United States Senate elections, 1974

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November 5, 1974

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34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate
51 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Mike Mansfield	Hugh Scott
Party	Democratic	Republican
Leader's seat	Montana	Pennsylvania
Last election	56 seats	42 seats
Seats before	56	42
Seats won	60	38
Seat change	4	4
Popular vote	22,544,761	16,145,793
Percentage	55.2%	39.6%
Swing	9.7%	12.8%

	Third party	Fourth party

Party	Independent	Conservative (N.Y.)
Last election	1 seat	1 seat
Seats before	1	1
Seats won	1	1
Seat change

Democratic gain

Democratic hold

Republican gain

Republican hold

Majority Leader before election

Mike Mansfield
Democratic

Elected Majority Leader

Mike Mansfield
Democratic

The United States Senate elections, 1974 were held in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard M. Nixon's resignation from the presidency, and Gerald Ford's subsequent pardon of Nixon. Economic issues, specifically inflation and stagnation, were also a factor that contributed to the Republican losses.Democrats made a net gain of three seats from the Republicans. Following the election, the Democratic caucus controlled 60 seats (including one independent) and the Republican caucus controlled 39 seats (including one Conservative). Democrats would gain an additional seat when Democrat John A. Durkin (D-NH) won a 1975 special election that was held after the 1974 election resulted in two recounts and an extended dispute in the Senate. This was the last election to date where a member of a political party other than the Democrats or Republicans had one or more seats in the chamber. This is also the last Senate election where the Democrat won Orange County, California in a race with Republican opposition.

Source: Election Statistics - U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk

Democrats won open seats in Vermont and Florida and unseated incumbents Peter H. Dominick (R-CO) and Marlow Cook (R-KY). Republicans took an open seat in Nevada, where Republican Paul Laxalt defeated Harry Reid by 624 votes. The election also produced other close results; Milton Young (R-ND) won reelection against Democrat William L. Guy by only 186 votes and Henry Bellmon (R-OK) won reelection against Democrat Ed Edmondson by half a percent of the vote.

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