Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1916

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On November 7, 1916, the House of Representatives in the United States was elected. In the state of Maine , the elections took place on September 11th. The election was part of the general election for the 65th United States Congress that year, which also elected a third of US Senators . The 1916 presidential election , won by the Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson , took place at the same time .

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 48 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 435. The distribution of seats was based on the 1910 census .

In the election, the Democrats lost 16 seats and only got 214 seats. With that they lost their absolute majority. On the other hand, the Republicans were able to gain 19 seats and thus have 215 MPs. The Progressive Party lost three seats and from then on only had three congressmen. The absolute majority in the House of Representatives was 218 seats. But this had not reached any party. For this reason, a coalition constellation was created, which is rare in American history. This came about through an alliance of the Democrats with the members of the Progressive Party and the socialist Meyer London . This turned the actually strongest faction of the Republicans into the opposition party, which was even rarer in the history of the American Congress. The reason for the Republicans' gains was the hope of many Americans that this party would rather prevent the United States from joining the First World War , which broke out in Europe in 1914 . In addition, Democratic President Wilson, who was re-elected at the time, had deterred many Democratic voters with progressive reform plans.

With Jeannette Rankin woman was first elected to the House of Representatives. This was made possible by a law in her home state of Montana from November 1914. Under this law, women in that state were given unrestricted voting rights at the time.

In most states, only men were eligible to vote and eligible. With a few exceptions, women were excluded from federal elections 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 especially many African Americans, were excluded from the right to vote.

Election result

Distribution of seats
   
A total of 435 seats
  • Dem .: 214
  • Otherwise: 6
  • Rep .: 215

Total: 435 (435)

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 65th Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives under the relevant names of the representatives. The same applies to elections in states that joined the Union 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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