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 Decrease 47 Increase 47
Popular vote 26,934,136 25,521,157
Percentage 50.9% 48.2%
Swing Decrease 6.2% Increase 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]

  1. ^ Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffrey A. (19 March 2020). Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968. p. 256. ISBN 978-1107158436.