United States Senate elections, 1938

United States Senate elections, 1938

November 8, 1938

36 of the 96 seats in the United States Senate 49 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader Alben Barkley Charles McNary Party Democratic Republican Leader's seat Kentucky Oregon Last election 76 seats 16 seats Seats before 75 17 Seats won 68 23 Seat change 7 7   Third party Fourth party   Party Farmer–Labor Progressive Last election 2 seats 1 seat Seats before 2 1 Seats won 2 1 Seat change

Republican holds   Republican pickups   Democratic holds   Democratic pickups

Majority Leader before election Alben Barkley Democratic Elected Majority Leader Alben Barkley Democratic

The U.S. Senate elections of 1938 occurred in the middle of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second term. This occurred six years after the Democratic landslide in the 1932 election, and so the opposition Republicans gained seven seats from the Democrats. However, the Democrats retained a commanding lead over the Republicans with more than two-thirds of the chamber.

Background

A contemporary account ^[1] cited a number of reasons for the losses suffered by the Democrats. The first was the Recession of 1937, which had continued into the first half of 1938, and which had arguably weakened public confidence in the administration's Millard Tydings of Maryland and Ellison Smith of South Carolina, along with the chairman of the House Rules Committee, John J. O'Connor of New York. While a number of New Deal supporters won primary elections, such as Sen. Alben Barkley in Kentucky, who defeated future baseball commissioner Happy Chandler, Sen. James P. Pope of Idaho, a prominent New Deal supporter, lost his bid for re-nomination, as did California senator William McAdoo, though McAdoo's Democratic opponent Sheridan Downey had campaigned as a liberal New Dealer who would also do more to improve pension plans.^[2]

Given the high levels of Democratic success in the 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936 elections, the Democrats were in a difficult position in defending a large number of seats, even without these pressures. Ironically, this was the first of five consecutive elections where the GOP made gains in the Senate.

Gains and losses

Overall, the Democrats lost 7 seats to Republicans

1. Augustine Lonergan (D-CT)
2. George McGill (D-KS), the last Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Kansas
3. Fred H. Brown (D-NH)
4. John Gerald Milton (D-NJ) had been appointed to replace A. Harry Moore (D), who resigned. Milton did not run in the special election to finish the current term (ending in 1941).
5. Robert J. Bulkley (D-OH)
6. Herbert Hitchcock (D-SD) had been appointed to replace Peter Norbeck (R), who died. Hitchock lost the Democratic primary both to finish the current term (ending in 1939) and for the new term (ending in 1945).
7. F. Ryan Duffy (D-WI)

Change in Senate composition

Senate composition before the elections

• V₁: New York seat: Royal Copeland (D) died June 17, 1938, and the seat was filled by special election in November.

Senate composition as a result of the elections

Senate contests in 1938

Separate elections

November elections

Further reading

• Dunn, Susan. Roosevelt's Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party (2010) excerpt and text search
• Hixson, Walter L. "The 1938 Kentucky Senate Election: Alben W. Barkley, "Happy" Chandler, and The New Deal." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (1982): 309-329. in JSTOR
• Plesur, Milton. "The Republican Congressional Comeback of 1938", Review of Politics Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct. 1962), pp. 525–562 in JSTOR

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections, 1938

References

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