1946 United States elections

1946 United States elections
← 1944          1945          1946          1947          1948 →
Midterm elections
Election dayNovember 5
Incumbent president▌Harry S. Truman (D)
Next Congress80th
Senate elections
Overall controlRepublican gain
Seats contested37 of 96 seats
(32 Class 1 seats + 8 special elections)
Net seat changeRepublican +12
1946 United States Senate special election in Alabama1946 United States Senate elections in California1946 United States Senate elections in Connecticut1946 United States Senate special election in Idaho1946 United States Senate special election in Kentucky1946 United States Senate elections in Ohio1946 United States Senate special election in North Dakota1946 United States Senate special election in Virginia1946 United States Senate election in Arizona1946 United States Senate elections in California1946 United States Senate elections in Connecticut1946 United States Senate election in Delaware1946 United States Senate election in Florida1946 United States Senate election in Indiana1946 United States Senate election in Maine1946 United States Senate election in Maryland1946 United States Senate election in Massachusetts1946 United States Senate election in Michigan1946 United States Senate election in Minnesota1946 United States Senate election in Mississippi1946 United States Senate election in Missouri1946 United States Senate election in Montana1946 United States Senate election in Nebraska1946 United States Senate election in Nevada1946 United States Senate election in New Jersey1946 United States Senate election in New Mexico1946 United States Senate election in New York1946 United States Senate election in North Dakota1946 United States Senate elections in Ohio1946 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania1946 United States Senate election in Rhode Island1946 United States Senate election in Tennessee1946 United States Senate election in Texas1946 United States Senate election in Utah1946 United States Senate election in Vermont1946 United States Senate election in Virginia1946 United States Senate election in Washington1946 United States Senate election in West Virginia1946 United States Senate election in Wisconsin1946 United States Senate election in Wyoming
1946 Senate election results

  Democratic gain   Democratic hold

  Republican gain   Republican hold
House elections
Overall controlRepublican gain
Seats contestedAll 435 voting seats
Popular vote marginRepublican +8.5%
Net seat changeRepublican +55
1946 House election results

  Democratic gain   Democratic hold

  Republican gain   Republican hold
Gubernatorial elections
Seats contested34
Net seat changeRepublican +3
1946 North Dakota gubernatorial election1946 New Jersey gubernatorial election1946 Alabama gubernatorial election1946 Arizona gubernatorial election1946 Arkansas gubernatorial election1946 California gubernatorial election1946 Colorado gubernatorial election1946 Connecticut gubernatorial election1946 Georgia gubernatorial election1946 Idaho gubernatorial election1946 Iowa gubernatorial election1946 Kansas gubernatorial election1946 Maine gubernatorial election1946 Maryland gubernatorial election1946 Massachusetts gubernatorial election1946 Michigan gubernatorial election1946 Minnesota gubernatorial election1946 Nebraska gubernatorial election1946 Nevada gubernatorial election1946 New Hampshire gubernatorial election1946 New Mexico gubernatorial election1946 New York gubernatorial election1946 Ohio gubernatorial election1946 Oklahoma gubernatorial election1946 Oregon gubernatorial election1946 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election1946 Rhode Island gubernatorial election1946 South Carolina gubernatorial election1946 South Dakota gubernatorial election1946 Tennessee gubernatorial election1946 Texas gubernatorial election1946 Vermont gubernatorial election1946 Wisconsin gubernatorial election1946 Wyoming gubernatorial election
1946 gubernatorial election results

  Democratic gain   Democratic hold

  Republican gain   Republican hold

Elections were held on November 5, 1946, and elected the members of the 80th United States Congress. In the first election taking place in the aftermath of World War II, the Democratic Party of incumbent President Harry S. Truman (who took office on April 12, 1945, upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt) suffered large losses to the Republican Party. After having been in the minority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate since 1932, the Republicans took control of both chambers.

This Republican wave reflected a public backlash against President Truman over post-war economic hardships (including the Recession of 1945), worsening relations with the Soviet Union, and Truman's handling of the United Auto Workers strike. Afterwards, Truman was widely expected to lose the 1948 United States presidential election, though he ultimately managed an upset victory over Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

Results

House of Representatives

Democrats lost fifty-four seats to the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, and Democrats also lost eleven seats to the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, allowing Republicans to take control of both chambers. A Progressive also lost a seat to a Republican.

In California, newcomer Richard Nixon defeated incumbent Democrat Jerry Voorhis. Nixon campaigned on such issues as price controls, housing, and labor-management relations, but gained his greatest publicity from attacks on Voorhis left-wing associations and policies.

Another future US president, John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, was also first elected to the House in this election.

Senate

In Mississippi, Senator Theodore G. Bilbo sought reelection to a third six-year term in the Democratic primary. He was under daily newspaper attack from Hodding Carter, one of the state's best-known political journalists and editors. Carter supported racial segregation but was a moderate on civil rights. His 1946 Pulitzer Prize for editorials on racial and religious tolerance as editor of the Greenville Delta Democrat Times had won him a national reputation. Bilbo narrowly won reelection with only 51% of the vote, but he died within a year.

In Georgia, white supremacy was the main theme as Eugene Talmadge was elected to a fourth term as governor. He had promoted purges of blacks from the voting lists in certain key Georgia counties.

Long term

The election stymied Truman's efforts to enact his Fair Deal policies and helped ensure the passage of the Taft–Hartley Act over his veto. However, Truman was still able to implement the Marshall Plan, the National Security Act of 1947, and other Cold War policies. Thomas E. Dewey's re-election as Governor of New York helped him earn the 1948 Republican nomination for president. Joseph McCarthy also won election as Senator from Wisconsin in 1946.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Three Class 1 seats held both regularly-scheduled elections and special elections in 1946.
  2. ↑ Republicans picked up eleven seats in the regularly-scheduled elections and picked up an additional seat in the special elections.
  3. ↑ "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives". United States House of Representatives. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present". United States Senate. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 5, 1946" (PDF). U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  6. ↑ Paul Bullock, "'Rabbits and Radicals' Richard Nixon's 1946 Campaign Against Jerry Voorhis." Southern California Quarterly 55.3 (1973): 319-359.
  7. ↑ Garry Boulard, 'The Man' vs. 'The Quisling': Theodore Bilbo, Hodding Carter and the 1946 Democratic Parimary," Journal of Mississippi History (1989), 51, 201-17.
  8. ↑ Joseph L. Bernd, "White supremacy and the disfranchisement of Blacks in Georgia, 1946." Georgia Historical Quarterly 66.4 (1982): 492-513. in JSTOR
  9. ↑ Busch, Andrew (1999). Horses in Midstream. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 159–164.

Further reading