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1962 United States House of Representatives elections

House elections for the 88th U.S. Congress

1962 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1960 November 6, 1962 1964 →
All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives 218 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader John McCormack Charles Halleck Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 10, 1962 January 3, 1959 Leader's seat Massachusetts 9th Indiana 2nd Last election 262 seats 175 seats Seats won 259 176 Seat change 3 1 Popular vote 26,860,184 24,160,387 Percentage 52.4% 47.1% Swing 2.4% 2.3%
Speaker before election John McCormack Democratic Elected Speaker John McCormack Democratic

The 1962 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives on November 6, 1962, to elect members to serve in the 88th United States Congress. They occurred in the middle of President John F. Kennedy's term. As in most midterm elections, Kennedy's Democratic Party lost seats to the opposition Republican Party, but retained a majority. House Democrats were expected to lose their majority, but the resolution over the Cuban Missile Crisis just a few weeks prior led to a rebound in approval for the Democrats under President Kennedy.

The number of seats up for election went back to 435, in accordance with reapportionment and redistricting resulting from the 1960 census. The membership had been increased temporarily to 437 in 1959, providing 1 seat each for the new states of Alaska and Hawaii, while the other 435 seats continued with the reapportionment resulting from the 1950 census.

This was the last midterm election cycle until 2022 in which a sitting Democratic president experienced net losses for his party in the House while experiencing net gains in the Senate.

Overall results[edit]

Parties		Seats				Popular Vote
		1960	1962	Change	Strength	Vote	%	Change
	Democratic Party	262	259	3	59.3%	26,860,184	52.4%	2.4%
	Republican Party	175	176	1	40.5%	24,160,387	47.1%	2.3%
	Liberal Party	0	0		0.0%	94,208	0.2%
	Independent	0	0		0.0%	80,484	0.2%	0.2%
	Prohibition Party	0	0		0.0%	17,171	<0.1%
	Conservative Party	0	0		0.0%	6,950	<0.1%
	Socialist Labor Party	0	0		0.0%	2,611	<0.1%
	Voters For Peace Party	0	0		0.0%	1,124	<0.1%
	Socialist Workers Party	0	0		0.0%	730	<0.1%
	Others	0	0		0.0%	19,139	<0.1%	0.1%
Total		437	435	2	100.0%	51,242,988	100.0%	——
Source: Election Statistics – Office of the Clerk

Special elections[edit]

Elections are listed by date and district.

Alabama[edit]

Alabama lost 1 seat in redistricting and elected all seats at-large as a method of determining which seat to eliminate.

District	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Member	Party	First elected
Alabama at-large	George M. Grant Redistricted from the 2nd district	Democratic	1938	Incumbent re-elected.	▌Y George Huddleston Jr. (Democratic) 11.3% ▌Y Armistead I. Selden Jr. (Democratic) 11.0% ▌Y George W. Andrews (Democratic) 10.9% ▌Y George M. Grant (Democratic) 10.7% ▌Y Albert Rains (Democratic) 10.1% ▌Y Kenneth A. Roberts (Democratic) 10.0% ▌Y Robert E. Jones Jr. (Democratic) 9.6% ▌Y Carl Elliott (Democratic) 9.6% ▌John H. Buchanan Jr. (Republican) 5.3% ▌Thomas Abernethy (Republican) 5.2% ▌Evan Foreman Jr. (Republican) 5.1% ▌J. Chester Robinson (Republican) 1.2%
	George W. Andrews Redistricted from the 3rd district	Democratic	1944	Incumbent re-elected.
	Kenneth A. Roberts Redistricted from the 4th district	Democratic	1950	Incumbent re-elected.
	Albert Rains Redistricted from the 5th district	Democratic	1944	Incumbent re-elected.
	Armistead I. Selden Jr. Redistricted from the 6th district	Democratic	1952	Incumbent re-elected.
	Carl Elliott Redistricted from the 7th district	Democratic	1948	Incumbent re-elected.
	Robert E. Jones Jr. Redistricted from the 8th district	Democratic	1947 (special)	Incumbent re-elected.
	George Huddleston Jr. Redistricted from the 9th district	Democratic	1954	Incumbent re-elected.
	Frank W. Boykin Redistricted from the 1st district	Democratic	1935 (special)	Incumbent lost renomination. Democratic loss.

Alaska[edit]

Arizona[edit]

Arizona gained one seat and formed a new third district out of the northern part of the state.^[1]

Arkansas[edit]

Arkansas lost two seats and merged the 5th and 6th districts into the other districts. 5th district incumbent Dale Alford chose to run for governor rather than face Wilbur Mills in a primary, and 6th district incumbent Catherine Dorris Norrell retired after serving out the remainder of her husband's term.^[1]

California[edit]

Eight new seats were gained in reapportionment, including 4 additional districts in Greater Los Angeles alone as well as others in San Diego, the Northern Central Valley, Alameda County, and the Central Coast, increasing the delegation from 30 to 38 seats.^[1] Seven of the new seats were won by Democrats, one by a Republican. Two Republican incumbents lost re-election to Democrats. Therefore, Democrats increased by 9 seats and Republicans decreased by 1.

Colorado[edit]

Connecticut[edit]

Delaware[edit]

Florida[edit]

Florida gained 4 new districts at reapportionment: the 3rd around Miami, the 9th in the Panhandle, the 10th around Tampa, and the 11th in Orlando and the nearby Atlantic coast.^[1]

Georgia[edit]

Hawaii[edit]

Hawaii gained a second seat at reapportionment and elected both seats at-large.

District	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Member	Party	First elected
Hawaii at-large	Daniel Inouye	Democratic	1959	Incumbent retired to run for U.S. senator. New member elected. Democratic hold.	▌Y Thomas Gill (Democratic) 33.9% ▌Y Spark Matsunaga (Democratic) 33.9% ▌Albert W. Evensen (Republican) 19.5% ▌Richard Sutton (Republican) 12.7%
	None (district created)			New seat. Democratic gain.

Idaho[edit]

Illinois[edit]

Illinois lost one seat at reapportionment, merging the existing 21st district into the 20th and 23rd, and the Chicago districts were realigned to give more representation to the suburbs.^[1]

Indiana[edit]

Iowa[edit]

Iowa lost one seat at reapportionment and divided the existing 6th district in north-central Iowa among several neighboring districts with compensating boundary changes elsewhere. Incumbent Merwin Coad chose to retire rather than run against one of the other incumbents.^[1]

Kansas[edit]

Kansas lost one seat at reapportionment and redistricted from 6 to 5, combining the existing southwestern 5th and northwestern 6th districts into a single district, in which incumbents J. Floyd Breeding and Bob Dole ran against each other, and making modest boundary changes elsewhere.^[1]

Kentucky[edit]

Kentucky lost one seat at reapportionment. 5th district incumbent Brent Spence elected to retire, and his district was divided between several other districts with the lion's share going to the 4th.^[1]

Louisiana[edit]

Maine[edit]

Maine lost one seat at reapportionment, redistricting from 3 seats to 2 -- a 1st district containing the coastal parts of the existing 1st and 2nd districts, and a 2nd district containing the existing 3rd district and the rest of inland Maine.^[1]