1948 United States Senate elections

Common card · No. 246659

The 1948 United States Senate elections were held concurrently with the election of Democratic President Harry S. Truman for a full term. The 32 seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections, and one special election was held to fill a vacancy. Truman campaigned against an "obstructionist" Congress that had blocked many of his initiatives, and additionally, the U.S. economy had recovered from the post-World War II Recession of 1945 by election day. The decline in government spending at the end of World War II had led to an enormous drop in gross domestic product, making this technically a recession. This was the result of demobilization and the shift from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. The post-war years were unusual in a number of ways (unemployment was never high), and this era may be considered a "sui generis end-of-the-war recession". Thus, Truman was rewarded with a Democratic gain of nine seats in the Senate, enough to give them control of the chamber. This was the...

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