For the first time in 40 years, the Republican Party wins control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections. Led by Representative Newt Gingrich of Georgia, who subsequently replaced Democrat Tom Foley of Washington as speaker of the House, the empowered GOP united under the “Contract with America,” a 10-point legislative plan to reduce federal taxes and dismantle social welfare programs established during six decades of mostly Democratic rule in Congress.
Gingrich’s House of Representatives, home to the majority of the Republican freshmen, led the “Republican Revolution” by passing every bill incorporated in the Contract with America—with the exception of a term-limits constitutional amendment—within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress.
