The election took place in the middle of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term.

[2] This marked the first time that the six-year itch phenomenon occurred during a Republican presidency since Ulysses S. Grant's second term in 1874.

The ranks of liberal Democrats swelled as the Republican Party suffered several losses in the Northeast and the West.

[3] The election saw an influx of northern Democrats who sought to reform the Congressional seniority system, which often gave the best positions to senior southerners who rarely faced difficult re-elections and thus were able to rack up long terms of service.

[4] Alaska held a referendum that year about statehood, Proposition 1 on August 26 which was approved.