The United States Senate elections of 1920 were elections for the United States Senate that coincided with the election of Warren G. Harding as President. There was also a special election in 1921. DemocratWoodrow Wilson's unpopularity allowed Republicans to win races across the country, winning ten seats from the Democrats, providing them with an overwhelming 59 to 37 majority. The Republican landslide was so vast that the Democrats failed to win a single race outside the South. These elections are notable as this was the closest it has been since the passage of the seventeenth amendment where the winning party in almost every Senate election mirrored the winning party for their state in the presidential election with Kentucky being the only senate race to not mirror their presidential result. No other senate election cycle in a presidential year would come close to repeating this feat until 2016. Coincidentally, it would be the same class of senate seats, class 3.
Seat changes
Republicans won two seats that were open from retiring Democrats, one seat from a Democrat who had lost renomination, and they defeated seven Democratic incumbents.
Open seats
Colorado: Charles S. Thomas retired and was replaced by Samuel D. Nicholson.
Illinois: Lawrence Y. Sherman retired and was replaced by William B. McKinley.
Incumbents defeated
Arizona: Marcus A. Smith lost re-election to Ralph H. Cameron.
California: James D. Phelan lost re-election to Samuel M. Shortridge.
Idaho: John F. Nugent lost re-election to Frank R. Gooding.
Kentucky: John C. W. Beckham lost re-election to Richard P. Ernst.
Maryland: John W. Smith lost re-election to Ovington E. Weller.
Nevada: Charles B. Henderson lost re-election to Tasker L. Oddie.
In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1921; ordered by state. All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.
