1946 United States House of Representatives elections

The 1946 United States House of Representatives elections were elections for the United States House of Representatives to elect members to serve in the 80th United States Congress. They were held for the most part on November 5, 1946, while Maine held theirs on September 9. November 1946 was 19 months after President Harry S. Truman assumed office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

While Democrats had controlled the House for 16 years since 1931 and Roosevelt had been elected to a record four terms in office, Truman did not garner the same support as the deceased president. The 1946 election resulted in Republicans picking up 55 seats to win majority control. Joseph Martin, Republican of Massachusetts, became Speaker of the House, exchanging places with Sam Rayburn, Democrat of Texas, who became the new Minority Leader. The Democratic defeat was the largest since they were trounced in the 1928 pro-Republican wave that had seen Herbert Hoover elected president. They also lost the Senate in the concurrent Senate elections.

The vote was largely seen as a referendum on Truman, whose approval rating had sunk to 32 percent over the president's controversial handling of a wave of post-war labor strikes, including a United Auto Workers strike against Ford and General Motors in 1945, a United Mine Workers strike starting in April 1946, and a national railroad worker strike that began in May. Further damage resulted from the back-and-forth over whether to end wartime price controls, unpopular with the American business constituency, to handle shortages, particularly in meat and other foodstuffs. While Truman's early months in the White House had been plagued with questions of "What would Roosevelt do if he were alive?" Republicans now began to joke "What would Truman do if he were alive?" and "To err is Truman." However, the Republican majority was short-lived, as Democrats regained control of the House two years later. With exception of the 1952 election, it took the GOP 48 years later to retake the House, with the Republican Revolution against Bill Clinton, who was born in 1946.

Overall results

Republican	AL	Democratic

Party	Total
seats	Change	Seat
percentage	Popular
vote	Vote
percentage	Totals	435	100.0%	34,410,324	100.0%
	Republican Party	246	55	56.5%	18,422,363	53.5%
	Democratic Party	188	54	43.2%	15,491,113	45.0%
	American Labor Party	1		0.2%	196,866	0.6%
	Independent	0		0.0%	77,425	0.2%
	Liberal Party	0		0.0%	61,111	0.2%
	Prohibition Party	0		0.0%	47,792	0.1%
	Socialist Party	0		0.0%	38,307	0.1%
	J. Veterans Party	0		0.0%	9,791
	U. Citizens Party	0		0.0%	5,688
	Communist Party	0		0.0%	3,408
	Independent Voters Party	0		0.0%	2,834
	Veterans' Victory Party	0		0.0%	2,208
	Socialist Workers Party	0		0.0%	1,936
	Justice, Decency, Independence Party	0		0.0%	1,865
	Socialist Labor Party	0		0.0%	980
	Constitutional Government Party	0		0.0%	890
	No Foreign Loans Party	0		0.0%	396
	Workers Party	0		0.0%	165
	Progressive Democratic Party	0		0.0%	141
	$250 State Bonds Party	0		0.0%	115
	Others	0	1	0.0%	44,930	0.1%

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

House seats by party holding plurality in state

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Arizona

District	Incumbent	Results	Candidates	Incumbent	Party	First elected
John R. Murdock		Democratic	1936	Incumbent re-elected.	{{Plainlist
Richard F. Harless		Democratic	1942	Incumbent re-elected.

Illinois

Main article: 1946 United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois

District	Incumbent	Results	Candidates	Incumbent	Party	First elected
William L. Dawson		Democratic	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
William A. Rowan		Democratic	1942		Incumbent lost re-election.
Republican gain.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Edward A. Kelly		Democratic	1944		Incumbent lost re-election.
Republican gain.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Martin Gorski		Democratic	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Adolph J. Sabath		Democratic	1906	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Thomas J. O'Brien		Democratic	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
William W. Link		Democratic	1944		Incumbent lost re-election.
Republican gain.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Thomas S. Gordon		Democratic	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Alexander J. Resa		Democratic	1944		Incumbent lost re-election.
Republican gain.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Ralph E. Church		Republican	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Chauncey W. Reed		Republican	1934	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Noah M. Mason		Republican	1936	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Leo E. Allen		Republican	1932	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Anton J. Johnson		Republican	1938	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Robert B. Chiperfield		Republican	1938	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Everett Dirksen		Republican	1932	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Leslie C. Arends		Republican	1934	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Jessie Sumner		Republican	1938		Incumbent retired.
Republican hold.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Rolla C. McMillen		Republican	1944	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Sid Simpson		Republican	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
George Evan Howell		Republican	1940	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Melvin Price		Democratic	1944	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Charles W. Vursell		Republican	1942	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Roy Clippinger		Republican	1945 (special)	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
C. W. Bishop		Republican	1940	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap	{{Plainlist
Emily Taft Douglas		Democratic	1944		Incumbent lost re-election.
Republican gain.	nowrap	{{Plainlist