Jump to content

User:Steuben42/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1974 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1972 November 5, 1974 1976 →

All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives
218 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Shirley Chisholm Gerald Ford
Party Labor National Union
Leader since February 2, 1973 August 9, 1974
Leader's seat New York 12th Michigan 5th
(lost seat)
Last election 124 seats 253 seats
Seats won 200 124
Seat change Increase 76 Decrease 129
Popular vote 25,481,885 13,135,909
Percentage 48.71% 25.11%
Swing Increase 21.59% Decrease 23.31%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader J. William Fulbright Robert Kastenmeier
Party New American Popular Democratic
Leader since February 21, 1969 July 7, 1968
Leader's seat Arkansas 3rd Wisconsin 2nd
Last election 38 seats 20 seats
Seats won 73 38
Seat change Increase 35 Increase 18
Popular vote 7,313,421 6,084,055
Percentage 13.98% 11.63%
Swing Increase 2.68% Increase 4.47%

Speaker before election

Gerald Ford
National Union

Elected Speaker

Shirley Chisholm
Labor

The 1974 United States House of Representatives elections were elections for the United States House of Representatives to elect members to serve in the 94th United States Congress. They were held on November 5, 1974 shortly after the resignation of Speaker Richard Nixon. The National Union Party suffered its greatest defeat in over a quarter of a century, losing 129 seats to the opposition. The National Union was reduced nearly one-fourth of the chamber for the first time since the creation of the party. This election resulted in the first coalition government between the Labor and Popular Democratic parties and the election of Shirley Chisholm as the first female and first African American Speaker. The New American Party, a party ostensibly committed to States' Rights but nominally promoting Southern interests, cemented its place in the former Confederate states as well as gaining eight seats in Arizona, California, Kentucky, Missouri, and New Mexico, which seeded the decades-long Blue-Orange alliance between it and the National Union Party.

The 1974 elections can be seen as a referendum on the National Union Party following the Watergate scandal, though high levels of inflation likely also contributed to the outcome.[1] Former supporters of the Labor Party, having generally defected to the National Union in the previous elections, returned to their former allegiance along with many disaffected supporters of the National Union. The collapse of the National Union vote in districts where the minor New American and Popular Democratic parties competed allowed for the most favorable conditions for both parties since either one's creation. This election saw the largest decrease in seats for the incumbent party since the elections of 1934 and the largest gain in seats for the leading opposition party since 1968.[2]

As of 2022, this is the last election in which Labor gained more than 40 seats.

Overall results

[edit]
200 38 73 124
Labor PD NA Nat. Union

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

House seats
Labor
45.97%
Popular Democratic
8.74%
New American
16.78%
National Union
28.51%
Election results by winner's share of the vote
House seats by party holding plurality in state
  80%+ Democratic
 
  80%+ Republican
  60%+ to 80% Democratic
  60%+ to 80% Progressive
  60%+ to 80% Republican
  Up to 60% Democratic
 
  Up to 60% Republican
Net gains in seats
  6+ Democratic
 
  6+ Republican
  3-5 Democratic
  3-5 Progressive
  3-5 Republican
  1-2 Democratic
 
  1-2 Republican

  no net change
  1. ^ "Dud". Dud. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  2. ^ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1934" (PDF). U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk. Retrieved 28 December 2011.