United States Senate elections, 1878 and 1879

Dates vary by state
(And other dates for special elections)

26 of the 76 seats in the United States Senate (with special elections)
39 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Party	Democratic	Republican
Seats before	36	38
Seats won	14	10
Seats after	42	31
Seat change	6	7
Seats up	8	17

	Third party	Fourth party

Party	Anti-Monopoly	Independent
Seats before	1	1
Seats won	0	0
Seats after	1	1
Seat change
Seats up	0	0

Majority Party before election

Republican

Elected Majority Party

Democratic

Republican

Democratic

The United States Senate elections of 1878 and 1879 were elections which had the Democratic Party retake control of the United States Senate for the first time since before the Civil War.

As these elections were prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures.

Senate Party Division, 46th Congress (1879–1881)

In these elections, the winners were seated in 1879 before March 4; ordered by election date.

In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1885; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.

In this election, the winner was elected in 1879 after March 4.

In New York, the election was held on January 21, 1879, by the New York State Legislature. Republican Roscoe Conkling had been re-elected in January 1873 to this seat, and his term would expire on March 3, 1879. At the State election in November 1877, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats were elected for a two-year term (1878-1879) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1878, 97 Republicans, 28 Democrats and 3 Greenbackers were elected for the session of 1879 to the Assembly, and Republican Thomas Murphy was elected to fill the vacancy in the State Senate caused by the death of Democrat John Morrissey. The 102nd New York State Legislature met from January 7 to May 22, 1879, at Albany, New York.

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Wikipedia