wave election

[ weyv i-lek-shuhn ]

noun

, Politics.

1. an election in which one party makes significant gains in Congress, at the state level, or in a parliament:

   a wave election that saw Republicans win control of the House and flip seven Senate seats.

Word History and Origins

Origin of wave election¹

First recorded in 2010–15

Example Sentences

But Swing Left's local grassroots groups didn't go away, and in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, he said, "We ended up having a really massive 2022. While we had fewer individual people volunteering, the people who were stepping up to volunteer did more," and clearly shifted the momentum of what Republicans expected to be a wave election in their favor.

From Salon

In November 2010, the month of the Tea Party wave election, Marist found that 48% of voters said they would vote against Obama, while only 36% planned to vote for him.

From Salon

He then helped prevent the expected Republican wave election of 2022 by recruiting and backing extremist candidates in competitive districts.

From Salon

Some scholars pushed back against this centrist, denialist consensus, but Fiorina's book ran through a third edition in 2010 — the year of the Tea Party wave election.

From Salon

Conservatives have controlled the state’s Supreme Court since 2008, and Republicans have held a hammerlock on the Legislature since 2011, when the party drew itself an impenetrable majority after taking control in a wave election.

From New York Times