United States Senate election 2016 — Results
Election day: November 8, 2016
- Republican Party: 52 seats
- Democratic Party: 46 seats
- Independent (caucus with Democrats): 2 seats
About this election
The electoral system
The Senate is the upper chamber of Congress, with two members from each state regardless of population, serving staggered six-year terms so that roughly a third of the chamber is renewed every two years. Senators are elected by statewide popular vote, in most states by simple plurality, though Louisiana uses a two-round "jungle primary" and a handful of states require a majority. The vice-president presides over the Senate and casts the deciding vote in the event of a tie. The map on this page colours each state that held a Senate election in 2016 by the party that won the seat; states with no contest that year are left uncoloured.
Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.
Understanding this election
- How Electoral Systems Work Around the World — first-past-the-post, proportional and mixed systems, with real numbers
- Why Election Maps Look Different From the Popular Vote — why a map can look one-sided when the vote was close
- How a Constituency Map Gets Built — what happens when no boundary file matches the districts