United States House election, 1874

United States House of Representatives elections, 1874

← 1872 November 3, 1874 1876 →
All 293 seats to the United States House of Representatives 147 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Michael Kerr James Blaine Party Democratic Republican Leader's seat Indiana-3rd Maine-3rd Last election 89 seats 199 seats Seats won 183 106 Seat change 94 93
Speaker before election James Blaine Republican Elected Speaker Michael Kerr Democratic Party (United States) Map of U.S. House elections results from 1874 elections for 44th Congress

James Blaine
Republican

Michael Kerr
Democratic Party (United States)

Elections to the United States House of Representatives were held in 1874 and 1875 for Representatives to the 44th Congress, occurring in the middle of President Ulysses S. Grant's second term with a deep economic depression underway. It was an important turning point, as the Republicans lost heavily and the Democrats gained control of the House. It signaled the imminent end of Reconstruction, which Democrats opposed. Historians emphasize the factors of economic depression and attacks on the Grant administration for corruption as key factors in the vote.

With the election following the Panic of 1873, Grant's Republican Party was crushed in the elections, losing their majority and almost half their seats to the Democratic Party. This was the first period of Democratic control since the pre-war era. The economic crisis and the inability of Grant to find a solution led to his party's defeat. This was the second-largest swing in the history of the House (only behind the 1894 elections), and is the largest House loss in the history of the Republican Party.

In the south, the Democrats and Conservatives continued their systematic destruction of the Republican coalition. In the South, Scalawags moved into the Democratic Party. The Democratic landslide signaled the imminent end of Reconstruction, which Democrats opposed and a realignment of the Republican coalition that had dominated American politics since the late 1850s.