Election to the United States Senate in 1930

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On November 4, 1930 and September 8, in the state of Maine , a third of the members of the United States Senate were elected. The election was part of the general election for the 72nd United States Congress that year, in which all members of the House of Representatives were also elected. Since the election date was exactly in the middle of the four-year term of office of President Herbert Hoover (Midterm Election), the elections were partly also a vote on the previous policy of the President.

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 according to which a third of the senators are elected every two years 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 1930, Class II senators stood for election. At that time, the United States consisted of 48 states. This results in a total of 96 senators, 35 of whom stood for election. The election resulted in a gain of eight seats in favor of the Democrats, who still narrowly missed the majority. The gain for the Democrats is mainly due to the economic situation at the time during the global economic crisis . Many voters who had voted Republicans two years earlier now, in the wake of the crisis, were more likely to trust the Democrats to solve the problems. A further two years later, primarily for this reason, there was a landslide-like majority change in the Senate in favor of the Democrats.

Senate composition after the election

Total: 96

The results of the last elections on November 6, 1928 are shown 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 72nd Congress in the section on the members of the Senate by the corresponding names of the senators.

See also