1989 United States General Election

The 1989 United States General Election was held on Tuesday, November 8th 1989. It resulted in the governing Conservative-Republican-National Freedom Coalition being defeated by the Democratic Labor Party in an upset. The Democratic Labor Party managed to get a majority of 61 seats with 41.6% of the popular vote, with the governing Coalition government suffering a net loss of 73 seats with 34.2% of the popular vote.

With the Coalition having governed the country for 11 years the incumbent government was facing a looming recession and the issue of free trade became the forefront after the deadlock within the Coalition itself over NAFTA which was supported by the Republicans and National Freedom party but opposed by Prime Minister Helms and a portion of the Conservatives as well as the Democrats. The unclear stance of the Coalition was seen as a weakness that could break apart the government which led to Jesse Helms to call a snap election in order to get more support from conservative protectionists.

However, even with polls showing Helms and the coalition in a 5 point lead, the Democratic Labor party upset them by winning 304 seats with the Coalition winning just 221 seats with the Conservatives winning just 68 seats, the Republicans winning 94, and the Nationals winning 59 seats. The loss for the Coalition was attributed at the time for the competing ideology between the Coalition's parties particularly around free trade which led to Prime Minister Helms to occasionally make attacking statements towards the other Coalition parties, but analysis conducted later also revealed that the government's inaction towards the AIDS epidemic, looming recession, and the unpopular social stances of Prime Minister Helms were also large contributing factors for the defeat.

Howard Metzenbaum became the first Jewish-American to hold the office of Prime Minister and his party set a record for the diversity of Representatives that were elected in the campaign. His party's stringent adherence to the "Fair Trade Doctrine" which proscribed a middle ground on the issue of free trade and the economic and social plans swung many previous National Freedom voters to the Democrats. Other minor parties such as the Party for Socialism and Democracy Now party retained their previous amount of Representatives with 4 and 10 respectively, with independents taking the rest.

Prime Minister Helms resigned as leader of the Conservatives and Coalition chair with the leader of the National Freedom party, Phyllis Schlafly also resigning with Trent Lott and Pat Buchanan replacing them after each parties respective leadership elections. It was this election and the 1993 election that signaled the beginning of a political realignment that would favor the Democrats all the way until 2005.