Election to the United States Senate in 1920

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
A total of 96 seats

On November 2, 1920, one-third of the members of the United States Senate were elected in the United States . The election was part of the general election for the 67th Congress of the United States that year, in which all members of the House of Representatives were also elected. The presidential election of 1920 , won by Republican Warren G. Harding , took place at the same time .

Since the adoption of the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, all US senators in their respective states have been directly elected by the people of their state. Each state has 2 senators. Under the United States Constitution , US Senators are elected for six years. However, all members of the Senate are never elected at the same time. The election follows a scheme that every two years a third of the senators are elected at the same time as the election to the US House of Representatives. For this purpose, the Senate is divided into three classes , which determine the election year of the Senators. In 1920 the Senators of Class III stood for election. At that time, the United States consisted of 48 states. This results in a total of 96 senators, 34 of whom stood for election.

Senate composition after the election

Total: 96

The results of the last elections on November 5, 1918 are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections themselves are not taken into account in these figures. But are noted in the article on the 67th Congress in the section on the members of the Senate by the corresponding names of the senators.

The election result confirmed a trend in favor of the Republicans that had already been announced in the 1918 elections. In addition to the Senate election, the party also won the House of Representatives and, last but not least, the presidential elections. The background was, among other things, a fundamental conflict between the two parties on the question of future American foreign policy. While the Democrats wanted to join the League of Nations , co-founded by the previous President Woodrow Wilson , and thus wanted to introduce a more active American role in foreign policy, the Republicans voted against it. They advocated restraint on the part of the United States in foreign policy and placed more emphasis on economic development. So they found significantly more support in the American electorate than the Democrats with their ideas.

See also