1970Flipped from RepublicanFinal resultsIncumbent defeated
1970 election for Tennessee House District 12
Tennessee House of Representatives · Tennessee
Shelby Rhinehart (D) won with 52.1% of the vote, defeating Howard Swafford (R) by 4.2 points, a seat Republicans won last time.
Shelby RhinehartDemocrat · winner
52.1%6,020
Howard SwaffordRepublican · incumbent
47.9%5,532
11,552 votes
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1970
Races before and after
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET