1956 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1954 November 6, 1956[a] 1958 →
All 435 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Sam Rayburn Joseph Martin Party Democratic Republican Leader since September 16, 1940 January 3, 1939 Leader's seat Texas 4th Massachusetts 14th Last election 232 seats 203 seats Seats won 234 201 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 30,062,042 28,698,083 Percentage 51.2% 48.7% Swing 1.3pp 1.7pp
Results:      Democratic hold     Democratic gain      Republican hold     Republican gain
Speaker before election Sam Rayburn Democratic ElectedSpeaker Sam Rayburn Democratic

The1956 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for theUnited States House of Representatives to elect members to serve in the85th United States Congress. They were held for the most part on November 6, 1956, while Maine held theirs on September 10. They coincided withthe re-election ofPresidentDwight D. Eisenhower.

With no major national issues and the economic upswing of the 1950s in full force, voters generally chose to uphold the status quo, keeping theRepublican president and theDemocratic Congress.

410 incumbent members sought reelection, but 6 were defeated in primaries and 15 defeated in the general election for a total of 389 incumbents winning.^[1]

Party		Seats	Change	Seat percentage	Vote percentage	Popular Vote
	Democratic	234	2	53.8%	51.2%	30,062,042
	Republican	201	2	46.2%	48.7%	28,698,083
	Liberal	0		0.0%	0.1%	68,130
	Independent	0		0.0%	<0.1%	15,848
	Prohibition	0		0.0%	<0.1%	12,298
	Independent Teacher Veteran	0		0.0%	<0.1%	5,468
	Independent Veteran	0		0.0%	<0.1%	4,155
	Conservative	0		0.0%	<0.1%	4,066
	Constitution	0		0.0%	<0.1%	3,619
	Decency in Government	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,459
	Progress Through Freedom	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,246
	Socialist Labor	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,217
	Socialist	0		0.0%	<0.1%	1,743
	Free Honest Elections	0		0.0%	<0.1%	466
	Socialist Workers	0		0.0%	<0.1%	303
	Social Democratic	0		0.0%	<0.1%	260
	American Third	0		0.0%	<0.1%	146
	Others	0		0.0%	<0.1%	2,194
Totals		435		100.0%	100.0%	58,885,743
Source:Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

In these special elections, the winner was seated during 1956 or before January 3, 1957; ordered by election date.