Keep the Democrats stranglehold on the house to the present day

As you probably know the Democrats had control of the house from 1954 - 1994. Since then they have only managed to win back the house from 2006 - 2010, and that required an incredibly unpopular Republican president to do so.

Your challenge is to have the Democrats mostly have control of the house from 1994 onwards up until about the present day.

Please note, that if your answer to this is to have the Republicans keep winning the presidency, you should expand more in detail as to how they manage to largely be in control of the presidency.
 
George HW Bush wins in 1992 making 1994 a Democratic year. After four years of Bush being a lame duck and 16 years of Republicans in control of the White House, a Democrat wins the Presidency in 1996 and maintains control of Congress for the Democrats. With a strong economy the Democrats maintain control of congress despite the GOP gaining 10-15 seats in the House. Said Democrat is re elected in 2000 with decent coattails down ticket. 2002 sees the Democrats lose the Senate, but because of decent showings for them from '94-2000 and because of gerrymandering, they barely maintain a five seat majority in the house.

2004 sees a Republican elected President, the Senate narrowly stay Republican, and the Democrats house Majority reduced to 218. 2006 being a Republican Presidents midterm, sees a 30 seat gain for Democrats in the House and sees Democrats retake the Senate. 2008 sees the Incumbent Republican get narrowly re elected with no coattails down ticket, thus divided government remains. A economic recession breaks in 2010 and the GOP gets clobbered in the midterms that November, giving the Democrats super majorities in both chambers. Congressional Districts are further gerrymandered by the Democrats after the 2010 census and in 2012, the Democrats retake the Presidency and maintain Supermajorities in Congress. 2014 sees decent Republican gains in both Houses of Congress, but because of the successes of 2010 and 2012 and Gerrymandering, the Democrats keep control of both chambers. 2016 sees a Democratic President and Congress re elected and are thus holding control of Congress today as a result.
 
Firstly, Newt Gingrich is defeated for re-election in 1990. Then, a weaker Democratic nominee is put up in 1992 and Bush is able to win re-election. The Democrats, naturally, keep the House in 1994, and in 1996 someone like Cuomo or Chuck Robb cruises to victory over a hapless GOP ticket headed by Dan Quayle.

Their first term is relatively uncontroversial. The GOP boots out Bob Michel and replaces him with Dick Cheney, who isn't a fantastic leader, especially when having to deal with sex scandals from both Bob Livingston and Dennis Hastert. There's a second Gulf War in 1998 following a terrorist attack, allowing Democrats to mitigate their losses in the midterms. Dot-com bubble bursts and though the Democrat wins re-election, it's by a closer margin than expected and control of the House is cast into doubt. Withdrawal from Iraq occurs in 2001 at the same time as rapprochement with Iran, but even good news can't spare the Democrats from losing control of congress for the first time since Truman.

The Democrat spends the rest of their term passing compromised legislation, including a tight ban on corporate contributions. The Republicans win back the White House in 2004 under a hawk who wants war with Libya, and gets it. The war quickly goes south and there is little international support for the measure. In addition, a rapid series of tax cuts and deregulation passed while the party still holds both houses ignites controversy and inspires liberal activists, who are beginning to use "netroots" to their advantage. 2006 sees a backlash against this president, and Congress returns to a more natural shade of blue. 2008 sees them booted out after a housing crunch.

I'm a bit bored now so have a list idk

1989-1997: George H. W. Bush (Republican)
1997-2005: Chuck Robb (Democratic)
2005-2009: Norm Coleman (Republican)
2009-2013: Martin Chávez (Democratic)
2013-2017: Asa Hutchinson (Republican)
2017-0000: Susan Bysiewicz (Democratic)


1989-1999: Tom Foley (Democratic)
1999-2003: Martin Frost (Democratic)
2003-2006: Tom DeLay (Republican)
2006-2007: Don Nickles (Republican)
2007-2013: Diana DeGette (Democratic)
2013-2015: Roy Blunt (Republican)
2015-: Diana DeGette (Democratic)
 
George HW Bush wins in 1992 making 1994 a Democratic year. After four years of Bush being a lame duck and 16 years of Republicans in control of the White House, a Democrat wins the Presidency in 1996 and maintains control of Congress for the Democrats. With a strong economy the Democrats maintain control of congress despite the GOP gaining 10-15 seats in the House. Said Democrat is re elected in 2000 with decent coattails down ticket. 2002 sees the Democrats lose the Senate, but because of decent showings for them from '94-2000 and because of gerrymandering, they barely maintain a five seat majority in the house.

Don't forget that the economy was doing OK in 1994 in OTL. That didn't prevent the Republicans from making massive gains. Of course the Democrats would have retained control in 1994 if GHW Bush had been re-elected in 1992--but IMO this would only delay not prevent a GOP takeover of the House. Eventually the Democrats will regain the presidency, and even if they maintain prosperity, they will then lose a lot of House seats in the midterms for two reasons:

(1) There is going to be dissatisfaction with the Democratic administration in a lot of districts (especially in the South) that had long generally voted Republican for the White House but Democratic for the House. As OTL's 1994 shows, this would be true even in a good economic year because the national Democrats would be vulnerable on social/cultural issues if not economic ones.

(2) Eventually the conservative Democrats who had long held southern and other conservative districts for the Democrats are going to die, retire, or is some cases lose to primary challengers. As the seats become open, their voters are more likely to vote Republican for Congress as well as the White House.
 
Top