1942 United States House of Representatives elections information
House elections for the 78th U.S. Congress
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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^ abcJames A. Hagerty (November 3, 1942). "Only 65% of Vote is Likely Today". The New York Times.
^Harding, John (1944). "The 1942 Congressional Elections". American Political Science Review. 38 (1): 41–58. doi:10.2307/1949422. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1949422. S2CID 147042082.
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