United States Senate elections, 1930 and 1931

← 1928

November 4, 1930

1932 / 1933 →

32 of the 96 seats in the United States Senate
49 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	James Watson	Joseph Robinson
Party	Republican	Democratic
Leader's seat	Indiana	Arkansas
Seats before	56	39
Seats after	50	45
Seat change	6	6
Seats up	19	13
Races won	13	19

	Third party

Party	Farmer–Labor
Last election	1 seat
Seats before	1
Seats won	1
Seat change
Seats up	0
Races won	0

Results including special elections
Democratic gain Republican gain
Democratic hold Republican hold

Majority Leader before election

James Watson
Republican

Elected Majority Leader

James Watson
Republican

The United States Senate elections of 1930 and 1931 occurred in the middle of Republican President Herbert Hoover's term. With the Great Depression beginning to take hold, Republican incumbents became unpopular, and Democrats picked up a net of eight seats, erasing the Republican gains from the previous election cycle. Republicans retained control of the chamber since Vice President Charles Curtis cast the tie-breaking vote.

This was the first of four consecutive Senate elections in the Depression in which Democrats made enormous gains, achieving a cumulative pick-up of 34 seats.

In Louisiana, Democratic Senator-elect Huey Long chose not to take his Senate seat until January 25, 1932 so he could remain as Governor of Louisiana. The Republicans therefore retained the plurality of seats at the beginning of the next Congress. With Vice President Charles Curtis (R) able to cast tie-breaking votes, the Republicans would have majority control with their 48 of the 96 seats. That slim control was further weakened in the last months of the next Congress with several mid-term seat changes.

In Minnesota, Henrik Shipstead was not up for election in 1930. He was a former Republican who became a Farmer–Laborite in 1922. Although the Farmer–Laborites would later merge with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (in 1944), Shipstead and his contemporaries were not aligned with either major party. He would later rejoin the party in 1940.

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Wikipedia