Democrats had 193 seats immediately prior to the November elections, and needed to net at least 25 seats to win a majority in the House of Representatives. In the November elections, Democrats won a net gain of 40 seats. As the elections also saw Democrats fill a couple vacant seats that had previously been controlled by the party, the Democrats won control of a total of 235 seats, while Republicans won control of at least 199 seats.[lower-alpha 4] The net gain of 40 seats represented the Democratic Party's largest gain in the House since the 1974 elections.[26] Democrats won the nationwide popular vote for the House of Representatives by 8.6 percentage points,[27] one of the highest margins won by either party since 1992.[3] Due in part to the surge in turnout, the total number of votes won by Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives nearly equaled the number of votes Trump won in the 2016 presidential election.[28] The 2018 elections were the third midterm elections since 2006 in which the President's party lost control of the House of Representatives.