1890–91 United States Senate elections explained

Election Name:	1890–91 United States Senate elections
Country:	United States
Flag Year:	1890
Type:	legislative
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1888–89 United States Senate elections
Next Election:	1892–93 United States Senate elections
Seats For Election:	29 of the 88 seats in the United States Senate (as well as special elections)
Majority Seats:	45
Election Date:	Dates vary by state
1Blank:	Seats up
Party1:	Republican Party (US)
Leader1:	George F. Edmunds (retired)
Image1:	George F. Edmunds - Brady-Handy.jpg
Leader Since1:	March 4, 1885
Leaders Seat1:	Vermont
Seats Before1:	38
Seats After1:	47
1Data1:	16
Seats1:	12
Seat Change1:	9
Party2:	Democratic Party (US)
Leader2:	Arthur Pue Gorman
Leader Since2:	March 4, 1889
Leaders Seat2:	Maryland
Seats Before2:	37
Seats After2:	39
1Data2:	12
Seats2:	14
Seat Change2:	2
Party4:	People's Party (US)
Seats Before4:	0
Seats After4:	1
1Data4:	0
Seats4:	1
Seat Change4:	1
Party5:	Independent (US)
Seats Before5:	0
Seats After5:	1
1Data5:	0
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1
Majority Party
Before Party:	Republican Party (US)
After Party:	Republican Party (US)

The 1890–91 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 1890 and 1891, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock.^[1] In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 3.

The Republican Party lost four seats, though still retaining a slim majority. That majority was increased, however, upon the admission of two more states with Republican senators.

Results summary

Senate party division, 52nd Congress (1891–1893)

• Majority party: Republican (47)
• Minority party: Democratic (39)
• Other parties: Populist (2)
• Total seats: 88

Change in Senate composition

Before the elections

After the admission of Montana's new senators in January 1890.

									D1		D2
width=50px	D12	width=50px	D11	width=50px	D10	width=50px	D9	width=50px	D8	width=50px	D7	width=50px	D6	width=50px	D5	width=50px	D4	width=50px	D3
	D13		D14		D15		D16		D17		D18		D19		D20		D21		D22
	D32 Ran		D31 Ran		D30 Ran		D29 Ran		D28 Ran		D27 Ran		D26 Ran		D25		D24		D23
	D33 Ran		D34 Ran		D35 Ran		D36 Retired		D37 Retired		R47 Retired		R46 Ran		R45 Ran		R44 Ran	R43 Ran
Majority →
	R33 Ran		R34 Ran		R35 Ran		R36 Ran		R37 Ran		R38 Ran		R39 Ran		R40 Ran		R41 Ran		R42 Ran
	R32 Ran		R31		R30		R29		R28		R27		R26		R25		R24		R23
	R13		R14		R15		R16		R17		R18		R19		R20		R21		R22
	R12		R11		R10		R9		R8		R7		R6		R5		R4		R3
									R1		R2

After the class 3 elections

									D1		D2
width=50px	D12	width=50px	D11	width=50px	D10	width=50px	D9	width=50px	D8	width=50px	D7	width=50px	D6	width=50px	D5	width=50px	D4	width=50px	D3
	D13		D14		D15		D16		D17		D18		D19		D20		D21		D22
	D32 Re-elected		D31 Re-elected		D30 Re-elected		D29 Re-elected		D28 Re-elected		D27 Re-elected		D26 Re-elected		D25		D24		D23
	D33 Hold		D34 Hold		D35 Hold		D36 Hold		D37 Gain		D38 Gain		D39 Gain		V1 D Loss		I1 Gain		P1 Gain
Majority →		R43 New seat
	R33 Re-elected		R34 Re-elected		R35 Re-elected		R36 Re-elected		R37 Re-elected		R38 Re-elected		R39 Re-elected		R40 Re-elected		R41 Hold		R42 Hold
	R32 Re-elected		R31		R30		R29		R28		R27		R26		R25		R24		R23
	R13		R14		R15		R16		R17		R18		R19		R20		R21		R22
	R12		R11		R10		R9		R8		R7		R6		R5		R4		R3
									R1		R2

Beginning of the next Congress

							D1		D2		D3		D4
width=50px	D14	width=50px	D13	width=50px	D12	width=50px	D11	width=50px	D10	width=50px	D9	width=50px	D8	width=50px	D7	width=50px	D6	width=50px	D5
	D15		D16		D17		D18		D19		D20		D21		D22		D23		D24
	D34		D33		D32		D31		D30		D29		D28		D27		D26		D25
	D35		D36		V1 D seated late		V2 D elected late		V3 D died Later D		I1 Later P		P1		V3 D died Later R		R46 New seat	R45 New seat
Majority →
	R35		R36		R37		R38		R39		R40		R41		R42		R43		R44 New seat
	R34		R33		R32		R31		R30		R29		R28		R27		R26		R25
	R15		R16		R17		R18		R19		R20		R21		R22		R23		R24
	R14		R13		R12		R11		R10		R9		R8		R7		R6		R5
							R1		R2		R3		R4

Key:	align=center width=35px D# Democratic align=center width=35px I# Independent align=center width=35px P# Populist align=center width=35px R# Republican align=center width=35px V# Vacant

Race summaries

Elections during the 51st Congress

In these elections, the winners were seated during 1890 or in 1891 before March 4; ordered by election date.

State	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Senator	Party	Electoral history
Montana (Class 1)	New state		Montana admitted to the Union November 8, 1889. First senator elected January 1, 1890.^[2] His election was challenged based on the legitimacy of the nascent state legislature. The Senate resolved the dispute in his favor April 16, 1890, and he was seated that day. Republican gain.	nowrap
Montana (Class 2)		Montana admitted to the Union November 8, 1889. Second senator elected January 2, 1890. His election was challenged based on the legitimacy of the nascent state legislature. The Senate resolved the dispute in his favor April 16, 1890, and he was seated that day. Republican gain.	nowrap
Kentucky (Class 2)	James B. Beck		Democratic	nowrap	1876 1882 1888		Incumbent died May 3, 1890. Winner elected May 26, 1890. Democratic hold.	nowrap	John G. Carlisle (Democratic)
Wyoming (Class 2)	New state		Wyoming admitted to the Union July 10, 1890. First senator elected November 15, 1890. Republican gain.	nowrap	Joseph M. Carey (Republican) 39 votes George W. Baxter (Democratic) 7 votes
Wyoming (Class 1)		Wyoming admitted to the Union July 10, 1890. First senator elected November 18, 1890. Republican gain.	nowrap	Francis E. Warren (Republican) 29 votes^[3] Henry A. Coffeen (Democratic) 9 votes M. C. Brown 7 votes John McCormick 3 votes H. R. Mann 1 vote
Idaho (Class 2)	New state		Idaho admitted to the Union July 3, 1890. First senator elected December 18, 1890. Republican gain.	nowrap	George L. Shoup (Republican)
Idaho (Class 3)		Idaho admitted to the Union July 3, 1890. First senator elected December 18, 1890. Republican gain.	nowrap	William J. McConnell (Republican)

Races leading to the 52nd Congress

In these regular elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1891; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.

State	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Senator	Party	Electoral history
Alabama	James L. Pugh		Democratic	nowrap	1880 1884	Incumbent re-elected in 1890.	nowrap	James L. Pugh (Democratic)
Arkansas	James K. Jones		Democratic	nowrap	1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	James K. Jones (Democratic)
California	Leland Stanford		Republican	nowrap	1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	Leland Stanford (Republican)
Colorado	Henry M. Teller		Republican	nowrap	1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	Henry M. Teller (Republican)
Connecticut	Orville H. Platt		Republican	nowrap	1879 1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	Orville H. Platt (Republican)
Florida	Wilkinson Call		Democratic	nowrap	1879 1885		Legislature failed to elect. Democratic loss.	None.
Georgia	Joseph E. Brown		Democratic	nowrap	1880 1885		Incumbent retired due to illness. Winner elected on an unknown date. Democratic hold.	nowrap	John B. Gordon (Democratic)
Idaho	William J. McConnell		Republican	1890		McConnell was elected only to finish the term, see above, and thereafter retired. Winner elected December 18, 1890. Republican hold.	nowrap	Fred Dubois (Republican)
Illinois	Charles B. Farwell		Republican	nowrap	1887		Incumbent not renominated by the Republican caucus.^[4] Winner elected on March 11, 1891, after 154 ballots. Democratic gain.	nowrap
Indiana	Daniel W. Voorhees		Democratic	nowrap	1877 1879 1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	Daniel W. Voorhees (Democratic)
Iowa	William B. Allison		Republican	nowrap	1872 1878 1884	Incumbent re-elected March 5, 1890.	nowrap
Kansas	John Ingalls		Republican	nowrap	1873 1879 1885		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected in 1891. Populist gain.	nowrap
Kentucky	Joseph C. S. Blackburn		Democratic	nowrap	1884	Incumbent re-elected in 1890.	nowrap	Joseph C. S. Blackburn (Democratic)
Louisiana	James B. Eustis		Democratic	nowrap	1890 or 1891		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected in 1891. Democratic hold.	nowrap	Edward Douglass White (Democratic)
Maryland	Ephraim Wilson		Democratic	nowrap	1884		Incumbent re-elected in 1890, but died February 24, 1891, before the beginning of the next term. Seat remained vacant until November 19, 1891. Democratic loss.	nowrap	Ephraim Wilson (Democratic)
Missouri	George G. Vest		Democratic	nowrap	1879 1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	George G. Vest (Democratic)
Nevada	John P. Jones		Republican	nowrap	1879 1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	John P. Jones (Republican)
New Hampshire	Henry W. Blair		Republican	nowrap	1879 1885 1885		Incumbent lost renomination. Winner elected in 1891. Republican hold.	nowrap	Jacob Gallinger (Republican)
New York	William M. Evarts		Republican	nowrap	1885		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected January 21, 1891. Democratic gain.	nowrap
North Carolina	Zebulon B. Vance		Democratic	nowrap	1879 1884	Incumbent re-elected in 1890.	nowrap	Zebulon B. Vance (Democratic)
North Dakota	Gilbert A. Pierce		Republican	nowrap	1889		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected in 1891. Republican hold.	nowrap
Ohio	Henry B. Payne		Democratic	nowrap	1884		Incumbent retired. Winner elected January 15, 1890 Democratic hold.	nowrap	Calvin S. Brice (Democratic)
Oregon	John H. Mitchell		Republican	nowrap	1885	Incumbent re-elected in 1890.	nowrap	John H. Mitchell (Republican)
Pennsylvania	J. Donald Cameron		Republican	nowrap	1877 1879 1885	Incumbent re-elected January 20, 1891.	nowrap
South Carolina	Wade Hampton III		Democratic	nowrap	1884		Incumbent lost re-election. re-elected in 1890. Democratic hold.	nowrap
South Dakota	Gideon C. Moody		Republican	nowrap	1889		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected February 16, 1891.^[5] Independent gain. Winner later became a Populist.	nowrap
Vermont	Justin S. Morrill		Republican	nowrap	1866 1872 1878 1884	Incumbent re-elected in 1890.	nowrap	Justin S. Morrill (Republican)
Washington	Watson C. Squire		Republican	nowrap	1889	Incumbent re-elected in 1891.	nowrap	Watson C. Squire (Republican)
Wisconsin	John C. Spooner		Republican	nowrap	1885		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected January 28, 1891. Democratic gain.	nowrap

Election during the 52nd Congress

In these elections, the winners were elected in 1891 after March 4; ordered by election date.

State	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Senator	Party	Electoral history
California (Class 1)	George Hearst		Democratic	nowrap	1887		Incumbent died February 28, 1891. New senator was elected March 19, 1891. Republican gain.	nowrap
Florida (Class 3)	Vacant				Legislature had failed to elect, see above. Predecessor re-elected May 26, 1891.^[6] Democratic gain.	nowrap
Virginia (Class 1)	John W. Daniel		Democratic	1887	Incumbent re-elected early December 16, 1891 for the term beginning March 4, 1893.^[7]	nowrap

Idaho

See also: List of United States senators from Idaho. In July 1890, Idaho became a state. In November, Fred Dubois helped engineer a plan for the Idaho Legislature to effectively elect three people to the U.S. Senate: Governor George Shoup to the class 2 seat up for election in 1894, state constitutional convention member William J. McConnell to serve for the remainder of the Fifty-first United States Congress, ending in March 1891, and Dubois himself to succeed McConnell and serve a full six-year term in the class 3 seat beginning in March 1891.

Maryland

See also: List of United States senators from Maryland.

Election Name:	1890 United States Senate election in Maryland
Popular Vote1:	-
Colour1:	B0CEFF
Percentage1:	-%
Party1:	Democratic Party (United States)
Candidate1:	Ephraim King Wilson II
Image1:	WILSON, Ephraim King, (1821 - 1891).jpg
Percentage2:	%
Next Year:	1892
Next Election:	1892 United States Senate special election in Maryland
Previous Year:	1884
Previous Election:	1884 United States Senate election in Maryland
Votes For Election:	80 members of the Maryland General Assembly
Vote Type:	Legislative
Election Date:	January 1890
Type:	presidential

Ephraim King Wilson II was re-elected by an unknown margin of votes, for the Class 3 seat.^[8]

New York

See main article: 1891 United States Senate election in New York.

See also: List of United States senators from New York. The New York election was held January 20 and 21, 1891, by the New York State Legislature.

Republican William M. Evarts had been elected to this seat in 1885, and his term would expire on March 3, 1891.

At the State election in November 1889, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats were elected for a two-year term (1890–1891) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1890, 68 Democrats and 60 Republicans were elected for the session of 1891 to the Assembly. The 114th New York State Legislature met from January 6 to April 30, 1891, at Albany, New York.

The Democratic caucus met on January 19, 74 State legislators attended, and State Senator John C. Jacobs presided. Governor David B. Hill was nominated by acclamation.

The Republican caucus met immediately after the Democratic caucus ended, Assemblyman James W. Husted presided. They re-nominated the incumbent U.S. Senator William M. Evarts unanimously.

On January 20, both Houses of the State legislature took ballots separately. The incumbent U.S. Senator Evarts was the choice of the State Senate, Governor Hill the choice of the Assembly. On January 21, both Houses met in joint session, and comparing nominations, found that they disagreed and proceeded to a joint ballot. Governor Hill was elected by a majority of 2, every member of the Legislature being present.

House	Democratic		Republican
State Senate (32 members)	David B. Hill	13	William M. Evarts	19
State Assembly (128 members)	David B. Hill	65	William M. Evarts	58
Joint ballot (160 members)	David B. Hill	81	William M. Evarts	79

The seat became vacant on March 4, 1891. David B. Hill remained in office as Governor of New York until December 31, 1891, and took his seat only on January 7, 1892, missing actually only one month of session. There were no special sessions during the 52nd United States Congress and the regular session began only on December 7, 1891. Hill served a single term, and remained in the U.S. Senate until March 3, 1897. In January 1897, Hill was defeated for re-election by Republican Thomas C. Platt who had been a U.S. Senator briefly in 1881.

Pennsylvania

See main article: 1891 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania.

See also: List of United States senators from Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania election was held on January 20, 1891. J. Donald Cameron was re-elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the United States Senate.^[9]

The Pennsylvania General Assembly, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, convened on January 20, 1891. Incumbent Republican J. Donald Cameron, who was elected in an 1877 special election and re-elected in 1879 and 1885, was a successful candidate for re-election to another term. The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:

|-|-bgcolor="#EEEEEE"| colspan="3" align="right" | Totals| align="right" | 254| align="right" | 100.00%|}

See also

• 1890 United States elections
  • 1890 United States House of Representatives elections
• 51st United States Congress
• 52nd United States Congress

Further reading

• Book: Byrd, Robert C. . Robert Byrd. Wendy . Wolff. The Senate, 1789-1989: Historical Statistics, 1789–1992. volume 4 Bicentennial. United States Senate Historical Office. Washington, D.C.. U.S. Government Printing Office. October 1, 1993. 9780160632563 . .
• Book: Clark, Dan Elbert . History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. 1913. .
• Web site: Cox . Harold. Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682–2006. The Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University. January 31, 2007.
• Book: Taft . George S. . George S. Taft. Furber . George P.. Buck . George M. . Webb . Charles A.. Pierce . Herbert R.. Compilation of Senate Election Cases from 1789 to 1913. U.S. Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections. 1913. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C.. .
• Book: Ohio statesmen and annals of progress: from the year 1788 to the year 1900. William Alexander. Taylor. Aubrey Clarence. Taylor. 1899. State of Ohio. .
• Members of the 52nd United States Congress
• News: EXIT DAVID BENNETT HILL . . January 20, 1891., The headline expresses the erroneous belief that Hill, after his election, would resign the governorship and go to Washington, D.C.
• News: HILL'S FRIENDS NERVOUS . . January 21, 1891.
• News: HILL'S MAJORITY OF TWO . . January 22, 1891.
• Web site: Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present. via Senate.gov.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913). National Archives and Records Administration. February 8, 2022.
2. Web site: Congressional Series of United States Public Documents . 3064 . 1893 . . 64.
3. Book: Goodspeed, Weston Arthur . Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming . 1904 . University of California . 382 . Google Books.
4. RICHARD J. OGLESBY THE NOMINEE. Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922); Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]. 16 Jan 1891: 4.
5. News: . February 17, 1891 . SENATOR JAMES H. KYLE. . 5 .
6. News: CALL DECLARED ELECTED. . . May 26, 1891 . 1 .
7. Book: Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia 1891-1892 . 135 . en . March 11, 2020.
8. Web site: Our Campaigns - MD US Senate Race - Jan 00, 1890. 2022-11-05. www.ourcampaigns.com.
9. Web site: U.S. Senate Election - 20 January 1891 . Wilkes University . December 22, 2013.