1970 Alabama House of Representatives election

1970 Alabama House of Representatives election

November 3, 1970

All 106 seats in the Alabama House of Representatives
54 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Rankin Fite
(lost re-election as speaker)
Bert Nettles
(de facto)
None
Party Democratic Republican NDPA
Leader since January 10, 1967 April 1, 1969 (sp.)
Leader's seat 9th–Marion Co. 37th–Mobile Co. p. 7
Last election 106 seats, 66.16% 0 seats, 33.60% New
Seats before 105 1 0
Seats won 103 2 1
Seat change 3 2 1
Popular vote 2,895,406 787,599 493,081
Percentage 68.57% 18.65% 11.68%

     Democratic hold
     Republican hold      Republican gain
     National Democratic gain
Multi-member districts:
     Democratic majority      Even split

Democratic:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      90–100%      Unopposed
Republican:      50–60%
National Democratic:      50–60%


Speaker before election

Rankin Fite
Democratic

Elected Speaker

G. Sage Lyons
Democratic

The 1970 Alabama House of Representatives election took place on Tuesday, November 3, 1970, to elect 106 representatives to serve four-year terms in the Alabama House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on May 5 with runoff elections on June 2. The first two Black state legislators since the Reconstruction era were elected this year, both from District 31 in Barbour, Bullock, and Macon counties: Thomas Reed in place 1 on the National Democratic Party of Alabama ticket, and Fred Gray in place 2 as a Democrat. Reed would later run under the Democratic banner in the 1974 general election.

Incumbent speaker Rankin Fite lost the confidence of incoming Governor George Wallace, and was replaced as speaker by a unanimous vote at the beginning of the 1971 session. State representative G. Sage Lyons of Mobile County's sixth place was hand-picked by Wallace to succeed Fite and was elected to the post without opposition. Only two Republicans were elected at the general election: Bert Nettles of Mobile County was re-elected, and Doug Hale was elected to Madison County's fifth slot. The two agreed to make the more senior representative, Nettles, the minority leader, with Hale becoming minority whip.

This was the last state house election in Alabama before a 1973 federal court order mandated a new legislative map with single-member districts. At this point, the state had used a mixed system of single-member and multi-member districts to allocate seats in the legislature, all based on pre-existing county lines.

The election took place concurrently with elections for U.S. House, governor, state senate, and numerous other state and local offices.