In 1982, during President Ronald Reagan’s second year in office, Republicans lost 26 seats in the House. In 1994, Bill Clinton watched his Democratic colleagues lose 52 House seats. In 2010, during year two of Barack Obama’s tenure, the Democrats lost 63 seats.

Among recent presidents the only one who didn’t watch his party lose seats in the first off-year election after he moved into the White House was George W. Bush. Republicans actually added to their House majority by picking up eight seats in 2002, but perhaps this one should come with an asterisk. A little more than a year after the 9/11 attacks, congressional candidates faced an electorate that had rallied behind the wartime President.

— Wall Street Journal