United States House of Representatives elections, 1934

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November 6, 1934

1936 →

All 435 seats to the United States House of Representatives
218 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Joseph Byrns	Bertrand Snell
Party	Democratic	Republican
Leader's seat	Tennessee-5th	New York-31st
Last election	313 seats	117 seats
Seats won	322	103
Seat change	9	14

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Merlin Hull	Paul Kvale
Party	Progressive	Farmer–Labor
Leader's seat	Wisconsin-9th	Minnesota-7th
Last election	0 seats	5 seats
Seats won	7	3
Seat change	7	2

Speaker before election

Henry Rainey
Democratic

Elected Speaker

Jo Byrns
Democratic

Henry Rainey
Democratic

Jo Byrns
Democratic

The 1934 United States House of Representatives elections were held in the middle of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term. The Democratic Party continued its progress, gaining another 9 net seats from the opposition Republican Party, who also lost seats to the Progressive Party. The Republicans were reduced below one-fourth of the chamber for the first time since the creation of the party. The Wisconsin Progressive Party, a liberal group which allied with the Democrats, also became a force in Wisconsin politics.

The 1934 elections can be seen as a referendum on New Deal policies. While conservatives and people among the middle class who did not bear the brunt of the depression saw New Deal programs as radical, ordinary people overwhelmingly voted in this election cycle to continue implementation of Roosevelt's agenda. In addition, this was the first time in modern history that the President's party gained seats in a midterm year when historically the party usually loses seats. (This wouldn't happen again until 1998 and 2002.)

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

One special election was held apart from those in November. The elected winner would serve only the remainder of the incumbent Congress.

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