United States Senate elections, 1896 and 1897

Dates vary by state

30 of the 90 seats in the U.S. Senate
(as well as special elections)
46 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Party	Republican	Democratic
Seats before	44	39
Seats won	15	7
Seats after	46	32
Seat change	2	7
Seats up	13	14

	Third party	Fourth party	Fifth party

Party	Populist	Silver Republican	Silver
Seats before	4	0	2
Seats won	3	2	1
Seats after	5	2	2
Seat change	1	2
Seats up	2	0	1

Majority Party before election

Republican

Elected Majority Party

Republican

The United States Senate elections of 1896 and 1897 were elections in which the Democratic Party lost seven seats in the United States Senate, mostly to smaller third parties.

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

Senate Party Division, 55th Congress (1897–1899)

In these elections, the winners were seated during 1896 or in 1897 before March 4; ordered by election date.

In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1897; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.

In these elections, the winners were elected in 1897 after March 4; ordered by date.

The election in New York was held on January 19, 1897 by the New York State Legislature. Democrat David B. Hill had been elected to this seat in 1891, and his term would expire on March 3, 1897. At the State election in November 1895, 36 Republicans and 14 Democrats were elected for a three-year term (1896-1898) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1896, 114 Republicans and 36 Democrats were elected for the session of 1897 to the Assembly. The 120th New York State Legislature met from January 6 to April 24, 1897, at Albany, New York.

The Republican caucus met on January 14. 149 State legislators attended, and State Senator Cornelius R. Parsons (43rd D.), Ex-Mayor of Rochester, presided. The caucus nominated the Republican boss Thomas C. Platt, who had been briefly a U.S. Senator in 1881, on the first ballot.

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Wikipedia