Samar's at-large congressional district was the provincewide electoral district for Philippine national legislatures in both the undivided province of Samar before its 1965 partition and the western third that adopted its name which was created as a result of that division from 1965 to 1986.
[2] Before 1943, the undivided island province was represented in the national legislatures through its first, second and third districts.
The former province was also earlier represented in the Malolos Congress of the First Philippine Republic in 1898 by appointed delegates from Luzon.
[3] The three districts were restored in Samar ahead of the 1941 Philippine House of Representatives elections whose elected representatives only began to serve following the dissolution of the Second Republic and the restoration of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1945.
The district was immediately dissolved due to absence of a national legislature from 1972 to 1978.