1938 United States elections

The 1938 United States elections were held on November 8, 1938, in the middle of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term. The Democratic Party lost 72 seats, mostly to the Republican Party, in the House of Representatives. The Democrats also lost seven seats to the Republicans in the U.S. Senate.[3]

1938 United States elections

Midterm elections
Election day	November 8
Incumbent president	Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
Next Congress	76th
Senate elections
Overall control	Democratic Hold
Seats contested	36 of 96 seats (32 Class 3 seats + 6 special elections)[1]
Net seat change	Republican +8[2]
1938 Senate election results   Democratic gain   Democratic hold   Republican gain   Republican hold
House elections
Overall control	Democratic Hold
Seats contested	All 435 voting seats
Popular vote margin	Democratic +1.2%
Net seat change	Republican +81
Gubernatorial elections
Seats contested	33
Net seat change	Republican +12
1938 gubernatorial election results   Democratic gain   Democratic hold   Republican gain   Republican hold

The election was a defeat for Roosevelt, as the conservative coalition (an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats) took control of Congress and stymied Roosevelt's domestic agenda. Roosevelt had campaigned openly against members of his own party who had not supported the New Deal, but Roosevelt's preferred candidates met with little success across the country. The election took place in the aftermath of the recession of 1937–38 and the defeat of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 ("the court-packing plan"), and President Roosevelt was at the nadir of his popularity. Republicans picked up Congressional seats for the first time since the start of the Great Depression, and few new major domestic programs became law until the advent of the Great Society in the 1960s.[4]