Election to the United States Senate in 1946

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In the election to the United States Senate in 1946 on November 5, 1946, or on September 9 in the state of Maine , a third of the members of the US Senate were elected in the United States . The election was part of the general election for the 80th United States Congress that year, in which all members of the House of Representatives were also elected. Since the election date was roughly in the middle of the first term of office of President Harry S. Truman (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 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 1946, the Class I senators stood for election. At that time, the United States consisted of 48 states. This gives a total of 96 senators, 39 of which were eligible for election; actually only 32 senators should have been elected. The higher number resulted from 5 vacancies within the Senate seats which were not eligible for election and which were also available for election in these elections. However, these were only by-elections. The class affiliation of these five senators did not change and they were only elected until the end of the respective term of office of their actual senatorial class. The election ended with a significant increase in the number of Republicans, who won 13 seats. They took over the majority in the Senate, which had been held by the Democrats since 1932. The reasons were, among other things, to be seen in the domestic politics of the federal government under President Truman. This involved controversial government interventions in collective bargaining disputes and the lifting of price controls that were previously caused by the war. Both points hurt the Democrats.

Senate composition after the election

Total: 96

The results of the last elections on November 7, 1944 are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections as such are not included in these figures, but are reflected in the article on the 80th Congress in the section on the members of the Senate noted with the corresponding names of the senators.

See also