Four House Seats Are Empty, and Two Special Elections Land Before Labor Day

The official empty chairs

As of early August 2026 the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House lists four vacancies still open in the 119th Congress (Clerk of the House, View Vacancies). California's 14th is vacant after Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned on April 14, 2026, with a special general election set for August 18 (Clerk of the House; California Secretary of State). Georgia's 13th is vacant after Rep. David Scott died on April 22, 2026, with a runoff set for August 25 after no candidate cleared a majority on July 28 (Clerk of the House; Roll Call, July 28, 2026). Florida's 20th is vacant after Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned on April 21, and Texas's 23rd is vacant after Rep. Tony Gonzales resigned on April 14; both still show special election dates as to be determined (Clerk of the House).

That is the receipt. Four districts without a sitting member. Two elections already on the calendar in the next three weeks. Two more waiting on state officials to set a day.

How the chamber counts right now

Ballotpedia's snapshot of the 119th House puts Republicans at 218 seats, Democrats at 212, one independent, and four vacancies, for a full chamber of 435 when every chair is filled (Ballotpedia, United States House of Representatives elections, 2026). A majority of the full House is 218. With four empty seats, a working majority of those present and voting is a smaller number on any given roll call, but the party that wants to organize the chamber for the next Congress still has to win 218 of the 435 districts that will be on the ballot in November.

Read the vacancy list by party of the last occupant and the picture is plain. Three of the four open seats were held by Democrats (CA-14, FL-20, GA-13). One was held by a Republican (TX-23). Filling them on schedule puts more members back on the floor before the midterm campaign peaks. It does not, by itself, settle control of the next Congress.

What the two August specials are actually deciding

Georgia's 13th is a deep blue suburban Atlanta district. The July 28 all party primary sent two Democrats, Marcye Scott and Everton Blair, to an August 25 runoff after no one took more than half the vote (Wikipedia, 2026 Georgia's 13th congressional district special election; Roll Call, July 28, 2026). Cook's Partisan Voting Index for the district sits in the low 40s Democratic, so the runoff is an intraparty choice for who finishes Scott's term, not a party flip test (Ballotpedia, special elections 2025-2026).

California's 14th is likewise a strongly Democratic Bay Area seat. Swalwell resigned April 14. The special general is August 18 under California's top two rules (Clerk of the House; California Secretary of State). Both specials restore representation in districts that rarely change parties. They matter to the people who live there, to the committees that need full rosters, and to the arithmetic of who shows up when the House returns from recess. They are not the battlegrounds that decide the midterm.

Where the midterm fight actually sits

Cook Political Report's House ratings, last updated July 16, 2026, list 18 Toss Up districts, with 184 Solid Democratic and 185 Solid Republican seats around them (Cook Political Report, 2026 CPR House Race Ratings). Ballotpedia has identified 46 House battlegrounds for 2026, 25 held by Democrats and 21 by Republicans as of late July (Ballotpedia, United States House of Representatives elections, 2026). Those are the races that move the majority. US Political Rank scores the tightest of them in its ranking of the 20 most competitive House districts of 2026.

The historical pattern underneath is older than any one vacancy. The party holding the White House has lost House seats in 19 of 22 midterms from 1934 through 2018, at an average of 28 seats (American Presidency Project, 2022). Democrats need a net of three districts to take the majority if every seat is filled; Republicans can lose no more than two and still hold the chamber under the same full count (Ballotpedia, 2026). Four empty chairs do not rewrite that table. They delay a few members from joining it.

What to watch between now and Labor Day

Watch the two dates already printed. August 18 puts someone in CA-14 for the rest of the 119th Congress. August 25 settles GA-13 between two Democrats. Watch whether Florida and Texas set dates for FL-20 and TX-23 before the fall campaign swallows the calendar. And watch the working majority on the floor when the House is back in session, because a chamber that is short four votes behaves differently on razor thin roll calls than a full one does.

Special elections are the Constitution working as designed. Article I requires that vacancies in the House be filled by election, not by gubernatorial appointment the way most Senate vacancies are (Congressional Research Service, House Vacancies). That is slower. It is also more direct. The people of the district choose the replacement. Two of those choices land before Labor Day. The other two will land when the states put a date on the page.