 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "1974 Georgia's 6th congressional district election" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Flynt: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Gingrich: 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The1974 United States House of Representatives election inGeorgia's 6th congressional district was the election for the Representative of Georgia's 6th district to theUnited States House of Representatives which was held on November 5, 1974. This election is notable for being the beginning of a political career of a then-little known professor from theUniversity of West Georgia and futureSpeaker of the United States House of RepresentativesNewt Gingrich.
Incumbent Representative John J. Flynt in his previous nine runs had never faced any serious challenge, winning re-election in 1972 without any formal opposition.[2] However, in 1974, he was nearly defeated by political newcomer Newt Gingrich. This came as a considerable surprise. Flynt was known as one of the mostconservative Democrats in the House, and 1974 was a very poor year for Republicans nationally due to fallout fromWatergate. Gingrich would face Flynt in another close racein 1976, but come short again. Flynt would retirein 1978 rather than fight another close match (and possibly unsuccessful re-election bid) with Gingrich, thus finally giving Republicans a victory in a district that had not elected a Republican to the House of Representatives sinceReconstruction.
| Political and legislative career |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selected books |
| ||||
| Related articles | |||||
.jpg)
