The 1932 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 8, 1932.[1] Incumbent RepublicanOtis F. Glenn was unseated by DemocratWilliam H. Dieterich.
The primaries and general election coincided with those for federal elections (president and House) and those for state elections.[1] Primaries were held April 12, 1932.[1]
Background[]
The economic downturn that was the Great Depression was raging through the nation since the 1929 Wall Street crash. Many voters laid blame for the downturn and its impacts on Republican president Herbert Hoover.
The 1930 election for Illinois' other U.S. Senate seat saw the first instance after the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (adopted in 1912) went into effect (instituting popular elections for U.S. senate) that a Republican lost a U.S. Senate race in Illinois, with DemocratJ. Hamilton Lewis winning that election.[2]