# 1938 Midterm Elections Second-term [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] administration midterm. Republicans gained ~81 House seats — one of the largest single-cycle Republican gains in House history — and ~8 Senate seats. Democrats retained majority in both chambers but the **Conservative Coalition** (anti-New-Deal Southern Democrats + Republicans) achieved operational control of substantive legislation. The drivers: the 1937 **court-packing fight** backlash, the 1937-1938 **"Roosevelt Recession,"** and broader sense of [[New Deal]] overreach. ## Result - **House:** Republicans gained ~81 seats; Democrats held majority (~262 of 435 Democrats vs. ~169 Republicans in the 76th Congress) - **Senate:** Republicans gained ~8 seats; Democrats held majority (~69 of 96 Democrats vs. ~23 Republicans) - **Chambers flipped:** None — Democratic majorities held but were operationally limited by Conservative Coalition formation - **Net change:** Major Republican gains; effective end of New Deal-era legislative momentum ## Notable - The **1937 court-packing plan** — FDR's proposal to add up to six justices to the Supreme Court — failed politically; the failure substantially damaged FDR's relationship with Southern Democratic congressional leadership - The **"Roosevelt Recession" of 1937-1938** — driven by FDR's premature 1937 budget-balancing and Federal Reserve tightening; unemployment rose back to 19%, eroding the New Deal political mandate - The **Conservative Coalition** — Republican-and-Southern-Democratic congressional alliance — operationally formed in the post-1938 Congress and would control substantive legislation through approximately 1960, substantially limiting subsequent Democratic-Party progressive policy ambitions - The **[[Hatch Act]]** of 1939 restricting executive-branch political activity was a Conservative-Coalition product ## Connections - [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] — Sitting president; the court-packing backlash substantially damaged his political capital.