# 1918 Midterm Elections Second-term [[Woodrow Wilson]] administration midterm — held one week before the **November 11, 1918 WWI armistice** and during the **Spanish flu pandemic** that killed an estimated 675,000 Americans (1918-1920). Republicans took both chambers in a substantial wave — the most catastrophic midterm of Wilson's presidency, made worse by Wilson's October 25, 1918 partisan appeal that backfired by alienating moderate Republicans. ## Result - **House:** Republicans gained ~25 seats; took majority (~240 of 435 Republicans vs. ~192 Democrats in the 66th Congress) - **Senate:** Republicans gained ~5 seats; took narrow majority (~49 of 96 Republicans vs. ~47 Democrats) - **Chambers flipped:** Both — House and Senate flipped from Democratic to Republican - **Net change:** Major Republican gains; both-chamber flip — catastrophic for Wilson ## Notable - Wilson's October 1918 partisan appeal — asking voters to send a "Democratic Congress" to support his peace negotiations — backfired by alienating moderate Republicans and confirming partisan framing of the war effort - The **Spanish flu pandemic** at peak through fall 1918 — substantially affected campaign activity and voter turnout - The Republican-controlled Senate that this election produced rejected the **[[Treaty of Versailles]]** and prevented U.S. entry into the **League of Nations** in 1919-1920 — one of the most consequential midterm-Congress effects in American foreign-policy history - The 1918 election shaped the 1920 [[Warren G. Harding]] "Return to Normalcy" Republican landslide ## Connections - [[Woodrow Wilson]] — Sitting president; his post-war peace agenda substantially destroyed by the Republican Senate.