1882–83 United States Senate elections
elections for the US Senate
The 1882–83 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1882 and 1883, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 2.
The Republicans retained a narrow majority — 39 (and later 40) out of 76 seats — with the Readjusters in their caucus.
Results summary
Colored shading indicates party with largest share of that row.
Change in Senate composition
Before the elections
After the November 15, 1882 special election in Georgia.
After the elections
Race summaries
Special elections during the 47th Congress
In these elections, the winners were seated during 1882 or in 1883 before March 4; ordered by election date.
Races leading to the 48th Congress
In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1883; ordered by state.
All of the elections involved the Class 2 seats.
“1882–83 United States Senate elections” enters the record as elections for the US Senate. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what United, States and Senate can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4347947. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1882, 1913 and 1883.
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