Midterm elections, often a referendum on the sitting president’s agenda, can set the stage for future policy debates. Economic and social issues with roots in the 1994 midterms are still being debated today.
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Two years into President Bill Clinton’s first term, public opposition mounted against his liberal policy efforts on healthcare, gun laws and gays in the military. This conservative movement, fueled by talk radio, was harnessed by Newt Gingrich, architect of the Contract with America, a blueprint to shrink government and reign in spending. Gingrich assembled a slate of conservative Republicans who swept to victory in the 1994 elections, ending the four-decades-long Democratic majority in the House.