The 1860–61 United States Senate elections were elections corresponding with Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency. The nascent Republican Party increased their Senate seats in the regular elections, and after southern Democrats withdrew to join the Confederacy, Republicans gained control of the United States Senate. To establish a quorum with fewer members, a lower total seat number was taken into account. As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth Amendment, Senators were chosen by state legislatures.