1974 United States House of Representatives elections

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 Carl Albert John Rhodes Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 21, 1971 December 7, 1973 Leader's seat Oklahoma 3rd Arizona 1st Last election 242 seats 192 seats Seats won 291 144 Seat change 49 48 Popular vote 30,054,097 21,271,332 Percentage 57.5% 40.7% Swing 5.4% 5.8%
Results:      Democratic hold      Democratic gain      Republican hold      Republican gain
Speaker before election Carl Albert Democratic Elected Speaker Carl Albert Democratic

The 1974 United States House of Representatives elections were elections for the United States House of Representatives on November 5, 1974, to elect members to serve in the 94th United States Congress. They occurred in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which had forced President Richard Nixon to resign in favor of Gerald Ford. This scandal, along with high inflation,^[1] allowed the Democrats to make large gains in the midterm elections, taking 48 seats from the Republicans (an additional seat was gained, for a net gain of 49, when Representative Joe Moakley from Massachusetts switched his party affiliation back to Democrat after winning his 1972 election as an independent), and increasing their majority above the two-thirds mark. Altogether, there were 93 freshmen representatives in the 94th Congress when it convened on January 3, 1975 (76 of them Democrats). Those elected to office that year later came to be known collectively as "Watergate Babies."^[2] The gain of 49 Democratic seats was the largest pickup by the party since 1958. Only four Democratic incumbents lost their seats.

As of 2024^[update], this was the last time the Democrats gained 45 or more seats in a House election.