1934 United States Senate elections

1934 United States Senate elections

← 1932 November 6, 1934[a] 1936 →

36 of the 96 seats in the United States Senate
49 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Joseph Robinson Charles McNary
Party Democratic Republican
Leader since December 3, 1923 March 4, 1933
Leader's seat Arkansas Oregon
Seats before 60 35
Seats after 69 25
Seat change Increase 9 Decrease 10
Seats up 17 18
Races won 26 8

  Third party Fourth party
 
Party Farmer–Labor Progressive
Seats before 1 0
Seats after 1 1
Seat change Steady Increase 1
Seats up 1 0
Races won 1 1

1934 United States Senate special election in Montana1934 United States Senate special election in New Mexico1934 United States Senate special election in Tennessee1934 United States Senate special election in Vermont1934 United States Senate election in Arizona1934 United States Senate election in California1934 United States Senate election in Connecticut1934 United States Senate election in Delaware1934 United States Senate election in Florida1934 United States Senate election in Indiana1934 United States Senate election in Maine1934 United States Senate election in Maryland1934 United States Senate election in Massachusetts1934 United States Senate election in Michigan1934 United States Senate election in Minnesota1934 United States Senate election in Mississippi1934 United States Senate election in Missouri1934 United States Senate election in Montana1934 United States Senate election in Nebraska1934 United States Senate election in Nevada1934 United States Senate election in New Jersey1934 United States Senate election in New Mexico1934 United States Senate election in New York1934 United States Senate election in North Dakota1934 United States Senate election in Ohio1934 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania1934 United States Senate election in Rhode Island1934 United States Senate election in Tennessee1934 United States Senate election in Texas1934 United States Senate election in Utah1934 United States Senate election in Vermont1934 United States Senate election in Virginia1934 United States Senate election in Washington1934 United States Senate election in West Virginia1934 United States Senate election in Wisconsin1934 United States Senate election in Wyoming
Results of the elections:
     Democratic gain      Democratic hold
     Republican hold
     Progressive gain
     Farmer–Labor hold
     No election

Majority Leader before election

Joseph Robinson
Democratic

Elected Majority Leader

Joseph Robinson
Democratic

The 1934 United States Senate elections were held in the middle of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term. The 32 seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections, and special elections were held to fill vacancies. During the Great Depression, voters strongly backed Roosevelt's New Deal and his allies in the Senate, with Democrats picking up a net of nine seats, giving them a supermajority (which required 64 seats, two-thirds of the total 96 seats in 1934).[1] Republicans later lost three more seats due to mid-term vacancies (one to Farmer-Labor and two to Democrats); however, a Democrat in Iowa died and the seat remained vacant until the next election. The Democrats entered the next election with a 70-22-2-1 majority.

This marked the first time that an incumbent president's party gained seats in both houses of Congress in midterm election cycles, followed by 1998 and 2002.[2] This was also the second of three times since the ratification of the 17th Amendment that the opposition party failed to flip any Senate seats, alongside 1914 and 2022.


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  1. ^ Arthur Krock (November 7, 1934). "Tide Sweeps Nation". New York Times. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  2. ^ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1934" (PDF). U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk. Retrieved December 28, 2011.