The Downballot Ultimate Data Guide
Here at The Downballot, we’ve been living and breathing election data for decades, and wrangling raw numbers into useful datasets for almost as long. We’re proud to make our datasets available to the public, without cost, so that everybody can have access to the same quality data, from kids working on school projects to world-renowned journalists informing thousands of readers. You can find our work referenced in leading academic journals and printed out on coffee tables at election night watch parties.
Every time we see our products put to good use it warms our hearts! Please take a moment to support us so that we can continue this vital contribution to the public understanding of elections—and let us know what you’ve done with our data. We welcome (almost) any use of our data as long as you cite us and include a link to our work so that others may easily find it. However, we ask that you please refrain from reproducing entire spreadsheets.
Note: Many links below will reference Daily Kos Elections. We are in the process of rebranding from Daily Kos Elections to The Downballot.
Quick Hits
Our most popular current datasets
Additional Current Data
Updated datasets for districts in use today; see further details in Full Archive headings
2024 primary and filing deadline calendar, by state (sortable)
Rural/Suburban/Urban classification of congressional districts for 118th Congress
Congressional district geographic descriptions and largest places for 119th Congress (explainer)
Congressional district geographic descriptions and largest places for 118th Congress (explainer)
Education and income by congressional district and state, 2018-2022, for 116th - 119th Congress
Media market/congressional district relationships, 2024 (explainer)
Congressional district/county relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Legislative district/county relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Congressional district/legislative district relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Upper legislative district/lower legislative district relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
The last time Democrats/Republicans won the Senate popular vote (explainer)
The last time a Democrat/Republican was elected statewide in each state
The last time a Democrat/Republican won a state in a presidential election
The last time a Democrat/Republican won a county in a presidential election (explainer)
Congressional district hexmap cartogram (explainers: 2022, 2019, 2015)
Full Archive
All available datasets, past and present
Table of Contents:
Election Results by Congressional & Legislative Districts
Special Elections
Media Markets
Calendars
Primaries
Open Seat Trackers
Fundraising & Spending
House Vulnerability Index
Race Ratings
Candidate & Politician Guides and Demographics
State & Congressional District Demographics
District Relationships
Maps
Winning Streaks
Social Media & Podcast
Election Results by Congressional & Legislative Districts
All results were calculated by The Downballot team following our extensively detailed methodology. We also have calculated what portion of each old congressional district is within each new district (which we call our “redistribution” tables). Our results are free to use, convenient to find, and transparently calculated, and have been widely cited in national media outlets and academia alike. We offer three types of tables:
Type A: lists results for all districts in one sheet
Type B: lists results for all states, with one state per tab; shows results by county
Type C: lists results for one state, with one county per tab; usually shows results by precinct
Table type shown in parentheses below.
Summary post with links to all presidential and statewide election results for congressional and legislative districts for 2012-2022 (B & C).
Presidential results by congressional district
2020 results for districts used in 2024 (A)
2020 results for districts used in 2022 (A)
2008, 2012, 2016, & 2020 results for districts used in 2020 (A)
2008, 2012, & 2016 results for districts used in 2018 (A)
2008, 2012, & 2016 results for districts used in 2016 (A)
2008 & 2012 results for districts used from 2012–2014 (A)
2008 results for districts used in 2012, with predecessor districts (A)
2008 results for districts used from 2006–2010 (A)
Presidential & statewide election results by congressional district
2020 results (with breakdowns by county) for districts used in 2022 (B)
Detailed county-level calculations (C, first table)
2012–20 results (with breakdowns by county) for districts used from 2012–2021 (B)
Detailed county-level calculations (C, second table)
2018 Senate and governor results for districts used in 2018 (B, links to C in table)
Presidential & statewide election results by legislative district
2012–20 results for districts used from 2012–2020 (B)
2018 Senate and governor results for districts used in 2018 (A, links to C in table)
Bonus: Presidential election results by state
Median districts
Median congressional & legislative districts by 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential vote (explainer)
Redistricting resources
Population change, 2010-2020, for congressional districts, counties, and cities (explainer)
Congressional and legislative redistricting timeline tracker
Special resources for North Carolina’s 2020 congressional map
Special resources for Pennsylvania’s 2018-2020 congressional map
Special Elections
We have been tracking special election results since the 2018 cycle. Our data includes all partisan congressional and legislative contests with just one Republican candidate and one Democratic candidate. Recent presidential results for each district are also included. While individual contests can be subject to circumstances that make them unreliable indicators of the electoral environment, the results of all qualifying special elections in a cycle have a good track record of predicting November outcomes for U.S. House elections. Our special elections databases have been widely cited in the press.
Special election results, districts flipped by party, and party switches, 2023-2024 (explainer)
Special election results, districts flipped by party, and party switches, 2021-2022 (explainer)
Special election results, districts flipped by party, and party switches, 2019–2020
Special election results and districts flipped by party, 2017–2018 (explainer)
Special Elections Index and results data, 1989–2022 (explainers: 2018, 2022)
Media Markets
Media markets are an important tool for understanding how an electoral contest develops, as ad buys are usually reported by market, not district. We’ve calculated presidential election results for media markets going back decades, and for recent congressional district lines, we’ve calculated how much of each congressional district is in each media market, and how much of each media market is in each district.
Media market/congressional district relationships, 2024 (explainer)
Media market/congressional district relationships, 2022 (explainer)
Media market/congressional district relationships, 2012-2020 (explainer)
Presidential election results by media market, 1960-2020 (explainer)
With breakdowns by state, 2016-2020
Calendars
Handy links showing when primaries and filing deadlines are by state, and when important elections are held in odd-numbered years. Because every year’s an election year!
2024 primary and filing deadline calendar, by state (sortable)
2022 primary and filing deadline calendar, by state (chronological)
2020 primary and filing deadline calendar, by state (chronological)
2018 primary and filing deadline calendar, by state (chronological)
Primaries
List of primaries we’re keeping our eyes on, as well as turnout and cross-party interference.
Midterm primary turnout by party, 2006-2018
Primaries where one party boosted another party's candidate, 2022-present
Open Seat Trackers
Another indicator of the electoral environment, this resource includes all planned and unplanned departures from the House of Representatives along with reasons, consequences, and links to document what happened. In addition, we track which seats have just one major party candidate running. The legislative district tracker keeps tabs on the thousands of state legislature seats in much the same way.
Open and uncontested congressional districts, 2006–2024 (2018 explainer)
Open and uncontested legislative districts, 2018-2024 (2018 explainer)
Fundraising & Spending
Another key metric to track each cycle, fundraising can tell you which candidates are in a strong position — and which could be caught napping. Independent expenditures, meanwhile, show where national organizations think the close races are (or where big donors have a pet project).
House fundraising 2022: 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | Pre-general
Senate fundraising 2022: 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | Pre-general | 4Q
House fundraising, 2018: 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | Pre-general
Senate fundraising, 2017–2018
House Vulnerability Index
Our ever-useful House Vulnerability Index doesn’t care if the general environment is more favorable to Democrats or Republicans. It just tells you which seats are most likely to flip, and, approximately, in what order. A stronger Democratic environment just gets you further down the list, and vice-versa.
Race Ratings
Our archived read of the state of the races.
Candidate & Politician Guides and Demographics
Our candidate and congress guides compile demographic data for all officeholders and every competitive candidate in Congress, and demographic data for the districts themselves. Presidential and candidate vote shares in each district are shown as well. Includes handy name pronunciation guide with links to videos of candidates pronouncing their own names. We also periodically take a look at which seats have a congressional representative with an ethnicity that differs from the majority or plurality of their district.
118th Congress members and district demographics comprehensive guide (explainer)
117th Congress members and district demographics comprehensive guide (explainer)
116th Congress members and district demographics comprehensive guide (explainer)
115th Congress members and district demographics comprehensive guide (explainer)
State & Congressional District Demographics
Can’t name the major cities in CA-35 off the top of your head? Jealous of the UK’s constituency names like Berwick-upon-Tweed? Well, we’ve got just the thing for you in our geographic descriptions files… although, maybe not as amusing as the UK names. That, along with numbers for race, ethnicity, ancestry, education, income, age, citizenship, religion, and urban/rural classification, can all be found in this section.
Population change, 2010-2020, for select jurisdictions (explainer)
Population change by congressional district, 2010-2017 (explainer)
Congressional district geographic descriptions and largest places for 119th Congress (explainer)
Congressional district geographic descriptions and largest places for 118th Congress (explainer)
Congressional district geographic descriptions and largest places for 117th Congress (explainer)
Congressional district geographic descriptions and largest places for 116th Congress (explainer)
Congressional district population centroids in Google Street View for 116th Congress
Rural/Suburban/Urban classification of congressional districts for 118th Congress
Rural/Suburban/Urban classification of congressional districts for 117th Congress (explainer)
Rural/Micropolitan/Exurban/Suburban/Urban classification of congressional districts for 117th Congress (explainer)
Education and income by state, 2016, for 117th Congress
Education and income by congressional district and state, 2018-2022, for 116th - 119th Congress
Education by race by congressional district, state, county, and city for 115th - 117th Congress (explainer)
Racial demographics by age and citizenship status by congressional district and state, 2016-2019, for 115th - 117th Congress (explainer)
Ancestries and origins by congressional district for 117th Congress (explainer)
Religion by congressional district for 117th Congress (explainer)
District Relationships
What makes up a district? We have the answer! Whether in terms of counties, other districts, or old districts, our tables can illuminate the relationship.
Congressional district/county relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Congressional district/county relationships (117th Congress) (explainer)
Legislative district/county relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Legislative district/county relationships (117th Congress) (explainer)
Congressional district/legislative district relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Congressional district/legislative district relationships (117th Congress) (explainer)
Upper legislative district/lower legislative district relationships (118th - 119th Congress) (explainer)
Upper legislative district/lower legislative district relationships (117th Congress) (explainer)
Media market/congressional district relationships, 2022 (118th Congress) (explainer)
Media market/congressional district relationships, 2012-2020 (117th Congress) (explainer)
2020s congressional redistricting redistribution analysis (explainer)
2010s congressional redistricting redistribution analysis (explainer)
Maps
We love maps here at The Downballot, and we know we’re not alone. So we’ve made templates available for some of our favorites, including our non-contiguous congressional cartogram with equal area for each district, a regular congressional district map with water boundaries, and our tile map with one hexagon for every state.
Congressional district hexmap cartogram (explainers: 2022, 2019, 2015)
Winning Streaks
Use these tables to find the last time a party won in states and counties, or nationally for the Senate popular vote.
The last time Democrats/Republicans won the Senate popular vote (explainer)
The last time a Democrat/Republican was elected statewide in each state
The last time a Democrat/Republican won a state in a presidential election
The last time a Democrat/Republican won a county in a presidential election (explainer)
Social Media & Podcast
Social media
Podcast
The Downballot (note: transcripts available using the Apple Podcasts app or right here on Substack)