The 1968 United States House of Representatives elections were elections for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

on November 5, 1968, to elect members to serve in the 91st United States Congress. They coincided with Richard M. Nixon's election as president. Nixon's narrow victory yielded only limited gains for his Republican Party, which picked up a net of five seats from the Democratic Party. The Democrats retained a majority in the House. The election coincided with the presidential campaign of

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

of the American Independent Party, who unsuccessfully attempted to deny a majority in the Electoral College to any of his opponents. Had Wallace succeeded he would have given the House the choice of president from among the three, for the first time since 1825. As a result of this election, Democrats formed a majority of 26 state House delegations, with Republicans forming a majority in 19 and the other five delegations being evenly split (each state's House delegation receives one vote in such an election). However, the Democrats' nominal majority of state delegations includes those of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

who were more inclined to support Wallace as opposed to Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. Wallace believed the Southern representatives would be able to use the clout his campaign was trying to give them to force an end to federal desegregation efforts in the South.

Overall results

409 incumbent members sought reelection, but 4 were defeated in primaries and 9 defeated in the general election for a total of 396 incumbents winning. Summary of the November 5, 1968 election results

Special elections

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

, - ! rowspan=2 ,
, Spark Matsunaga , , Democratic ,

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

, Incumbent re-elected. , rowspan=2 nowrap , , - , Patsy Mink , , Democratic , 1964 , Incumbent re-elected.

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

References

Works cited

External links

Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election, 1968
{{George H. W. Bush Presidency of Richard Nixon George H. W. Bush John Conyers John Dingell Gerald Ford Jamie Whitten