1964 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1962 November 3, 1964 1966 →
All 435 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader John McCormack Charles A. Halleck Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 10, 1962 January 3, 1959 Leader's seat Massachusetts 9th Indiana 2nd Last election 259 seats 176 seats Seats won 295 140 Seat change 36 36 Popular vote 37,643,960 27,916,576 Percentage 57.1% 42.4% Swing 4.7pp 4.7pp
Results:      Democratic hold     Democratic gain      Republican hold     Republican gain
Speaker before election John McCormack Democratic ElectedSpeaker John McCormack Democratic

The1964 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for theUnited States House of Representatives on November 3, 1964, to elect members to serve in the89th United States Congress. They coincided with the election to a full term ofPresidentLyndon B. Johnson. Johnson's landslide victory overBarry Goldwater allowed hisDemocratic Party to gain a net of 36 seats from theRepublican Party, giving them a two-thirds majority in the House for the first time since1936. The election also marked the first time sinceReconstruction that Republicans made inroads in theDeep South, with Republicans winning seats inGeorgia for the first time since 1874, andAlabama andMississippi since 1876.^[1]

Disappointment over the results caused House Republicans to replaceMinority LeaderCharles Halleck with future PresidentGerald R. Ford.

397 incumbent members sought reelection, but 8 were defeated in primaries and 45 defeated in the general election for a total of 344 incumbents winning.^[2]

Summary of the November 3, 1964, election results

Parties		Seats				Popular Vote
		1962	1964	Change	Strength	Vote	%	Change
	Democratic Party	259	295	36	67.8%	37,643,960	57.1%	4.7%
	Republican Party	176	140	36	32.2%	27,916,576	42.4%	4.7%
	Liberal Party	0	0		-	132,497	0.2%
	Independent	0	0		-	115,403	0.2%
	Conservative Party	0	0		-	45,665	0.1%	0.1%
	Socialist Workers Party	0	0		-	3,710	<0.1%
	United Taxpayers Party	0	0		-	2,429	<0.1%
	Prohibition Party	0	0		-	2,238	<0.1%
	National States' Rights Party	0	0		-	644	<0.1%
	Socialist Labor Party	0	0		-	76	<0.1%
	Others	0	0		-	15,988	<0.1%
Total		435	435	——	100.0%	65,879,186	100.0%	——
Source:Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

• 
  House seats by party holding plurality in state
• 
  Gains by state
• 
  District results by vote share

While the GOP performed badly nationally, Goldwater's tremendous success in theDeep South led to the election of several Republicans to the House from those states, many of them the first Republicans elected there sinceReconstruction. These "Goldwater Republicans" were elected:

Alabama, which had not agreed on a redistricting plan until 1964 and had elected all members at-large in 1962, went back to electing from districts. While most of the at-large representatives were former district representatives and were thus geographically diverse, the 1st district near Mobile lacked an incumbent, and neither of the incumbents who lived in the 7th district were nominated.^[3]

Connecticut eliminated its at-large seat and redistricted from 5 districts to 6, creating a new district in the northwestern part of the state.^[3]

Georgia redistricted its existing 12 districts, dividing the Atlanta-area 5th district into a 4th and 5th district, renumbering the existing 4th district to the 6th, and dividing the existing central Georgia 6th district up between its neighbors with compensating boundary changes elsewhere.^[3]

Michigan redistricted, converting its at-large seat into a 19th district and realigning the other districts to account for population growth in the Detroit suburbs.^[3] Two Democratic seats and one Republican seat were eliminated or combined at redistricting, but the defeat of three Republican incumbents and the election of Democrats to all the new seats yielded a net shift of four seats, changing the party balance from 11–8 Republican to 12–7 Democratic.