Introduction
Democrats had made even more gains in the 1936 election, gaining 12 seats for a total of 334. The Republicans, losing to both Democrats and left-leaning third parties, had declined to only 88 seats. Following Roosevelt’s overwhelming re-election, some wondered if the Republicans would decline into irrelevance in the aftermath. Instead, Democratic fortunes began to decline for several reasons. First, a brief recession in mid-1938 briefly undermined the ongoing recovery from the Great Depression, in part because the president was still trying to fulfill an early campaign promise to keep deficit spending down and wasn’t persuaded to deficit spend in the Keynesian fashion until the election was nearly upon him. Political moderates were also off-put by Roosevelt’s floating of a plan to add new seats to the Supreme Court after several rulings against New Deal programs by that body, viewing it as a partisan overreach (it didn’t help that the strongest advocate of the program in Congress was Sen. Joseph Robinson of Arkansas, a short-tempered liberal with a reputation, deserved or not, as a party hack). Roosevelt also tried, without much success to defeat anti-New Deal conservative Democrats in primaries (including Walter F. George of Georgia, Millard Tydings of Maryland, and Ellison Smith of South Carolina). This intra-party struggle plus the very large number of marginal seats held by the Democrats meant that most were predicting Republican gains.
Overall Results
Democrats lost 72 seats, their first overall loss of seats since 1928, falling to 262 seats. Republicans suffered no losses at all, with all of their retiring members replaced by other Republicans, rising to 169. The left-leaning independents also lost ground to Republicans, with the Wisconsin-based Progressive Party dropping from 8 seats to 2, and the Minnesota-based Farmer-Labor Party declining from 5 seats to just one. One Democrat was defeated by a left-wing independent in New York. This was the second-largest number of seats lost in the 20th century that did not result in a change in control of the House (the largest had been in 1922). Ohio had the largest number of Democratic seats switching, at a staggering 13. Pennsylvania had the second most at 12, although this still left Pennsylvania Democrats in a better position than they had been in 1932 due to local political realignments. Most Democratic losses were in the upper midwest and the small-town northeast, areas of traditional Republican strength. Democrats generally held onto seats in the west and in large cities, which combined with the southern seats was still enough for a large majority despite the losses.
Somewhat under half of the candidates who failed of re-election were freshmen (29 overall). The longest-serving incumbent defeated was a Democrat first elected in 1922. Most of the Democratic losses were seats that were gained between 1932 and 1936. All third-party losses were to Republicans.
Miscellaneous Notes
One Pennsylvania Democrat lost his primary and ran as an independent, while one New York Democrat switched parties to Republican during the nomination process. In both cases, the new Democratic nominee was victorious, so no party change on either seat resulted from this peculiar situation.
Open Seats Flipping From Democratic to Republican
California 11th: John McGroarty (D) retired to run for California Secretary of State, was replaced by Carl Hinshaw (R)
California 16th: John Dockweiler (D) retired to run for governor, was replaced by Leland Ford (R)
Idaho 2nd: David Clark (D) retired to run for U.S. Senate, was replaced by Henry Dworshak (R)
Indiana 3rd: Samuel Pettengill (D) retired, was replaced by Robert Grant (R)
Iowa 1st: Edward Eicher (D) retired, was replaced by Thomas Martin (R)
Iowa 7th: Otha Wearin (D) retired to run for U.S. Senate, was replaced by Ben Jensen (R)
New Jersey 9th: Edward Kenney (D) died in office, was replaced by Frank Osmers (R)
Ohio 4th: Frank Kloeb (D) resigned to become U.S. District Court Judge, was replaced by Robert Jones (R)
Ohio At-Large A: Harold Mosier (D) lost the Democratic primary, his replacement lost to George Bender (R)
Pennsylvania 29th: Charles Crosby (D) lost the Democratic primary, his replacement lost to Robert Rodgers (R)
Rhode Island 2nd: John O’Connell (D) retired, was replaced by Harry Sandager (R)
South Dakota 1st: Fred Hildebrandt (D) retired to run for U.S. Senate, was replaced by Karl Mundt (R)
Wisconsin 4th: Raymond Cannon (D) lost the Democratic primary, his replacement lost to John Schafer (R)
Democrats Defeated in the General Election
California 8th: John McGrath (D) was defeated by Jack Anderson (R)
California 18th: Byron Scott (D) was defeated by Thomas Eaton (R)
Connecticut 1st: Herman Kopplemann (D) was defeated by William Miller (R)
Connecticut 2nd: William Fitzgerald (D) was defeated by Thomas Ball (R)
Connecticut 4th: Alfred Philips (D) was defeated by Albert Austin (R)
Connecticut At-Large: William Citron (D) was defeated by B.J. Monkiewicz (R)
Delaware At-Large: William Allen (D) was defeated by George Williams (R)
Illinois 14th: Chester Thompson (D) was defeated by Anton Johnson (R)
Illinois 15th: Lewis Boyer (D) was defeated by Robert Chiperfield (R)
Illinois 18th: James Meeks (D) was defeated by Jessie Sumner (R)
Illinois 19th: Hugh Rigney (D) was defeated by William Wheat (R)
Indiana 4th: James Farley (D) was defeated by George Gillie (R)
Indiana 5th: Glenn Griswold (D) was defeated by Forest Harness (R)
Indiana 6th: Virginia Jenckes (D) was defeated by Noble Johnson (R)
Indiana 7th: Arthur Greenwood (D) was defeated by Gerald Landis (R)
Indiana 10th: Finly Gray (D) was defeated by Raymond Springer (R)
Iowa 4th: Fred Bierman (D) was defeated by Henry Talle (R)
Kansas 3rd: Edward Patterson (D) was defeated by Thomas Winter (R)
Michigan 6th: Andrew Transue (D) was defeated by William Blackney (R)
Michigan 11th: John Luecke (D) was defeated by Frederick Bradley (R)
Michigan 13th: George O’Brien (D) was defeated by Clarence McLeod (R)
Montana 1st: Jerry O’Connell (D) was defeated by Jacob Thorkelson (R)
Nebraska 1st: Henry Luckey (D) was defeated by George Heinke (R)
Nebraska 4th: Charles Binderup (D) was defeated by Carl Curtis (R)
New Hampshire 1st: Alphonse Roy (D) was defeated by Arthur Jenks (R)
New Jersey 2nd: Elmer Wene (D) was defeated by Walter Jeffries (R)
New Jersey 11th: Edward O’Neill (D) was defeated by Albert Vreeland (R)
New Jersey 12th: Frank Towey (D) was defeated by Robert Kean (R)
New York 20th: James Lanzetta (D) was defeated by Vito Marcantonio (American Labor)
New York 38th: George Kelly (D) was defeated by Joseph O’Brien (R)
New York 41st: Alfred Beiter (D) was defeated by J. Francis Harter (R)
Ohio 1st: Joseph Dixon (D) was defeated by Charles Elston (R)
Ohio 2nd: Herbert Bigelow (D) was defeated by William Hess (R)
Ohio 3rd: Byron Harlan (D) was defeated by Harry Routzohn (R)
Ohio 5th: Frank Kniffin (D) was defeated by Cliff Clevenger (R)
Ohio 7th: Arthur Aleshire (D) was defeated by Clarence Brown (R)
Ohio 8th: Thomas Fletcher (D) was defeated by Frederick Smith (R)
Ohio 12th: Arthur Lamneck (D) was defeated by John Vorys (D)
Ohio 16th: William Thom (D) was defeated by James Seccombe (R)
Ohio 18th: Lawrence Imhoff (D) was defeated by Earl Lewis (R)
Ohio 22nd: Anthony Fleger (D) was defeated by Chester Bolton (R)
Ohio At-Large B: John McSweeney (D) was defeated by L.L. Marshall (R)
Oregon 3rd: Nan Honeyman (D) was defeated by Homer Angell (R)
Pennsylvania 5th: Frank Dorsey (D) was defeated by Fred Gartner (R)
Pennsylvania 7th: Ira Drew (D) was defeated by George Darrow (R)
Pennsylvania 9th: Oliver Frey (D) was defeated by George Gerlach (R)
Pennsylvania 13th: James Gildea (D) was defeated by Ivor Fenton (R)
Pennsylvania 19th: Guy Swope (D) was defeated by John Kunkel (R)
Pennsylvania 22nd: Harry Haines (D) was defeated by Chester Gross (R)
Pennsylvania 23rd: Don Gingery (D) was defeated by James Van Zandt (R)
Pennsylvania 26th: Charles Eckert (D) was defeated by Louis Graham (R)
Pennsylvania 27th: Joseph Gray (D) was defeated by Harve Tibbott (R)
Pennsylvania 30th: Peter DeMuth (D) was defeated by Robert Corbett (R)
Pennsylvania 31st: James Quinn (D) was defeated by John McDowell (R)
Rhode Island 1st: Aime Forand (D) was defeated by Charles Risk (R)
West Virginia 1st: Robert Ramsay (D) was defeated by A.C. Schiffler (R)
Wisconsin 5th: Thomas O’Malley (D) was defeated by Lewis Thill (R)
Wisconsin 6th: Michael Reilly (D) was defeated by Frank Keefe (R)
Wyoming At-Large: Paul Greever (D) was defeated by Frank Horton (R)
Open Seats Flipping from Independent to Republican
Wisconsin 1st: Thomas Amlie (Progressive) retired to run for U.S. Senate, was replaced by Stephen Bolles (R)
Independents Defeated in the General Election
Minnesota 3rd: Henry Teigan (Farmer-Labor) was defeated by John Alexander (R)
Minnesota 5th: Dewey Johnson (Farmer-Labor) was defeated by Oscar Youngdahl (R)
Minnesota 7th: Paul Kvale (Farmer-Labor) was defeated by H. Carl Andersen (R)
Minnesota 8th: John Bernard (Farmer-Labor) was defeated by William Pittenger (R)
Wisconsin 2nd: Harry Sauthoff (Progressive) was defeated by Charles Hawks (R)
Wisconsin 3rd: Gardner Withrow (Progressive) was defeated by Harry Griswold (R)
Wisconsin 7th: Gerald Boileau (Progressive) was defeated by Reid Murray (R)
Wisconsin 8th: George Schneider (Progressive) was defeated by Joshua Johns (R)
The Aftermath
The pace of New Deal legislation slowed in the 76th Congress, as southern conservatives in the Democrats gained more leverage over the caucus. Many of the landmark bills passed in this Congress increasingly had to do with the worsening situation overseas, as World War II began in September 1939, and Japan had declared war on China the year before. The Hatch Act (prohibiting many forms of political activity by government employees) was the main lasting domestic legislation signed into law. The controversial Alien Registration Act and the less contested Selective Training and Service Act were meant as pre-emptive warnings to potential foreign agents attempting to influence the United States in the years before it joined World War II. The Alien Registration Act was initially used mainly to detain fascist sympathizers, but in the years after the war was sometimes abused to harass suspected communists, many of whom had their convictions thrown out on appeal.
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1934
1930
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1922