Elections & terms
incumbency advantage
The measurable edge a sitting officeholder has: name recognition, casework, franked mail, fundraising access, and often a district drawn around them.
In full
House incumbents seeking reelection win well over 90 percent of the time in most cycles. The advantage compounds: incumbents raise more because they are likely to win, and are likely to win partly because they raise more. An open seat, where no incumbent is running, is where the great majority of genuinely competitive races occur.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.