[2] Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon won re-election, defeating Democratic Senator George McGovern from South Dakota.

[3] Nixon won a landslide victory, taking just under 61% of the popular vote and winning every state but Massachusetts and Washington, D. C. Libertarian John Hospers won the electoral vote of one faithless elector.

McGovern won the Democratic nomination, after defeating Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson, Alabama Governor George Wallace, and New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

[4] In the House, the Republican Party picked up twelve seats, but Democrats easily retained a majority.

The House elections took place after the 1970 United States census and the subsequent congressional re-apportionment.