United States Senate elections, 1856 and 1857

Various dates

21 of the 62 seats in the United States Senate (with special elections)
32 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Party	Democratic	Republican	Whig
Last election	33 seats	3 seats	20 seats
Seats before	37	11	8
Seats won	9	10	0
Seats after	34	15	3
Seat change	3	7	5
Seats up	12	3	5

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Party	Know Nothing	Free Soil
Last election	1 seat	2 seats
Seats before	1	2
Seats won	1	0
Seats after	2	1
Seat change	1	1
Seats up	0	1

Majority Party before election

Democratic Party

Elected Majority Party

Democratic Party

The United States Senate elections of 1856 and 1857 were elections which had the young Republican Party assume its position as one of the United States's two main political parties. The Whigs and Free Soilers were gone by the time the next Congress began.

As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures.

Senate Party Division, 35th Congress (1857-1859)

After the January 14, 1856 special election in Pennsylvania.

In these elections, the winners were seated during 1856 or in 1857 before March 4; ordered by election date.

In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1857; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 1 seats.

In these elections, the winners were elected in 1857 after March 4; ordered by election date.

The New York election was held February 3, 1857, by the New York State Legislature. Whig Hamilton Fish had been elected in 1851 to this seat, and his term would expire on March 3, 1857.

In 1855, the Whig Party and the Anti-Nebraska Party merged in New York to form the Republican Party.

At the State election in November 1855, 16 Republicans, 11 Americans, 4 Democrats and 1 Temperance man were elected for a two-year term (1856-1857) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1856, 81 Republicans, 31 Democrats and 8 Americans were elected to the Assembly for the session of 1857. The 80th New York State Legislature met from January 6 to April 18, 1857, at Albany, New York.

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