In the second election with organized political parties, the Thomas Jefferson-led Democratic-Republican Party once again defeated the Alexander Hamilton-led Federalist Party and slightly increased their majority. These new wins by the Democratic-Republicans can mostly be attributed to the support of Jeffersonian ideas of agrarian democracy, which gained great footholds in the West.
It should be noted that in this period each state fixed its own date for a congressional general election. This article covers all such state elections to the 4th Congress. Elections to a Congress took place both in the even-numbered year before and in the odd-numbered year when the Congress convened. In some states the congressional delegation was not elected until after the legal start of the Congress (on the 4th day of March in the odd numbered year).
