Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1962

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The 1962 election to the United States House of Representatives took place on November 6, 1962. It was in the United States , the Members of the House of Representatives elected. The election was part of the general election to the 88th United States Congress that year, in which a third of the US Senators were elected. Since the elections took place around the middle of the term of office of Democratic President John F. Kennedy ( Midterm Election ), they were also considered a vote on the previous policy of the President.

The number of MPs to be elected was 435 and, after being temporarily increased to 437, was again adjusted to the norm that had been in use since 1912. The distribution of seats was based on the 1960 census .

In the elections, the Democrats lost 4 seats compared to the last election in 1960. Nevertheless, with 260 seats, they were able to maintain their absolute majority. The Republicans gained two seats but remained in the minority. An important domestic issue was the civil rights movement around the abolition of racial segregation and the integration of African-Americans in institutions that were previously due to whites. The Cuban Missile Crisis , which shortly before the elections endangered world peace for a short time , also played a major role . The ultimately mild outcome of the crisis was credited to Democratic President Kennedy as a credit. This averted an originally expected major defeat for the Democrats. With the rather minimal shifts in the House of Representatives, the status quo was roughly maintained.

In the southern states in particular, the right to vote was still 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 the right to vote. These restrictions were criticized more and more, but still largely applied until the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1964.

Election result

Distribution of seats in the 88th Congress
  
A total of 435 seats

Total: 435 (437)

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 88th Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives under the relevant names of the representatives. As a result, the sources sometimes contain different information, as changes during the legislative period were sometimes incorporated into the figures and sometimes not. The election result shown is based on the source below (Party Divisions).

See also

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