35 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate 51 seats needed for a majority
Majority party
Minority party
Leader
George Mitchell
Bob Dole
Party
Democratic
Republican
Leader since
January 3, 1989
January 3, 1985
Leader's seat
Maine
Kansas
Seats before
55
45
Seats after
56
44
Seat change
1
1
Popular vote
17,907,544[a]
16,494,624[a]
Percentage
51.1%
47.1%
Seats up
17
18
Races won
18
17
Results of the elections: Democratic gain Democratic hold Republican hold No election
Majority Leader before election
George Mitchell
Democratic
Elected Majority Leader
George Mitchell
Democratic
The 1990 United States Senate elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 1990, with the 33 seats of Class 2 contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. The Democratic Party increased its majority with a net gain of one seat from the Republican Party. The election cycle took place in the middle of President George H. W. Bush's term, and, as with most other midterm elections, the party not holding the presidency gained seats in Congress. Until 2022, this had been the only election cycle where only one U.S. Senate seat flipped parties.
These elections, along with 2022, featured the smallest seat change in history since the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913 with only one seat changing parties. That election featured Democrat Paul Wellstone defeating incumbent Republican Rudy Boschwitz in Minnesota. To date, this is the last cycle in which Democratic candidates won U.S. Senate elections in Oklahoma and Tennessee.
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