| Election Name: | 1956 United States Senate election in Illinois |
| Country: | Illinois |
| Flag Year: | 1915 |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1950 United States Senate election in Illinois |
| Previous Year: | 1950 |
| Next Election: | 1962 United States Senate election in Illinois |
| Next Year: | 1962 |
| Election Date: | November 6, 1956 |
| Nominee1: | Everett M. Dirksen |
| Party1: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 2,307,552 |
| Percentage1: | 54.11% |
| Nominee2: | Richard Stengel |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote2: | 1,949,883 |
| Percentage2: | 45.72% |
| Map Size: | x300px |
| Senator | |
| Before Party: | Republican Party (US) |
| After Party: | Republican Party (US) |
| Turnout: | 81.74% |
The 1956 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 6, 1956[1] to elect one of Illinois's members to the United States Senate. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen won reelection to a second term.
The primaries and general election coincided with those for federal offices (President and House) and state elections.
Primaries were held on April 10.[1]
Turnout in the primary elections was 26.26%, with a total of 1,307,357 votes cast.[1] [2]
Turnout during the general election was 81.74%, with 4,264,830 votes cast.[1] [3]
Dirksen carried 88 of the state's 102 counties.[1] Among the 88 counties that Dirksen won was the state's most populous county, Cook County, in which Dirksen won with 51.13% to Stengel's 48.63%.[1] Despite losing in Cook County, Stengel performed better in the county than he did in the cumulative vote of the remaining 101 counties[1] In the cumulative vote of the state's other 101 counties, Dirksen won 57.32% to Stengel's 42.58%.[1] 51.97% of the votes cast in the election were from Cook County.[1]
While he lost the overall vote in Cook County as a whole, in Cook County's principal city, Chicago (where 37.79% of all votes cast in the election were from), Stengel won 54.33% of the vote to Dirksen's 45.37%[1]