United States House of Representatives election in Alaska, 1972

United States House of Representatives elections, 1972

← 1970

November 7, 1972

1974 →

All 435 seats to the United States House of Representatives
218 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Carl Albert	Gerald Ford
Party	Democratic	Republican
Leader's seat	Oklahoma-3rd	Michigan-5th
Last election	255 seats	180 seats
Seats won	242	192
Seat change	13	12
Popular vote	37,071,352	33,119,664
Percentage	52.1%	46.5%
Swing	1.5%	1.6%

Results:

Democratic hold

Democratic pickup

Republican hold

Republican pickup

Independent pickup

Speaker before election

Carl Albert
Democratic

Elected Speaker

Carl Albert
Democratic

The 1972 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1972 which coincided with the landslide reelection victory of President Richard Nixon. Nixon's Republican Party managed to gain a net of twelve seats from the Democratic Party, although the Democrats retained a majority. This was the first election that citizens at least 18 years of age (instead of 21 and older) could vote due to the recent passage of the 26th Amendment.

Source: "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk.

Some special elections were held on days other than the November election.

Alabama was reapportioned from 8 to 7 seats and eliminated the old 3rd district, dividing it between the old 2nd and 4th and making compensating boundary changes elsewhere.

Incumbent Nick Begich won re-election three weeks after having disappeared in a plane crash October 16; challenger Don Young would later win a March special election after Begich was declared dead on December 29.

Arizona was reapportioned from 3 seats to 4 and carved a new district in the Phoenix suburbs and the northeast from parts of the existing districts.

California was reapportioned from 38 to 43 seats, adding one seat in the Bay Area, one in the Central Valley, and 3 in southern California; three went to Democrats, two to Republicans. Despite a retirement and two lost renominations, both parties held their seats in this election, bringing the Democrats up from 20 seats to 23 and the Republicans up from 18 seats to 20.

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Wikipedia