MIDTERM ELECTIONS LARGELY A WASH: DEMOCRATS SLIGHTLY EXPAND MAJORITIES
November 6, 1974
Democrats narrowly won the 1974 midterms, but their gains were slight, due to a middling economy and the resolution of the Watergate scandal. The Democrats won five seats in the House of Representatives to increase their margin to 253-182, while they gained one Senate seat overall, to expand their majority to 60 in the upper chamber. In Colorado, Gary Hart defeated incumbent Republican Peter Dominick. Democratic challenger Wendell Ford defeated Republican incumbent Marlow Cook in Kentucky, while famed astronaut John Glenn unseated Republican incumbent William Saxbe in Ohio. Patrick Leahy, a young state attorney in Vermont, surprised Republican Richard Mallary in Vermont, in an election that could go to a recount. Frank Church, considered to be one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country, narrowly held his seat over Republican Robert L. Smith.
It was not all bad news for the Republicans in the Senate. Jack Eckerd, of the Eckerd pharmacy chain, narrowly defeated Democrat Richard Stone, who President Muskie campaigned for in both September and October. Richard Lugar, the mayor of Indianapolis, unseated Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in Indiana, while David M. Stanley won the open seat in Iowa vacated by Democrat Harold Hughes with 52% of the vote against Democratic house representative John Culver. George McGovern, thought to be safe for reelection in South Dakota, was shocked by Republican Leo Thorsness, a Vietnam prisoner of war for several years. Ronald Reagan, who campaigned for Republicans across the country, was disappointed in the midterm results. "There is no way that we should be losing a single seat as the party out of power," Reagan said. "We are completely rudderless as a party, and someone has to set it right."
COMPOSITION OF THE SENATE AFTER THE 1974 ELECTIONS. An asterisk indicates that this is a departure from RL. Democrats have 60 seats, Republicans have 39, and there is 1 independent.
Alabama: James Allen (D), John Sparkman (D)
Alaska: Mike Gravel (D), Ted Stevens (R)
Arizona: Paul Fannin (R), Barry Goldwater (R)
Arkansas: William Fulbright (D), John McClellan (D)
California: Alan Cranston (D), John Tunney (D)
Colorado: Floyd Haskell (D), Gary Hart (D)
Connecticut: Lowell Weicker (R), Abraham Ribicoff (D)
Delaware: Joe Biden (D), William Roth (R)
Florida: Lawton Chiles (D), Jack Eckerd (R)*
Georgia: Herman Talmadge (D), Sam Nunn (D)
Hawaii: Daniel Inouye (D), Cecil Heftel (D)*
Idaho: Frank Church (D), James McClure (R)
Illinois: Adlai Stevenson III (D), Charles Percy (R)
Indiana: Vance Hartke (D), Richard Lugar (R)*
Iowa: Richard Clark (D), David M. Stanley (R)*
Kansas: Bob Dole (R), James B. Pearson (R)
Kentucky: Wendell Ford (D), Walter D. Huddleston (D)
Louisiana: Bennett Johnston (D), Russell Long (D)
Maine: William Hathaway (D), Kenneth Curtis (D)*
Maryland: Joseph Tydings (D)*, Charles Mathias (R)
Massachusetts: Ted Kennedy (D), Edward Brooke (R)
Michigan: Robert P. Griffin (R), Philip Hart (D)
Minnesota: Walter Mondale (D), Hubert Humphrey (D)
Mississippi: John Stennis (D), James Eastland (D)
Missouri: Stuart Symington (D), Thomas Eagleton (D)
Montana: Mike Mansfield (D, Majority Leader), Lee Metcalf (D)
Nebraska: Roman Hruska (R), Carl Curtis (R)
Nevada: Paul Laxalt (R), Howard Cannon (D)
New Hampshire: Norris Cotton (R), Thomas J. McIntyre (D)
New Jersey: Harrison A. Williams (D), Clifford Case (R)
New Mexico: Pete Domenici (R), Joseph Montoya (D)
New York: Jacob Javits (R), Richard Ottinger (D)*
North Carolina: Jesse Helms (R), Robert Barren Morgan (D)
North Dakota: Milton Young (R), Quentin Burdick (D)
Ohio: Howard Metzenbaum (D)*, John Glenn (D)
Oklahoma: Henry Bellmon (R), Dewey F. Bartlett (R)
Oregon: Mark Hatfield (R), Bob Packwood (R)
Pennsylvania: Hugh Scott (R, Minority Leader), Richard Schweiker (R)
Rhode Island: Claiborne Pell (D), John Pastore (D)
South Carolina: Strom Thurmond (R), Fritz Hollings (D)
South Dakota: James Abourezk (D), Leo K. Thorsness (R)*
Tennessee: Howard Baker (R), Bill Brock (R)
Texas: John Tower (R), Lloyd Bentsen (D)
Utah: Jake Garn (R), Frank Moss (D)
Vermont: Winston Prouty (R), Patrick Leahy (D)
Virginia: Harry Byrd (Independent), William L. Scott (R)
Washington: Warren Magnusen (D), Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D)
West Virginia: Robert Byrd (D), Jennings Randolph (D)
Wisconsin: William Proxmire (D), Gaylord Nelson (D)
Wyoming: Clifford Hansen (R), Gale W. McGee (D)