The U.S. House election, 1974 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1974 that occurred in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which had forced President Richard Nixon to resign in favor of Gerald Ford. This scandal, along with high inflation, allowed the Democrats to make large gains in the House election, taking 49 seats from the Republicans and increasing their majority above the two-thirds mark. Future president Bill Clinton was the Democratic nominee for a district in Arkansas, but lost.