1942 United States House of Representatives elections

1942 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1940 November 3, 1942[a] 1944 →
All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Sam Rayburn Joseph Martin Party Democratic Republican Leader since September 16, 1940 January 3, 1939 Leader's seat Texas 4th Massachusetts 14th Last election 267 seats 162 seats Seats won 222 209 Seat change 45 47 Popular vote 13,181,759 14,271,483 Percentage 47.0% 50.8% Swing 4.4% 5.2%   Third party Fourth party   Party Progressive Farmer–Labor Last election 3 seats 1 seat Seats won 2 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 185,114 151,684 Percentage 0.7% 0.5% Swing 0.3% 0.1%   Fifth party Sixth party   Party American Labor Independent Last election 1 seat 0 seats Seats won 1 0 Seat change 1 Popular vote 91,283 67,333 Percentage 0.3% 0.2% Swing 0.4%
Speaker before election Sam Rayburn Democratic Elected Speaker Sam Rayburn Democratic

The 1942 United States House of Representatives elections were elections for the United States House of Representatives to elect members to serve in the 78th United States Congress. They were held for the most part on November 3, 1942, while Maine held theirs on September 14. This was the first election after the congressional reapportionment based on the 1940 census, and was held in the middle of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third term. With involvement in World War II, it was the first wartime election in the United States since 1918.^[1]

Roosevelt's Democratic Party lost 45 seats to the Republican Party, retaining only a slender majority even though they lost the popular vote by over 1 million votes (3.9%). 1942 remains the most recent election in which Democrats won a majority in the House without a majority of votes, and only the second time in the 20th century that this occurred, after 1914.

This was the most successful congressional election for Republicans since 1930, and the first time since that election cycle that the House GOP actually won the popular vote.^[2] The main factor that led to the Republican gains during this election cycle was dissatisfaction with the conduct of America's war effort in World War II.^[1]

As of 2024^[update], this was the last time the House of Representatives was made up of five parties. This was also the smallest House majority that the Democrats had up until the 2020 elections. Voter turnout was historically low for the time, which was attributed to the absence of military men and the apathy of workers at war production plants, many of whom had failed to re-register to vote in their new communities or become accustomed to local candidates.^[1]

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