The 1952 United States elections was held on November 4. The Republicans took control of the presidency and both chambers of Congress for the first time since the Great Depression. The election took place during the Korean War.
Republican nominee Five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois. Eisenhower won the popular vote by eleven points, and carried every state outside of the South. Eisenhower took the Republican nomination on the first ballot, defeating Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft and California Governor Earl Warren. After incumbent president Harry S. Truman declined to seek re-election, Stevenson won the Democratic nomination on the third ballot, defeating Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, Georgia Senator Richard Russell Jr., and former Commerce Secretary W. Averell Harriman. Eisenhower was the first professional soldier to be elected president since Ulysses S. Grant.
The Republicans gained twenty-two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, gaining a majority over the Democrats. The House elections took place after the 1950 United States Census and the subsequent Congressional re-apportionment. The Republicans also became the majority in the U.S. Senate, gaining two seats.