1801 United States Federal Election (Parliamentary U.S.)

The 1801 United States federal election was the sixth United States federal election for the United States House of Representatives. It was held from September 3rd to October 3rd, 1797 and resulted in the Federalist leader and former Prime Minister, John Adams, being defeated in a landslide loss by his rival and the previous Prime Minister, Thomas Jefferson, who led the Democratic-Republicans to a two-thirds majority in the House.

The formerly incumbent Prime Minister, Alexander Hamilton had previously defeated the then-incumbent Jefferson in 1797 on a campaign message of ending support for France admist the French Revolution. However many of Hamilton's policies, including a trade deal with Britain and sanctions against France proved vastly unpopular and damaged the American alliance with France. The outbreak of the Quasi War and the passing of the Alien and Sedition Acts furthered eroded support for the Federalists to an all-time low. There was a movement in 1799 to put Hamilton up for a no-confidence vote but it did not have enough Federalist support. In 1801 before the elections, a Federalist leadership election was called where Hamilton was defeated by John Adams, the first American Prime Minister, making Adams the first person to become Prime Minister without being elected and the first person to be Prime Minister two times non-consecutively.

As a result of the unpopularity of the Federalists, the growing desire to return to the policies of Jefferson, and the additional seats added to the House from the 1800 Census, the Democratic-Republicans gained 46 seats for a total of 96 seats in the House, a commanding two-thirds majority, while the Federalists lost 10 seats. The Democratic-Republicans won 54.4% of the popular vote to the Federalists 45.6%, an 8.8% margin, the largest popular vote margin since the 1788 federal election. Even so, Adams is widely credited as having prevented a larger defeat and preserving the legitimacy of the Federalists nationwide.