Louisiana stayed at eight house seats following the 1970 census, but the Eighth District's boundaries were radically altered. New governor Edwin W. Edwards, who resigned his seat as Seventh District Representative on May 9, ordered the district to take in territory far to the south and east of its traditional base of Alexandria, which included many African-American and progressive white voters. The change was largely regarded as an election deal between Edwards and former Rep. Gillis Long, who finished third in the Democratic Primary in the 1971 Louisiana Governor's Election. Long easily won back the Eighth District seat he lost in 1964 to his cousin Speedy O. Long, whose home in Jena was moved into the Fifth District in the 1972 redistricting. Speedy Long retired rather than challenge entrenched Fifth District Rep. Otto Passman.
Edwards' Seventh District seat was filled by chief aide John Breaux, who won simultaneous elections for the remainder of Edwards' term and the full term to the next Congress. The special election was run under the boundaries used in 1968 and 1970; the election for the full term was run under the new boundaries approved by the Louisiana Legislature during its 1972 regular session.
In addition to Speedy Long, Third District Rep. Patrick T. Caffery chose not to seek re-election to a third term. He was succeeded by Dave Treen, who became the first Republican elected to Congress from Louisiana since Reconstruction following the Civil War.
Second District Rep. Hale Boggs, the House Majority Leader during the 92nd Congress, was declared missing three weeks prior to the election when a plane carrying him and Alaska Rep. Nick Begich was lost in the Alaska wilderness. Boggs was declared dead at the beginning of the 93rd Congress and his seat vacated; his widow Lindy won a special election for the seat in March 1973.
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the House majority leader and a member of the Warren Commission.
John Berlinger Breaux is an American lobbyist, attorney, and retired politician who was a member of the United States Senate from Louisiana from 1987 until 2005. He was also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1972 to 1987. He was considered one of the more conservative national legislators from the Democratic Party. Breaux was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.
Christopher Charles John is an American politician and lobbyist who from 1997 to 2005 served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 7th congressional district, since disbanded and merged into the 3rd district.
Nicholas Joseph Begich Sr. was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Alaska. He is presumed to have died in the crash of a light aircraft in Alaska in 1972; his body was never found. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs was a politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later as United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She was also a permanent chairwoman of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, which met in New York City to nominate the Carter-Mondale ticket. She was the first woman to preside over a major party convention.
The 1972 United States Senate elections coincided with the landslide re-election of Republican President Richard Nixon. Despite Nixon's landslide victory, Democrats increased their majority by two seats. The Democrats picked up open seats in Kentucky and South Dakota, and defeated four incumbent senators: Gordon Allott of Colorado, J. Caleb Boggs of Delaware, Jack Miller of Iowa, and Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. The Republicans picked up open seats in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, and defeated one incumbent, William B. Spong Jr. of Virginia.
The 1972 United States House of Representatives elections coincided with the landslide reelection victory of President Richard M. Nixon. Nixon's Republican Party managed to gain a net of twelve House of Representatives seats from the Democratic Party, although the Democrats retained a majority.
William Henson Moore III is an American attorney and businessman who is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented Louisiana's 6th congressional district, based about Baton Rouge, from 1975 to 1987. He was only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since Reconstruction, the first having been David C. Treen, then of Jefferson Parish.
Edwin Edward Willis was an American politician and attorney from the U.S. state of Louisiana who was affiliated with the Long political faction. A Democrat, he served in the Louisiana State Senate during 1948 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1969. Willis served on the U.S. House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
The 1972 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on February 1, 1972. Edwin Edwards defeated Republican candidate David Treen to become Governor of Louisiana.
Mary Catherine Small Long was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Louisiana's 8th congressional district, which she filled from 1985 to 1987, the remainder of the term left by the death of her husband, Gillis William Long. Until it was disbanded in 1993, the 8th district was based in Central Louisiana about Alexandria. She was the first female military veteran elected to Congress, having served as a WAVE in the United States Navy.
Patrick Thomson Caffery, Sr., known as Pat Caffery, was an attorney from New Iberia, Louisiana, who formerly served as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1964 to 1968 and then as a U.S. representative from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 1969 to 1973.
Donald J. Cazayoux Jr. is an American lawyer and former politician. He served as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana from 2010 to 2013. From 2008 to 2009, he was a Democratic United States Representative from Louisiana's 6th congressional district.
Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. was an American lawyer and lobbyist based in Washington, D.C.
The 1972 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on November 7, 1972, to elect the United States representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district. Incumbent Democratic Representative Nick Begich went missing shortly before the general election, but still defeated Republican nominee Don Young.
The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 to elect the six U.S. representatives from the state of Louisiana, one from each of the state's six congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including the United States Senate.
William Franklin Spooner, known as Frank Spooner, is an oil and natural gas producer in Monroe in Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who has been active since the early 1970s in his state's Republican Party. In the fall of 1976, Spooner waged a strong but losing race for the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 5th congressional district in a bid to succeed incumbent Otto Passman, who had been unseated in the Democratic primary by farmer/businessman Jerry Huckaby, then from Ringgold in Bienville Parish. Therefore, instead of facing Passman, as he had expected, Spooner competed with Huckaby for a relatively rare open seat in the state's congressional delegation.
Garret Neal Graves is an American politician serving as the United States representative from Louisiana's 6th congressional district since 2015.
Robert Max Ross was a Republican activist and a candidate for numerous statewide and local offices who resided in Mangham in northeastern Louisiana. He was among the earliest advocates for the Republican political movement at a time when no GOP candidate had been elected statewide in more than a century. He ran as one of two candidates in the Republican primaries for governor in 1972 and Louisiana's 5th congressional district seat in 1974. After Louisiana adopted the jungle primary system, Ross qualified again for governor in 1983 and also the United States Senate in 1984. He additionally ran for the Louisiana State Senate as well as mayor of Mangham during other election years.
Speedy Oteria Long was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 8th congressional district from January 3, 1965, until January 3, 1973. He was a member of the Long family, a cousin of Huey Long, Earl K. Long, Russell Long, and Gillis William Long.
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