1802–03 United States House of Representatives elections
The greatest population growth revealed in the 1800 census was in territories that constituted the western regions of the country at the time, a tremendous boost for Democratic-Republican candidates.Nearly all of the new seats created in the reapportionment went to Democratic-Republicans, closely aligned as they were with the agrarian interests of Western farmers.As a result, the Democratic-Republicans won the largest proportion of seats that either they or the competing Federalists had ever been able to secure in any earlier Congress, a supermajority greater than two-thirds of the total number.Vermont law at the time required a majority of votes to win an office, which frequently necessitated additional ballots.Virginia's congressional delegation remained the largest of any state, but would lose this distinction permanently after the census of 1810.