Election to the United States Senate in 1942

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On November 3, 1942, or September 14 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 to the 78th United States Congress that year, which also elected all members of the House of Representatives.

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 one 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 1942 the Senators of Class II 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. The elections were overshadowed by the events of World War II , in which the United States had actively participated since December 7, 1941. After 1938 and 1940, the elections resulted in a loss for the Democrats for the third time in a row, who lost eight seats and thus their two-thirds majority in the Senate. However, they still held a stable absolute majority of the seats.

Senate composition after the election

Total: 96

The results of the last elections on November 5, 1940 are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections themselves are not included in these figures. But are noted in the article on the 78th Congress in the section on the members of the Senate by the corresponding names of the senators.

See also