← 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 → Midterm elections | |
Election day | November 8 |
---|---|
Incumbent president | Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) |
Next Congress | 76th |
Senate elections | |
Overall control | Democratic hold |
Seats contested | 36 of 96 seats (32 Class 3 seats + 6 special elections) [1] |
Net seat change | Republican +8 [2] |
1938 Senate election results Democratic gain Democratic hold ContentsRepublican gain Republican hold | |
House elections | |
Overall control | Democratic hold |
Seats contested | All 435 voting seats |
Popular vote margin | Democratic +1.2% |
Net seat change | Republican +81 |
1938 House election results Democratic gain Democratic hold | |
Gubernatorial elections | |
Seats contested | 33 |
Net seat change | Republican +12 |
1938 gubernatorial election results Democratic gain Democratic hold |
The 1938 United States elections were held on November 8, 1938, in the middle of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term. The Democratic Party lost 72 seats, mostly to the Republican Party, in the House of Representatives. The Democrats also lost eight seats to the Republicans in the U.S. Senate. [3] Despite these heavy losses, the Democrats maintained control of Congress.
The election was a defeat for Roosevelt, as the conservative coalition (an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats) took control of Congress and stymied Roosevelt's domestic agenda. Roosevelt had campaigned openly against members of his own party who had not supported the New Deal, but Roosevelt's preferred candidates met with little success across the country. The election took place in the aftermath of the recession of 1937–38 and the defeat of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 ("the court-packing plan"), and President Roosevelt was at the nadir of his popularity. Republicans picked up congressional seats for the first time since the start of the Great Depression, and few new major domestic programs became law until the advent of the Great Society in the 1960s. [4]
The 1938 United States Senate elections occurred in the middle of Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term. The 32 seats of Class 3 were contested in regular elections, and special elections were held to fill vacancies. The Republicans gained eight seats from the Democrats, though this occurred after multiple Democratic gains since the 1932 election, leading to the Democrats retaining a commanding lead over the Republicans with more than two-thirds of the legislative chamber.
The 1938 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives were elections for the United States House of Representatives to elect members to serve in the 76th United States Congress. They were held for the most part on November 8, 1938, while Maine held theirs on September 12. They occurred in the middle of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term. Roosevelt's Democratic Party lost a net of 72 seats to the Republican Party, who also picked up seats from minor Progressive and Farmer–Labor Parties.
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