1966 United States House of Representatives elections

1966 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1964 November 8, 1966 1968 →
All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader John McCormack Gerald Ford Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 10, 1962 January 3, 1965 Leader's seat Massachusetts 9th Michigan 5th Last election 295 seats 140 seats Seats won 248 187 Seat change 47 47 Popular vote 26,934,136 25,521,157 Percentage 50.9% 48.2% Swing 6.2% 5.8%
Results:      Democratic hold      Democratic gain      Republican hold      Republican gain
Speaker before election John McCormack Democratic Elected Speaker John McCormack Democratic

The 1966 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives on November 8, 1966, to elect members to serve in the 90th United States Congress. They occurred in the middle of President Lyndon B. Johnson's second term. As the Vietnam War continued to escalate and race riots exploded in cities across the country, Johnson's popularity had fallen, and the opposition Republican Party was able to gain a net of 47 seats from Johnson's Democratic Party, which nonetheless maintained a clear majority in the House. This was also the first election that occurred after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law, the first time since 1870 that a Republican won a House seat in Arkansas, and the first since 1876 that the party did so in South Carolina (after the same in a 1965 special election for the seat).^[1]