1970 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1968 November 3, 1970 1972 →
All 435 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader John McCormack (retired) Gerald Ford Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 10, 1962 January 3, 1965 Leader's seat Massachusetts 9th Michigan 5th Last election 243 seats 192 seats Seats won 255 180 Seat change 12 12 Popular vote 29,080,212 24,352,657 Percentage 53.6% 44.9% Swing 3.4pp 3.6pp
Results:      Democratic hold     Democratic gain      Republican hold     Republican gain
Speaker before election John McCormack Democratic ElectedSpeaker Carl Albert Democratic

The1970 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for theUnited States House of Representatives held on November 3, 1970, to elect members to serve in the92nd United States Congress. They occurred in the middle ofRichard M. Nixon's first term aspresident. His party, theRepublican Party, lost a net of 12 seats to theDemocratic Party, which thereby increased its majority in the House.

Pursuant to theUniform Congressional District Act, this was the first House election since the1930 elections in which all 50 states used asingle-member-district system to elect representatives instead of usingat-large congressional districts.

401 incumbent members sought reelection, but 10 were defeated in primaries and 12 defeated in the general election for a total of 379 incumbents winning.^[1]

Summary of the November 3, 1970, election results

Parties		Seats				Popular Vote
		1968	1970	Change	Strength	Vote	%	Change
	Democratic Party	243	255	12	58.6%	29,080,212	53.6%	3.4%
	Republican Party	192	180	12	41.4%	24,352,657	44.9%	3.6%
	Conservative Party	——	——	——	——	230,180	0.4%
	American Independent Party	——	——	——	——	132,992	0.2%	0.1%
	Independent	——	——	——	——	122,430	0.2%	0.1%
	Liberal Party	——	——	——	——	67,696	0.1%
	National Democratic Party	——	——	——	——	67,228	0.1%
	Constitution Party	——	——	——	——	46,100	0.1%
	Peace and Freedom Party	——	——	——	——	40,763	0.1%
	Socialist Workers Party	——	——	——	——	9,675	<0.1%
	Raza Unida Party	——	——	——	——	7,085	<0.1%
	A Public Party	——	——	——	——	5,774	<0.1%
	Right to Life Party	——	——	——	——	5,342	<0.1%
	Dodd Independent Party	——	——	——	——	5,062	<0.1%
	Liberty Union Party	——	——	——	——	4,315	<0.1%
	Urban Tax Reform Party	——	——	——	——	3,675	<0.1%
	American Party	——	——	——	——	2,759	<0.1%
	Common Peoples' Party	——	——	——	——	1,727	<0.1%
	Buffalo Party	——	——	——	——	1,724	<0.1%
	Iowa New Party	——	——	——	——	1,262	<0.1%
	Socialist Labor Party	——	——	——	——	973	<0.1%
	For the People Party	——	——	——	——	823	<0.1%
	The O'Hara Bill Party	——	——	——	——	518	<0.1%
	Communist Party	——	——	——	——	374	<0.1%
	Progressive Labor Socialist Party	——	——	——	——	208	<0.1%
	Others	——	——	——	——	67,331	0.1%	0.1%
Total		435	435	0	100.0%	54,258,885	100.0%	——
Source:Election Statistics – Office of the Clerk

One Democratic seat was lost to Republicans. Democrats, therefore, retained a 20–18 margin over Republicans.