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United States House of Representatives elections, 1972

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November 7, 1972
  
1974 →

242
  
192

37,071,352
  
33,119,664

Start date
  
January 7, 1972

255 seats
  
180 seats

13
  
12

52.1%
  
46.5%

United States House of Representatives elections, 1972 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Winner
  
Carl Albert

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.

Contents

Summary of results

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

Democratic gains

  • Georgia's 5th congressional district: Fletcher Thompson (R) retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Andrew Young (D)
  • New York's 6th congressional district: Seymour Halpern (R), retired, succeeded by Lester L. Wolff (D), who was redistricted
  • Oklahoma's 1st congressional district: Page Belcher (R), retired, succeeded by James Robert Jones (D)

    • Democratic holds

  • Arkansas's 4th congressional district: David Pryor (D), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Ray Thornton (D)
  • Illinois's 11th congressional district: Roman C. Pucinski (D), retired, succeeded by Frank Annunzio (D), who was redistricted
  • Kentucky's 6th congressional district: William P. Curlin, Jr. (D), retired, succeeded by John B. Breckinridge (D)
  • Louisiana's 8th congressional district: Speedy Long (D), redistricted and retired, succeeded by Gillis William Long (D), who previously held the seat in the 88th Congress
  • Maryland's 3rd congressional district: Edward Garmatz (D), redistricted and retired, succeeded by Paul Sarbanes (D)
  • Mississippi's 2nd congressional district: Thomas Abernethy (D), redistricted and retired, succeeded by David R. Bowen (D)
  • Missouri's 6th congressional district: William Raleigh Hull, Jr. (D), retired, succeeded by Jerry Litton (D)
  • North Carolina's 4th congressional district: Nick Galifianakis (D), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Ike Franklin Andrews (D)
  • North Carolina's 7th congressional district: Alton Lennon (D), retired, succeeded by Charlie Rose (D)
  • North Dakota's 2nd congressional district: Arthur A. Link (D), redistricted retired to run for Governor, succeeded by Mark Andrews (R), who was redistricted
  • Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district: Ed Edmondson (D), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Clem McSpadden (D)
  • Tennessee's 7th congressional district: Ray Blanton (D), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Ed Jones (D), who was redistricted
  • Texas's 2nd congressional district: John Dowdy (D), retired, succeeded by Charles Wilson (D)

    • Republican gains

  • Alabama's 2nd congressional district: Elizabeth B. Andrews (D), redistricted and retired, succeeded by William Louis Dickinson (R)
  • Illinois's 11th congressional district: Roman C. Pucinski (D), retired, succeeded by Frank Annunzio (D), who was redistricted
  • Louisiana's 3rd congressional district: Patrick T. Caffery (D), retired, succeeded by Dave Treen (R)
  • Maine's 2nd congressional district: William Hathaway (D), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by William Cohen (R)
  • Mississippi's 4th congressional district: Charles H. Griffin (D), redistricted and retired, succeeded by Thad Cochran (R)
  • Mississippi's 5th congressional district: William M. Colmer (D), retired, succeeded by Trent Lott (R)
  • South Dakota's 2nd congressional district: James Abourezk (D), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by James Abdnor (R)
  • Virginia's 4th congressional district: Watkins Moorman Abbitt (D), retired, succeeded by Robert Daniel (R)

    • Republican holds

  • California's 20th congressional district: H. Allen Smith (R), retired, succeeded by Carlos Moorhead (R)
  • Idaho's 1st congressional district: James A. McClure (R), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Steve Symms (R)
  • Illinois's 15th congressional district: Cliffard D. Carlson (R), retired, succeeded by Leslie C. Arends (R), who was redistricted
  • Illinois's 21st congressional district: William L. Springer (R), retired, succeeded by Edward Rell Madigan (R)
  • Missouri's 7th congressional district: Durward Gorham Hall (R), retired, succeeded by Gene Taylor (R)
  • New Jersey's 12th congressional district: Florence P. Dwyer (R), retired, succeeded by Matthew John Rinaldo (R)
  • New York's 31st congressional district: Alexander Pirnie (R), redistricted and retired, succeeded by Donald J. Mitchell (R)
  • New York's 33rd congressional district: John H. Terry (R), redistricted and retired, succeeded by William F. Walsh (R)
  • North Carolina's 9th congressional district: Charles R. Jonas (R), retired, succeeded by James G. Martin (R)
  • Ohio's 4th congressional district: William Moore McCulloch (R), retired, succeeded by Tennyson Guyer (R)
  • Ohio's 8th congressional district: Jackson Edward Betts (R), retired, succeeded by Walter E. Powell (R), who was redistricted
  • Ohio's 16th congressional district: Frank T. Bow (R), retired, succeeded by Ralph Regula (R)
  • Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district: J. Irving Whalley (R), retired, succeeded by John P. Saylor (R), who was redistricted
  • Virginia's 8th congressional district: William L. Scott (R), retired to run for U.S. Senate, succeeded by Stanford Parris (R)
  • Washington's 1st congressional district: Thomas Pelly (R), retired, succeeded by Joel Pritchard (R)
  • Wisconsin's 8th congressional district: John W. Byrnes (R), retired, succeeded by Harold Vernon Froehlich (R)

    • Incumbents defeated in primary

    1. California's 8th congressional district: George P. Miller (D)
    2. California's 39th congressional district: John G. Schmitz (R)
    3. Colorado's 4th congressional district: Wayne Aspinall (D)
    4. Georgia's 1st congressional district: George Elliott Hagan (D)
    5. Michigan's 19th congressional district: Jack H. McDonald (R)
    6. Nevada's at-large congressional district: Walter S. Baring, Jr. (D)
    7. New Jersey's 13th congressional district: Cornelius Edward Gallagher (D)
    8. New York's 18th congressional district: Emanuel Celler (D)
    9. New York's 22nd congressional district: James H. Scheuer (D)
    10. Pennsylvania's 3rd congressional district: James A. Byrne (D)
    11. Pennsylvania's 22nd congressional district: William Sheldrick Conover (R)
    12. South Carolina's 6th congressional district: John L. McMillan (D)
    13. West Virginia's 4th congressional district: James Kee (D)

    Incumbents defeated in general election

    1. Colorado's 1st congressional district: Mike McKevitt (R)
    2. Connecticut's 5th congressional district: John S. Monagan (D)
    3. Illinois's 10th congressional district: Abner J. Mikva (D)
    4. Indiana's 11th congressional district: Andrew Jacobs, Jr. (D)
    5. Iowa's 1st congressional district: Fred Schwengel (R)
    6. Iowa's 4th congressional district: John Henry Kyl (R)
    7. Massachusetts's 9th congressional district: Louise Day Hicks (D)
    8. New York's 26th congressional district: John G. Dow (D)
    9. Tennessee's 6th congressional district: William Anderson (D)
    10. Texas's 5th congressional district: Earle Cabell (D)
    11. Texas's 13th congressional district: Graham B. Purcell, Jr. (D)
    12. Utah's 2nd congressional district: Sherman P. Lloyd (R)
    13. Wisconsin's 7th congressional district: Alvin E. O'Konski (R)

    Separate elections

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

    Alabama

    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.

    Alaska

    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

    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

    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.

    Colorado

    Colorado was reapportioned from 4 to 5 seats, constructing a new 5th district east and south of Denver.

    Florida

    Florida was reapportioned from 12 to 15 seats, adding a seat in central and two in south Florida.

    Iowa

    Iowa was reapportioned from 7 seats to 6, dividing the old 5th district around Des Moines between its neighbors. Its incumbent, Neal Smith, won again in the south-central Iowa 4th district.

    Louisiana

    Louisiana stayed at eight house seats following the 1970 census, but the Eighth District's boundaries were radically altered. New governor Edwin W. Edwardsordered the district to take in territory far to the south and east of its traditional base of Alexandria, which included many African-American and progressive white voters. The change was largely regarded as an election deal between Edwards and former Rep. Gillis Long, who finished third in the Democratic Primary in the 1971 Louisiana Governor's Election. Long easily won back the Eighth District seat he lost in 1964.

    Maryland

    Maryland’s redistricting eliminated a seat in Baltimore in favor of an additional seat in the DC suburbs.

    References

    United States House of Representatives elections, 1972 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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