Most of the seats that Republicans lost had long been held by Democrats, who now returned with an even stronger base in the major cities.

The Republicans were neither unified nor well led, and they could boast of very few successes except tax cuts and higher tariffs that pleased manufacturing interest but raised consumer prices.

[3] With Senator Bob La Follette as their unofficial leader, some progressives formed a small but highly vocal group on the left of the Republican Party.

However, the Republican-controlled Congress failed to reapportion the House membership prior to the 1922 election, and therefore the congressional districts remained based on the 1910 census for another decade.

This failure to reapportion may have been politically motivated, as Republicans may have feared the effect such a reapportionment would have on their future electoral prospects.