United States Senate elections, 1956

November 6, 1956

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

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Lyndon Johnson	Bill Knowland
Party	Democratic	Republican
Leader's seat	Texas	California
Last election	48 seats	47 seats
Seats before	49	47
Seats won	49	47
Seat change
Popular vote	22,199,789	21,248,822
Percentage	50.6%	48.5%
Swing	4.9%	5.5%

Republican hold

Republican gain(s)

Democratic hold

Democratic gain

Majority Leader before election

Lyndon Johnson
Democratic

Elected Majority Leader

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

The U.S. Senate election, 1956 was an election for the United States Senate which coincided with the re-election of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The party balance of the chamber remained unchanged as Republican and Democratic gains cancelled each other.

Change in Senate composition

Senate composition before the elections

D₄₈	D₄₇	D₄₆	D₄₅	D₄₄	D₄₃	D₄₂	D₄₁	D₄₀	D₃₉
D₈	D₇	D₆	D₅	D₄	D₃	D₂	D₁
D₉	D₁₀	D₁₁	D₁₂	D₁₃	D₁₄	D₁₅	D₁₆	D₁₇	D₁₈
D₂₈	D₂₇	D₂₆	D₂₅	D₂₄	D₂₃	D₂₂	D₂₁	D₂₀	D₁₉
D₂₉	D₃₀	D₃₁	D₃₂	D₃₃	D₃₄	D₃₅	D₃₆	D₃₇	D₃₈
D₄₉	← Majority
R₄₇	R₄₆	R₄₅	R₄₄	R₄₃	R₄₂	R₄₁	R₄₀	R₃₉
R₂₉	R₃₀	R₃₁	R₃₂	R₃₃	R₃₄	R₃₅	R₃₆	R₃₇	R₃₈
R₂₈	R₂₇	R₂₆	R₂₅	R₂₄	R₂₃	R₂₂	R₂₁	R₂₀	R₁₉
R₉	R₁₀	R₁₁	R₁₂	R₁₃	R₁₄	R₁₅	R₁₆	R₁₇	R₁₈
R₈	R₇	R₆	R₅	R₄	R₃	R₂	R₁

Senate composition as a result of the elections

D₄₈+	D₄₇+	D₄₆+	D₄₅O	D₄₄O	D₄₃√	D₄₂√	D₄₁√	D₄₀√	D₃₉√
D₈	D₇	D₆	D₅	D₄	D₃	D₂	D₁
D₉	D₁₀	D₁₁	D₁₂	D₁₃	D₁₄	D₁₅	D₁₆	D₁₇	D₁₈
D₂₈	D₂₇	D₂₆	D₂₅	D₂₄	D₂₃	D₂₂	D₂₁	D₂₀	D₁₉
D₂₉	D₃₀	D₃₁	D₃₂√	D₃₃√	D₃₄√	D₃₅√	D₃₆√	D₃₇√	D₃₈√
D₄₉+	← Majority
R₄₇+	R₄₆+	R₄₅+	R₄₄+	R₄₃√	R₄₂√	R₄₁√	R₄₀√	R₃₉√
R₂₉	R₃₀	R₃₁√	R₃₂√	R₃₃√	R₃₄√	R₃₅√	R₃₆√	R₃₇√	R₃₈√
R₂₈	R₂₇	R₂₆	R₂₅	R₂₄	R₂₃	R₂₂	R₂₁	R₂₀	R₁₉
R₉	R₁₀	R₁₁	R₁₂	R₁₃	R₁₄	R₁₅	R₁₆	R₁₇	R₁₈
R₈	R₇	R₆	R₅	R₄	R₃	R₂	R₁

Key:

D	Democratic
R	Republican

√	Incumbent re-elected or appointee elected to finish term
O	Party hold: New senator elected from same party
+	Party gain: New senator elected from different party

Gains and losses

Democrats defeated incumbents Herman Welker (R-ID), George H. Bender (R-OH), and James H. Duff (R-PA), as well as winning a Republican-held seat in Colorado. Republicans defeated incumbent Earle C. Clements (D-KY) as well as winning Democratic-held seats in Kentucky, New York, and West Virginia.

Thus, this election caused Kentucky's U.S. Senate delegation to change from two Democrats to two Republicans.

Subsequent changes

During the next Congress, Republican John D. Hoblitzell, Jr. was appointed to the seat of deceased Senator Matthew M. Neely (D-WV), and Democrat William Proxmire won a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI). Also, Price Daniel (D-TX) left the Senate to become governor of Texas, and Democrat Ralph Yarborough won a special election for that Senate seat. The net result was to leave the party balance unchanged.

Complete list of races

Key: Bold states indicate separate article on that race. Bold candidates indicate winner.

State	Incumbent	Party	Result	Candidates
Alabama	Lister Hill	Democratic	Re-elected	Lister Hill (Democratic) Unopposed
Arizona	Carl Hayden	Democratic	Re-elected	Carl Hayden (Democratic) 61.4% Ross F. Jones (Republican) 38.6%
Arkansas	J. William Fulbright	Democratic	Re-elected	J. William Fulbright (Democratic) 83.0% Ben C. Henley (Republican) 17.0%
California	Thomas H. Kuchel	Republican	Re-elected	Thomas H. Kuchel (Republican) 54.0% Richard Richards (Democratic) 45.6% Ray Gourley (Prohibition) 0.4%
Colorado	Eugene D. Millikin	Republican	Retired Democratic gain	John A. Carroll (Democratic) 50.2% Dan Thornton (Republican) 49.8%
Connecticut	Prescott S. Bush	Republican	Re-elected	Prescott S. Bush (Republican) 54.8% Thomas J. Dodd (Democratic) 43.1%
Florida	George A. Smathers	Democratic	Re-elected	George A. Smathers (Democratic) Unopposed
Georgia	Walter F. George	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	Herman E. Talmadge (Democratic) Unopposed
Idaho	Herman Welker	Republican	Lost re-election Democratic gain	Frank Church (Democratic) 56.2% Herman Welker (Republican) 38.7%
Illinois	Everett M. Dirksen	Republican	Re-elected	Everett M. Dirksen (Republican) 54.1% W. Richard Stengel^[1] (Democratic) 45.7%
Indiana	Homer E. Capehart	Republican	Re-elected	Homer E. Capehart (Republican) 55.2% Claude R. Wickard (Democratic) 44.4%
Iowa	Bourke B. Hickenlooper	Republican	Re-elected	Bourke B. Hickenlooper (Republican) 53.9% R. M. Evans (Democratic) 46.1%
Kansas	Frank Carlson	Republican	Re-elected	Frank Carlson (Republican) 57.9% George Hart (Democratic) 40.5%
Kentucky	Earle C. Clements	Democratic	Lost re-election Republican gain	Thruston Morton (Republican) 50.4% Earle C. Clements (Democratic) 49.7%
Kentucky Special: Class 2	Robert Humphreys	Democratic	Appointee retired Winner elected to finish term ending January 3, 1961 Republican gain	John S. Cooper (Republican) 53.2% Lawrence W. Wetherby (Democratic) 46.8%
Louisiana	Russell B. Long	Democratic	Re-elected	Russell B. Long (Democratic) Unopposed
Maryland	John M. Butler	Republican	Re-elected	John M. Butler (Republican) 53.0% George P. Mahoney (Democratic) 47.0%
Missouri	Thomas C. Hennings, Jr.	Democratic	Re-elected	Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. (Democratic) 56.4% Herbert Douglas (Republican) 43.6%
Nevada	Alan Bible	Democratic	Re-elected	Alan Bible (Democratic) 52.6% Cliff Young (Republican) 47.4%
New Hampshire	Norris Cotton	Republican	Re-elected	Norris Cotton (Republican) 64.1% Laurence M. Pickett (Democratic) 35.9%
New York	Herbert H. Lehman	Democratic	Retired Republican gain	Jacob K. Javits (Republican) 53.3% Robert F. Wagner, Jr. (Democratic) 46.7%
North Carolina	Sam J. Ervin, Jr.	Democratic	Re-elected	Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (Democratic) 66.6% Joel A. Johnson (Republican) 33.4%
North Dakota	Milton R. Young	Republican	Re-elected	Milton R. Young (Republican) 63.6% Quentin N. Burdick (Democratic) 36.0%
Ohio	George H. Bender	Republican	Lost re-election Democratic gain	Frank J. Lausche (Democratic) 52.9% George H. Bender (Republican) 47.1%
Oklahoma	A. S. Mike Monroney	Democratic	Re-elected	A. S. Mike Monroney (Democratic) 55.4% Douglas McKeever (Republican) 44.7%
Oregon	Wayne Morse	Democratic	Re-elected	Wayne Morse (Democratic) 54.2% Douglas McKay (Republican) 45.8%
Pennsylvania	James H. Duff	Republican	Lost re-election Democratic gain	Joseph S. Clark (Democratic) 50.1% James H. Duff (Republican) 49.7%
South Carolina	Olin B. Johnston	Democratic	Re-elected	Olin B. Johnston (Democratic) Unopposed
South Carolina Special: Class 2	Thomas A. Wofford	Democratic	Appointee retired Winner elected to finish term ending January 3, 1961 Democratic hold	Strom Thurmond (Democratic) Unopposed
South Dakota	Francis Case	Republican	Re-elected	Francis Case (Republican) 50.8% Kenneth Holum (Democratic) 49.2%
Utah	Wallace F. Bennett	Republican	Re-elected	Wallace F. Bennett (Republican) 54.0% Alonzo F. Hopkin (Democratic) 46.0%
Vermont	George D. Aiken	Republican	Re-elected	George D. Aiken (Republican) 66.4% Bernard G. O'Shea (Democratic) 33.6%
Washington	Warren G. Magnuson	Democratic	Re-elected	Warren G. Magnuson (Democratic) 61.1% Arthur B. Langlie (Republican) 38.9%
West Virginia Special: Class 1	William R. Laird, III	Democratic	Appointee retired Winner elected to finish term ending January 3, 1959 Republican gain	Chapman Revercomb (Republican) 53.7% William C. Marland (Democratic) 46.3%
Wisconsin	Alexander Wiley	Republican	Re-elected	Alexander Wiley (Republican) 58.6% Henry W. Maier (Democratic) 41.2%

References

↑ W. (William) Richard Stengel was an Illinois lawyer, state legislator and (after his loss to Dirksen) Rock Island County State's attorney and an Illinois judge. He died in 1994.