Don't believe the pundits; incumbents still dominate congressional elections.
As George Washington University political science professor John Sides points out, 2010 was a pretty good year for incumbents after all.
86% of incumbents won their re-election bid. Though the percentage was relatively low compared to previous years, this indicates that there was no massive anti-incumbent movement ready to kick the establishment out of Congress.
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The median percent of the vote won by incumbents (65%) was in line with the historical average (68%). Further, the percent of races with no incumbent running in the general election was 10%, a pretty mundane figure. This refutes the notion that lots of incumbents decided not to run or lost their primaries.
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Take this into account when you hear about polls in which vast majorities of Americans disapprove of Congress or even indicate their willingness to vote for a challenger. There has always been a very strong correlation between incumbency and re-election.

