But in the midterms of 1938, the year after the economy plunged into a double-dip recession, the Democrats lost seventy-two seats in the House.
Thanks to the big gains they made in the midterms of 2010 and 2014, they will be defending a lot of seats at the national and state level that are potentially up for grabs.
But this doesn't automatically make the issue a winner for Democrats everywhere in the midterms, of course.
When the Democratic congress and president were unable to work together in 1993, it was the Democrats in congress who paid for it as they lost control of both houses of congress in the midterm elections of 1994.
In the midterm election of 1998, some 58percentt of the voters were over 45, nearly half were over 50 and close to one-third were over 60, according to census data and surveys of voters leaving the polls.
But Doyle Webb, chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, said he was considering supporting Mr. Steele because of his strategy in the midterm elections of treating smaller states with greater respect.
The modern Republican rise was first apparent in the midterm elections of 1966, in the wake of early frustrations over Vietnam and racial turmoil after passage of civil rights legislation.
Georgia's turnout was 19percentt black in 1994, with that figure rising to 25percentt in 1996 and 29percentt in the midterm elections of 1998, an overall increase of more than 50percentt.
When many of them went down to defeat in the midterm massacre of 1994, the lesson that surviving Democrats took away was to beware of presidents who care more about their own survival than they do about yours.
The state recorded one of the lowest turnouts in the midterm elections of any state.
