United States Senate elections, 1880 and 1881

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

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

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Party	Republican	Democratic	Readjuster
Seats before	32	42	0
Seats won	15	9	1
Seats after	37	37	1
Seat change	5	5	1
Seats up	10	14	0

	Fourth party	Fifth party

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

Majority Party before election

Democratic

Elected Majority Party

Republican

Democratic

Republican

The United States Senate elections of 1880 and 1881 were elections that conicided with the presidential election of 1880, and had the Democratic Party lose five seats in the United States Senate. The newly elected Readjuster senator caucused with the Republicans, and the Republican Vice President's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the slightest majority. All of that changed September 19, 1881 when the Vice President ascended to the Presidency and the Senate became evenly-divided.

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

Senate Party Division, 47th Congress (1881–1883)

In these elections, the winners were seated during 1880 or in 1881 before March 4; ordered by election date.

In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1881; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 1 seats.

In these elections, the winners were elected in 1881 after March 4; ordered by date.

On January 12, 1881, James Graham Fair (Republican) was elected.

The New York election was held January 18, 1881, by the New York State Legislature. Democrat Francis Kernan had been elected in January 1875 to this seat, and his term would expire on March 3, 1881. At the State election in November 1879, 25 Republicans and 7 Democrats were elected for a two-year term (1880-1881) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1880, 81 Republicans and 47 Democrats were elected for the session of 1881 to the Assembly. The 104th State Legislature met from January 4, 1881, on at Albany, New York.

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