who gained control of congress in the midterm elections in 1946
United States House of Representatives elections, 1946 Truman was Vice President under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was thrust into the presidency following Roosevelt's death. Truman did not garner the same support as the deceased president. Democrats had controlled Congress since 1931, for 16 years, and Roosevelt had been elected to a record four terms in office. The 1946 election resulted in Republicans picking up 55 seats to win majority control. Joseph William Martin, Jr., Republican of Massachusetts, became Speaker of the House, exchanging places with Sam Rayburn, Democrat of Texas, who became the new Minority Leader. The Democratic defeat was the largest since they were trounced in the 1928 pro-Republican wave that brought Herbert Hoover to power.
Politics of the United States during World War II President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Vice President Henry A. Wallace won the election of 1940, and were at the helm of the nation as it prepared for and entered World War II. Roosevelt sought and won an unprecedented fourth term in office in 1944, but this time with Harry S. Truman as his Vice President. Roosevelt, who had been a victim of Polio early in life, died in April 1945, and Truman assumed the Presidency through the end of the war.