The 1942 United States elections were held on November 3, 1942, and elected the members of the

78th United States Congress The 78th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1943, ...

. In Democratic

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented third mid-term election, the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

picked up seats in both chambers. In the House of Representatives, the Democrats lost forty-five seats, mostly to Republicans. The House elections took place after the

1940 United States Census The United States census of 1940, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 122,775,046 people. The census date of record w ...

and the subsequent Congressional re-apportionment. The Democrats also lost eight seats to the Republicans in the U.S. Senate. An

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

also lost his seat to a Republican in the Senate. Despite Republican gains, the Democratic Party retained control of both chambers. The election was a victory for the

conservative coalition The conservative coalition, founded in 1937, was an unofficial alliance of members of the United States Congress which brought together the conservative wings of the Republican and Democratic parties to oppose President Franklin Delano Roosev ...

, which passed the Smith-Connally Act and abolished the National Resources Planning Board over the objections of Roosevelt. Despite the threat and propaganda of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, voter turnout was a mere 33.9%. This is in stark contrast to other warring and

Anglosphere The Anglosphere is a group of English-speaking nations that share historical and cultural ties with England, and which today maintain close political, diplomatic and military co-operation. While the nations included in different sources vary, t ...

nations during the period, with voting turnout being 71.1% in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

and 72.8% in 1945 in the UK; 69.9% in 1940 and 75.3% in 1945 for Canada, and 94.82% in 1940 and 95.13% in 1943 in Australia. This turnout was and still is historically low, with no other US biennial election yielding so small a turnout, although the 2014 elections remains a close second.

References

1942 United States midterm elections November 1942 events {{US-election-stub

See also

References