Swing To Republicans In The United States Elections

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 November 1950, Page 5

Swing To Republicans In The United States Elections

Extent Of The Change Hard To Gauge At Present

NE ..’ YORK, Nov. 8 (Rec. 12.6 am). —Early returns in elections held yesterday for the United States Senate and House of Representatives indicate that there has been some swing to Republicans, but its extent cannot yet be gauged. At 4 a.m. today Republicans had won five Senate seats from the Democrats. They had won 10 House seats from the Democrats

but lost one. The Democrats had won the American Labour Party’s sole seat in the House. Political observers regard th.e Senate voting as holding the key to the Truman Administration’s fate. Republicans need a net gain of seven seats to control the Senate. They have a possibility of losing one seat in Missouri, where Senator Forrest Donnell is behind the Democratic nominee. The Republicans need a net gain of 4G scats to control the House of Representatives. Republicans made an important gain in the Senate race by defeating the Democratic Senator Millard Tydings. chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in Maryland, and the Democratic Senator Scott Lucas. Senate majority leader, in Illinois. They also defeated Senator Francis Myers, of Pennsylvania, majority whip of the Senate, and Senator Elbert Thomas, chairman of the Senate Labour Committee. Senators Tydings and Lucas were two strong and influential supporters of Mr Truman’s policies. Their loss is a big blow to the administration. The Republican national chairman, Mr Guy Gabrielson. proclaimed their defeat as a great victory for the Republican Party, but the Democratic national chairman. Mr William Boyle, said he was sure the Democrats would retain control of the House and Senate. Republican strength was bolstered by the return to the Senate of their policy making leaders. Senator Robert Taft, of Ohio, and Eugene Milliken, of Colorado. Democrats and organ-'

ised Labour had formed a strong alliance in Ohio and conducted an extensive campaign in an effort to defeat Senator Taft. The Republicans temporarily increased their gams in the Senate to six. when Mr Richard Nixon defeated Helen Gahagan Douglas in California for a seat vacated by a Democrat, Mr Sheridin Downey, but they lost one seat in Misscuri to the Democrats when Mr Thomas Hennings beat a Republican, Senator Forrest Donnell. The Republicans’ net gain so far, therefore, is five. Both Nixon and Douglas are at present members of the House of Representatives. They will retain those seats until the new Congress assembles on January 3, 1951.