegates Are Elected but Cannot Vote on Passage
Beyond the 435 voting representatives, the House seats six non-voting members chosen by voters in jurisdictions without full statehood: delegates from the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands, plus a Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.16house.gov. Directory of Representatives They can serve on committees, participate in debate, and cast votes within committee, but they cannot vote on final passage of legislation on the House floor. The delegates serve two-year terms; Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner serves a four-year term, the longest elected term in the chamber.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC Chapter 4, Subchapter V – Resident Commissioner