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All 242 seats to the United States House of Representatives 122 seats were needed for majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 27th Congress were held at various dates in different states from July 1840 to November 1841.
In a Whig wave, voters gave the Whig Party a House majority for the first time. Most Americans experienced the Panic of 1837 as a severe economic downturn. Its perceived mishandling by Democratic President Martin Van Buren fueled new support for alternative economic policies favored by Whigs of which voters had previously been skeptical. Collapse of the Anti-Masonic Party in the late 1830s also drove some third-party incumbents into the Whig Party. Newly elected members included Robert M. T. Hunter, Independent of Virginia,[1] and Zadoc Casey, Independent Democrat of Illinois.[2]
Election summaries
| 142 | 1 | 1 | 98 |
| Whig | I | ID | Democratic |
| State | Type | Date | Total seats |
Whig | Democratic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | Change | Seats | Change | ||||
| Louisiana | District | July 6–8, 1840 | 3 | 2 |  1
|
1 |  1
|
| Missouri | At-large | August 3, 1840 | 2 | 0 | 
|
2 |
|
| Illinois | District | August 7, 1840 | 3 | 1 |
|
2[Note 1] |
|
| Vermont | District | September 4, 1840 | 5 | 5 | 2
|
0 | 2
|
| Maine | District | September 14, 1840 | 8 | 4 | 2
|
4 | 2
|
| Arkansas | At-large | October 5, 1840 | 1 | 0 |
|
1 |
|
| Georgia | At-large | October 6, 1840 | 9 | 9 |
|
0 |
|
| South Carolina | District | October 12–13, 1840 | 9 | 1 |
|
8 |
|
| Ohio | District | October 13, 1840 | 19 | 12 | 4
|
7 | 4
|
| Pennsylvania | District (25[Note 2]) | October 13, 1840 | 28 | 13 | 8
|
15 | 2
|
| New York | District (33[Note 3]) | November 2–4, 1840 | 40 | 19 | 2
|
21 | 2
|
| Connecticut | District | November 3, 1840 | 6 | 6 |
|
0 |
|
| Michigan | At-large | November 3, 1840 | 1 | 1 | 1
|
0 | 1
|
| New Jersey | At-large | November 3, 1840 | 6 | 6 | 5
|
0 | 5
|
| Massachusetts | District | November 9, 1840 | 12 | 11 | 1
|
1 | 1
|
| Delaware | At-large | November 10, 1840 | 1 | 1 | 1
|
0 | 1
|
| 1841 elections | |||||||
| New Hampshire | At-large | March 9, 1841 | 5 | 0 |
|
5 |
|
| Rhode Island | At-large | April 21, 1841 | 2 | 2 |
|
0 |
|
| Virginia[Note 4] | District | April 23, 1841 | 21[Note 4] | 10 | 3
|
10 | 2
|
| Kentucky | District | April 26, 1841 | 13 | 11 |
|
2 |
|
| Indiana | District | May 3, 1841 | 7 | 6 | 4
|
1 | 4
|
| Tennessee | District | May 6, 1841 | 13 | 8 | 1
|
5 | 1
|
| North Carolina | District | May 13, 1841 | 13 | 8 | 3
|
5 | 3
|
| Maryland | District (7[Note 5]) | May 17, 1841 | 8 | 6 | 3
|
2 | 3
|
| Alabama | At-large[Note 6] | May 20, 1841 | 5 | 0 | 2
|
5 | 2
|
| Mississippi | At-large | November 1–2, 1841 | 2 | 0 |
|
2 |
|
| Total | 242 | 142 59.5% |
33
|
99[Note 1] 40.9% |
26
| ||
The previous election had two minor parties, the Anti-Masonic Party with 6 seats and the Conservative Party (of Virginia) with 2 seats, both of which disappeared in this election.
The 1st session of the 27th Congress began May 31, 1841, before Mississippi had elected Representatives, leaving that State unrepresented until the 2nd session.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Including one Independent Democrat elected to IL-02.
- ^ Includes 3 plural districts
- ^ Includes 5 plural districts
- ^ a b Robert M. T. Hunter was elected as an Independent to VA-09, and so is not included in the figures here. Hunter had previously run in earlier elections as a Whig.
- ^ Includes 1 plural district
- ^ Changed from district
References
Bibliography
- Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998). United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0786402830.
- Martis, Kenneth C. (January 1, 1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0029201701.
- Moore, John L., ed. (1994). Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (Third ed.). Congressional Quarterly Inc. ISBN 978-0871879967.
- "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
External links
- Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)
This page was last edited on 4 August 2019, at 17:46