Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1910

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On November 8, 1910, the House of Representatives in the United States was elected. In the states of Maine and Vermont , the elections took place in September. The election was part of the general election to the 62nd United States Congress that year, which also elected a third of US Senators . Since the elections took place around the middle of the term of office of Republican President William Howard Taft ( Midterm Election ), they were also considered a vote on the previous policy of the President.

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 46 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 394. The distribution of seats was based on the 1900 census .

In the elections, the Democrats gained 58 seats while the Republicans lost 57 seats. The election result was tantamount to a political landslide in favor of the Democrats. For the first time in 16 years they were able to win a majority in the House of Representatives. One reason for the election result was the internal fragmentation of the Republicans. There was a progressive and a conservative wing there. President Taft, who belonged to the conservative wing, failed to mediate between the two camps. The progressive wing was led by former President Theodore Roosevelt . This internal division of the Republicans even led to a separation of the progressive wing for two years. On the other hand, the Democrats demonstrated unity, which voters honored. It is also noteworthy that, with Victor L. Berger from Wisconsin , a member of the Socialist Party of America was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time.

Only men were entitled to vote and eligible for election. Women were still banned from voting at the federal level until 1920. In the southern states in particular, the right to vote was restricted by laws that linked the right to vote to a certain tax revenue. As a result, poor whites, but above all many African-Americans, were excluded from voting.

Election result

Total: 394 (391)

The results of the last election two years earlier are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections as such are not included in these figures, but are noted in the article on the 62nd Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives under the appropriate names of the representatives. The same applies to elections in states that did not join the Union until after the beginning of the legislative period. As a result, the sources sometimes contain different information, as changes during the legislative period were sometimes incorporated into the figures and sometimes not.

See also

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