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Congressional Memo
The last five presidents have all had periods where both the House and the Senate were in friendly hands — but most lasted just two years before the backlash set in.
- Nov. 15, 2024, 10:51 a.m. ET
After Republicans did better than expected in winning the White House, the House and the Senate in 2004, President George W. Bush famously claimed a mandate.
“I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and I intend to spend it,” Mr. Bush declared in boastful remarks as the favorable results were tallied that November.
Two years later, after Mr. Bush’s bid to privatize Social Security imploded without ever even coming up in Congress and exhaustion with the Iraq war set in, it was instead the president who was spent. Democrats took back Congress, and the governing trifecta Mr. Bush had trumpeted was gone.
The same thing then happened to Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. as they gained supremacy in Washington only to see it slip away after two years of aggressively pressing their agenda, with mixed results.
As they prepare for their latest stint in power, congressional Republicans are fully aware from recent history that they may have only two years to accomplish what they want without interference from pesky Democrats before facing a political reckoning. And even those two years could be perilous, with party divisions and small majorities complicating their work and voters expecting big things given their unified control in Washington.
“We’ve got a two-year window of opportunity,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas. “It’s going to be hard.”
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