An interesting historical footnote: before Reagan won in 1980, Democrats had maintained control of both houses of Congress since the 1954 election. That’s 26 consecutive years. Go back even further and Republicans had managed to take control of Congress only twice between 1932 and 1954. And it didn’t matter whether a Republican or Democrat was President – Congress was reliably controlled by Democrats, with only a handful of exceptions over nearly 50 years.
This is why we still talk about the “Reagan Revolution”. It’s not just about Reagan himself, but about the new ability of Republicans to win enough seats to have a say in Congress. And even then, Republicans couldnt win the House until 1995 and Newt Gingrich became the first Republican Speaker since 1955.