1972 United States presidential election#Republican nomination

{{Main|1972 Republican Party presidential primaries}}

Republican candidates:

• Richard Nixon, President of the United States from California
• Pete McCloskey, Representative from California
• John M. Ashbrook, Representative from Ohio

{{Richard Nixon series}}

Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he was credited with opening the People's Republic of China as a result of his visit that year, and achieving détente with the Soviet Union. Polls showed that Nixon held a strong lead in the Republican primaries. He was challenged by two candidates: liberal Pete McCloskey from California, and conservative John Ashbrook from Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards China and the Soviet Union. In the New Hampshire primary, McCloskey garnered 19.8% of the vote to Nixon's 67.6%, with Ashbrook receiving 9.7%.{{cite web |url=http://www.primarynewhampshire.com/new-hampshire-primary-past-results.php |title=New Hampshire Primary historical past election results. 2008 Democrat & Republican past results. John McCain, Hillary Clinton winners |publisher=Primarynewhampshire.com |access-date=2014-08-17 |archive-date=July 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715112805/http://www.primarynewhampshire.com/new-hampshire-primary-past-results.php |url-status=dead }} Nixon won 1323 of the 1324 delegates to the Republican convention, with McCloskey receiving the vote of one delegate from New Mexico. Vice President Spiro Agnew was re-nominated by acclamation; while both the party's moderate wing and Nixon himself had wanted to replace him with a new running-mate (the moderates favoring Nelson Rockefeller, and Nixon favoring John Connally), it was ultimately concluded that such action would incur too great a risk of losing Agnew's base of conservative supporters.

{{Election box begin no party no change|title=1972 Republican Party presidential primaries{{Cite book |title=Guide to U.S. Elections |publisher=CQ Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781604265361 |editor-last=Kalb |editor-first=Deborah |edition=6th |location=Washington, DC |pages=415}}}}

{{Election box winning candidate no party no change|candidate=Richard M. Nixon (incumbent)|votes=5,378,704|percentage=86.9}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Unpledged delegates|votes=317,048|percentage=5.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=John M. Ashbrook|votes=311,543|percentage=5.0}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Paul N. McCloskey|votes=132,731|percentage=2.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=George C. Wallace|votes=20,472|percentage=0.3}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate="None of the names shown"|votes=5,350|percentage=0.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Others|votes=22,433|percentage=0.4}}

{{Election box total no party no change|votes=6,188,281|percentage=100}}

{{End}}

Seven members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War were brought on federal charges for conspiring to disrupt the Republican convention.{{cite book|title= How We Got Here: The '70s|last= Frum|first= David|author-link= David Frum|year= 2000|publisher= Basic Books|location= New York, New York|isbn= 0-465-04195-7|page= [https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/52 52]|url= https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/52}} They were acquitted by a federal jury in Gainesville, Florida.

{{Main|1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries}}

Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of former president John F. Kennedy and former senator Robert F. Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated in the 1960s, was the favorite to win the 1972 nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ON9LAAAAIBAJ&pg=5489,4273487&dq=ted+kennedy+presidential+campaign&hl=en|title=Don't count out Ted Kennedy|newspaper=The Free Lance–Star|date=June 4, 1971|author=Jack Anderson|access-date=March 16, 2012|archive-date=February 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205083438/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ON9LAAAAIBAJ&pg=5489%2C4273487&dq=ted+kennedy+presidential+campaign&hl=en|url-status=live}} The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Maine Senator Ed Muskie,{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link=David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York, New York |isbn= 0-465-04195-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/298 298] |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/298}} the 1968 vice-presidential nominee.{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M001121 |title=Muskie, Edmund Sixtus, (1914–1996) |publisher=United States Congress |access-date=March 16, 2012 |archive-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205113140/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M001121 |url-status=live }} Muskie's momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the "Canuck letter" was published in the Manchester Union-Leader. The letter, actually a forgery from Nixon's "dirty tricks" unit, claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians – a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern New England.{{cite news |last1=Mitchell |first1=Robert |title=The Democrat who cried (maybe) in New Hampshire and lost the presidential nomination |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/09/new-hampshire-ed-muskie-tears-primary/ |access-date=March 3, 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 9, 2020 |archive-date=March 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200329235846/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/09/new-hampshire-ed-muskie-tears-primary/ |url-status=live }} Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife Jane, reporting that she drank and used off-color language during the campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper's offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie later stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes, the press reported that Muskie broke down and cried, shattering the candidate's image as calm and reasoned.{{Cite web |date=1996-03-26 |title=REMEMBERING ED MUSKIE |website=PBS |url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990427124548/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html |archive-date=1999-04-27}}

Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.{{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30C11F7345C107B93CBA8178AD85F458785F9 |title=McGovern Enters '72 Race, Pledging Troop Withdrawal |author=R. W. Apple, Jr. |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 18, 1971 |page=1 |format=fee required |access-date=March 16, 2012 |archive-date=June 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608024557/https://query.nytimes.com/mem/page.html?res=F30C11F7345C107B93CBA8178AD85F458785F9&legacy=true&status=nf%2F |url-status=live }} McGovern was able to pull together support from the anti-war movement and other grassroots support to win the nomination in a primary system he had played a significant part in designing. On January 25, 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm announced she would run, and became the first African-American woman to run for a major-party presidential nomination. Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink also announced she would run, and became the first Asian American person to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.{{cite web |title=Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign |author=Jo Freeman |publisher=University of Illinois at Chicago Women's History Project |date=February 2005 |url=http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150126085532/http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm |archive-date=January 26, 2015 |df=mdy-all }} On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary. Two days later, journalist Robert Novak quoted a "Democratic senator", later revealed to be Thomas Eagleton, as saying: "The people don't know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot. Once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he's dead." The label stuck, and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid". It became Humphrey's battle cry to stop McGovern—especially in the Nebraska primary.{{cite book|author=Robert D. Novak|title=The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Cq-v7M6N74C&pg=PA225|year=2008|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|page=225|isbn=9781400052004|access-date=November 20, 2015|archive-date=April 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145321/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Cq-v7M6N74C&pg=PA225|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=Nancy L. Cohen|title=Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America|url=https://archive.org/details/deliriumpolitics0000cohe|url-access=registration|year= 2012|publisher=Counterpoint Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deliriumpolitics0000cohe/page/37 37]–38|isbn=9781619020689}}

Alabama Governor George Wallace, an infamous segregationist who ran on a third-party ticket in 1968, did well in the Southern United States (winning nearly every county in the Florida primary) and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the North.{{cite web |last1=((The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica)) |title=United States presidential election of 1972 |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1972 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 December 2019 |archive-date=June 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605084714/https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1972 |url-status=live }} What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was struck by five bullets and left paralyzed from the waist down. The day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign, and he pulled out in July. In the end, McGovern won the nomination by winning primaries through grassroots support, in spite of establishment opposition. McGovern had led a commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of 1968. However, the new rules angered many prominent Democrats whose influence was marginalized, and those politicians refused to support McGovern's campaign (some even supporting Nixon instead), leaving the McGovern campaign at a significant disadvantage in funding, compared to Nixon. Some of the principles of the McGovern Commission have lasted throughout every subsequent nomination contest, but the Hunt Commission instituted the selection of superdelegates a decade later, in order to reduce the nomination chances of outsiders such as McGovern and Jimmy Carter.

[[File:1972DemocraticPresidentialPrimaries.svg|thumb|400px|Statewide contest by winner
{{legend|#c1c1c1|No primary held}}

{{legend|#a59400|Shirley Chisholm}}

{{legend|#73638c|Hubert Humphrey}}

{{legend|#668c63|Henry M. Jackson}}

{{legend|#5d73e5|George McGovern}}

{{legend|#c67742|Wilbur Mills}}

{{legend|#423121|Edmund Muskie}}

{{legend|#d77da7|George Wallace}}]]

{{Election box begin no party no change|title=1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries}}

{{Election box winning candidate no party no change|candidate=Hubert H. Humphrey|votes=4,121,372|percentage=25.8}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=George S. McGovern|votes=4,053,451|percentage=25.3}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=George C. Wallace|votes=3,755,424|percentage=23.5}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Edmund S. Muskie|votes=1,840,217|percentage=11.5}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Eugene J. McCarthy|votes=553,955|percentage=3.5}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Henry M. Jackson|votes=505,198|percentage=3.2}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Shirley A. Chisholm|votes=430,703|percentage=2.7}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=James T. Sanford|votes=331,415|percentage=2.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=John V. Lindsay|votes=196,406|percentage=1.2}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Sam W. Yorty|votes=79,446|percentage=0.5}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Wilbur D. Mills|votes=37,401|percentage=0.2}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Walter E. Fauntroy|votes=21,217|percentage=0.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Unpledged delegates|votes=19,533|percentage=0.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Edward M. Kennedy|votes=16,693|percentage=0.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Rupert V. Hartke|votes=11,798|percentage=0.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Patsy M. Mink|votes=8,286|percentage=0.1}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate="None of the names shown"|votes=6,269|percentage=0}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=Others|votes=5,181|percentage=0}}

{{Election box total no party no change|votes=15,993,965|percentage=100}}

{{End}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

Edmund Muskie

• Former Governor of and Secretary of Commerce W. Averell Harriman from New York{{Cite news |last=Byrd |first=Lee |date=April 28, 1972 |title=Bland, Crybaby Roles Cost Muskie His Lead |pages=1 |work=Lansing State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/206039697/?terms=%22Averell%20Harriman%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |quote=But of likely greater impediment was the sheer number of those involved, the many "senior advisors" like Clark Clifford and W. Averell Harriman and Luther B. Hodges, and the 19 senators, 34 congressmen and nine governors who had publicly enorsed Muskie. |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200131/https://www.newspapers.com/image/206039697/?terms=%22Averell%20Harriman%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Senator Harold Hughes from Iowa{{Cite news |last=Risser |first=James |date=June 9, 1972 |title=Hughes Stands By Muskie |pages=5 |work=The Des Moines Register |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/338798077/?terms=%22Harold%20Hughes%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |quote=Hughes has spent much of this week helping Muskie, whom Hughes endorsed early this year as the candidate most likely to unify the party and defeat President Nixon in November. |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200135/https://www.newspapers.com/image/338798077/?terms=%22Harold%20Hughes%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Senator Birch Bayh from Indiana{{Cite news |date=March 17, 1972 |title=Bayh Endorses Sen. Muskie |pages=7 |work=The Logansport Press |agency=UPI |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/3773466/?terms=%22Birch%20Bayh%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200133/https://www.newspapers.com/image/3773466/?terms=%22Birch%20Bayh%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Senator Adlai Stevenson III from Illinois{{Cite news |date=January 11, 1972 |title=Adlai Stevenson III Endorses Sen. Muskie |pages=17 |work=Tampa Bay Times |agency=UPI |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/317681727/?terms=%22adlai%20stevenson%22%20%22edmund%20muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200136/https://www.newspapers.com/image/317681727/?terms=%22adlai%20stevenson%22%20%22edmund%20muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00D16F83C591A7493C7A8178AD85F468785F9|title=More Muskie Support|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=September 27, 2008 | date=January 15, 1972}}
• Former Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio{{Cite news |date=April 27, 1972 |title=Sticking by Muskie, Gilligan declares |pages=24 |work=The Cincinnati Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/764017935/?terms=%22stephen%20m.%20young%22%20%22edmund%20muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200132/https://www.newspapers.com/image/764017935/?terms=%22stephen%20m.%20young%22%20%22edmund%20muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania{{Cite news |date=January 26, 1972 |title=News Capsule: In the nation |pages=2 |work=The Baltimore Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/377394769/?terms=%22Milton%20Shapp%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |quote=Gov. Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania endorsed Senator Edmund S. Muskie, dealing a sharp blow to Senator Hubert H. Humphrey's presidential ambitions. |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200129/https://www.newspapers.com/image/377394769/?terms=%22Milton%20Shapp%22%20%22Edmund%20Muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Former Governor Michael DiSalle of Ohio
• Ohio State Treasurer Gertrude W. Donahey{{Cite news |date=January 12, 1972 |title=Muskie, HHH calling in Ohio |pages=12 |work=The Journal Herald |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/395118889/?terms=%22gertrude%20donahey%22%20%22edmund%20muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200136/https://www.newspapers.com/image/395118889/?terms=%22gertrude%20donahey%22%20%22edmund%20muskie%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}
• Astronaut John Glenn from Ohio

George McGovern

• Senator Frank Church from Idaho{{Cite news |date=August 3, 1972 |title=McGovern Picking Second V.P. Candidate Same Way He Picked First |pages=11 |work=Ironwood Daily Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/55239132/?terms=%22Frank%20Church%22%20%22George%20McGovern%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200133/https://www.newspapers.com/image/55239132/?terms=%22Frank%20Church%22%20%22George%20McGovern%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}

George Wallace

• Former Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia{{Cite news |date=July 14, 1972 |title=Maddox Against Demo Nominees |pages=10 |work=The Knoxville News-Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/774056058/?terms=%22Lester%20Maddox%22%20%22George%20Wallace%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |quote=Maddox, a booster of fellow Democrat Alabama Gov. George Wallace, said Thursday it may be best to turn the present party "over to the promoters of anarchy, Socialism and Communism" and form what he called a New Democratic Party of the People. |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200130/https://www.newspapers.com/image/774056058/?terms=%22Lester%20Maddox%22%20%22George%20Wallace%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}

Shirley Chisholm

• Representative Ron Dellums from California{{Cite web |date=September 14, 2020 |title="Catalyst for Change": The 1972 Presidential Campaign of Representative Shirley Chisholm |url=https://history.house.gov/Blog/2020/September/9-14-Chisholm-1972/ |access-date=May 13, 2022 |website=History, Art & Archives of the United States House of Representatives |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200129/https://history.house.gov/Blog/2020/September/9-14-Chisholm-1972/ |url-status=live }}
• Feminist leader and author Betty Friedan{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bb1kkyv9e5wC&q=Friedan+chisholm&pg=PA250 |title=Life So Far: A Memoir – Google Books |date=August 1, 2006 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |isbn=978-0-7432-9986-2 |last1=Friedan |first1=Betty |publisher=Simon and Schuster |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145327/https://books.google.com/books?id=Bb1kkyv9e5wC&q=Friedan+chisholm&pg=PA250 |url-status=live }}
• Feminist leader, journalist, and DNC official Gloria Steinem{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/chisholm/special_ticket_02.php |title=POV – Chisholm '72 . Video: Gloria Steinem reflects on Chisholm's legacy |publisher=PBS |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-date=June 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616020557/http://www.pbs.org/pov/chisholm/special_ticket_02.php |url-status=dead }}

Terry Sanford

• Former President Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QN93ENX3_3sC&q=ranch&pg=PP4 |title=Terry Sanford: politics, progress ... – Google Books |access-date=May 28, 2010 |isbn=978-0-8223-2356-3 |year=1999 |last1=Covington |first1=Howard E. |last2=Ellis |first2=Marion A. |publisher=Duke University Press |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145359/https://books.google.com/books?id=QN93ENX3_3sC&q=ranch&pg=PP4 |url-status=live }}

Henry M. Jackson

• Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia{{Cite news |date=July 12, 1972 |title=Convention Briefs: Endorses Jackson |pages=40 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/401255613/?terms=%22jimmy%20carter%22%20%22henry%20jackson%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |access-date=May 13, 2022 |quote=Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter endorsed Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday and said he would nominate Jackson at the convention tonight. |archive-date=May 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513200134/https://www.newspapers.com/image/401255613/?terms=%22jimmy%20carter%22%20%22henry%20jackson%22%20%22endorses%22%20%22endorsed%22&match=1 |url-status=live }}

}}

File:Democrats and Republicans in Convention--2 (3525637530).ogv

{{main|1972 Democratic National Convention}}

Results:

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• George McGovern – 1864.95
• Henry M. Jackson – 525
• George Wallace – 381.7
• Shirley Chisholm – 151.95
• Terry Sanford – 77.5
• Hubert Humphrey – 66.7
• Wilbur Mills – 33.8
• Edmund Muskie – 24.3
• Ted Kennedy – 12.7
• Sam Yorty – 10
• Wayne Hays – 5
• John Lindsay – 5
• Fred Harris – 2
• Eugene McCarthy – 2
• Walter Mondale – 2
• Ramsey Clark – 1
• Walter Fauntroy – 1
• Vance Hartke – 1
• Harold Hughes – 1
• Patsy Mink – 1

{{div col end}}

Most polls showed McGovern running well behind incumbent President Richard Nixon, except when McGovern was paired with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. McGovern and his campaign brain trust lobbied Kennedy heavily to accept the bid to be McGovern's running mate, but he continually refused their advances, and instead suggested U.S. Representative (and House Ways and Means Committee chairman) Wilbur Mills from Arkansas and Boston mayor Kevin White.{{cite news|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906135,00.html|title=Introducing... the McGovern Machine|date=July 24, 1972|work=Time Magazine|access-date=September 7, 2008|archive-date=August 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809165609/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906135,00.html|url-status=live}} Offers were then made to Hubert Humphrey, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, all of whom turned it down. Finally, the vice presidential slot was offered to Senator Thomas Eagleton from Missouri, who accepted the offer. With hundreds of delegates displeased with McGovern, the vote to ratify Eagleton's candidacy was chaotic, with at least three other candidates having their names put into nomination and votes scattered over 70 candidates.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/weird.facts/votes.shtml |work=All Politics |title=All The Votes...Really |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-date=April 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090424044429/http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/weird.facts/votes.shtml |url-status=live }} A grassroots attempt to displace Eagleton in favor of Texas state representative Frances Farenthold gained significant traction, though was ultimately unable to change the outcome of the vote.{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00291/cah-00291.html |title=A Guide to the Frances Tarlton Farenthold Papers, 1913–2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231190207/http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00291/cah-00291.html/ |archive-date=December 31, 2016 |publisher=Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin |website=Texas Archival Resources Online}}

The vice-presidential balloting went on so long that McGovern and Eagleton were forced to begin making their acceptance speeches at around 2 am, local time. After the convention ended, it was discovered that Eagleton had undergone psychiatric electroshock therapy for depression and had concealed this information from McGovern. A Time magazine poll taken at the time found that 77 percent of the respondents said, "Eagleton's medical record would not affect their vote." Nonetheless, the press made frequent references to his "shock therapy", and McGovern feared that this would detract from his campaign platform.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/26/MN9NVQGO2.DTL |title=Obama bounces back – speech seemed to help |publisher=SFGATE |date=March 26, 2008 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |first=Joe |last=Garofoli |archive-date=May 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525170532/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/26/MN9NVQGO2.DTL |url-status=live }} McGovern subsequently consulted confidentially with pre-eminent psychiatrists, including Eagleton's own doctors, who advised him that a recurrence of Eagleton's depression was possible and could endanger the country, should Eagleton become president.McGovern, George S., Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern, New York: Random House, 1977, pp. 214–215McGovern, George S., Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism, New York: Random House, 1996, pp. 97Marano, Richard Michael, Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign of George McGovern, Praeger Publishers, 2003, pp. 7The Washington Post, "George McGovern & the Coldest Plunge", Paul Hendrickson, September 28, 1983The New York Times, "'Trashing' Candidates" (op-ed), George McGovern, May 11, 1983

McGovern had initially claimed that he would back Eagleton "1000 percent",{{Cite web|url=https://observer.com/2016/07/im-behind-him-1000/|title='I'm Behind Him 1000%'|website=Observer.com|date=July 21, 2016|access-date=June 25, 2023|archive-date=June 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625031945/https://observer.com/2016/07/im-behind-him-1000/|url-status=live}} only to ask Eagleton to withdraw three days later. This perceived lack of conviction in sticking with his running mate was disastrous for the McGovern campaign. McGovern later approached six prominent Democrats to run for vice president: Ted Kennedy, Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Abraham Ribicoff, Larry O'Brien, and Reubin Askew. All six declined. Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law to John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, former Ambassador to France, and former Director of the Peace Corps, later accepted.{{cite book|last1=Liebovich|first1=Louis|title=Richard Nixon, Watergate, and the Press: A Historical Retrospective|date=2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780275979157|page=[https://archive.org/details/richardnixonwate00lieb/page/53 53]|url=https://archive.org/details/richardnixonwate00lieb/page/53}} He was officially nominated by a special session of the Democratic National Committee. By this time, McGovern's poll ratings had plunged from 41 to 24 percent.

The only major third party candidate in the 1972 election was conservative Republican Representative John G. Schmitz, who ran on the American Independent Party ticket (the party on whose ballot George Wallace ran in 1968). He was on the ballot in 32 states and received 1,099,482 votes. Unlike Wallace, however, he did not win a majority of votes cast in any state, and received no electoral votes, although he did finish ahead of McGovern in four of the most conservative Idaho counties.Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, p. 100 {{ISBN|0786422173}} Schmitz's performance in archconservative Jefferson County was the best by a third-party Presidential candidate in any free or postbellum state county since 1936 when William Lemke reached over twenty-eight percent of the vote in the North Dakota counties of Burke, Sheridan and Hettinger.Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920–1964; pp. 339, 343 {{ISBN|0405077114}} Schmitz was endorsed by fellow John Birch Society member Walter Brennan, who also served as finance chairman for his campaign.Actor to Aid Schmitz; The New York Times, August 9, 1972

John Hospers and Theodora "Tonie" Nathan of the newly formed Libertarian Party were on the ballot only in Colorado and Washington, but were official write-in candidates in four others, and received 3,674 votes, winning no states. However, they did receive one Electoral College vote from Virginia from a Republican faithless elector (see below). The Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Tonie Nathan became the first Jew and the first woman in U.S. history to receive an Electoral College vote.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q6tVAAAAIBAJ&pg=3741,7501174&dq=john-hospers+electoral+vote+1972&hl=en |title=Libertarians trying to escape obscurity |agency=Associated Press |work=Eugene Register-Guard |date=December 30, 1973 |access-date=July 30, 2012 |archive-date=August 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826163959/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q6tVAAAAIBAJ&pg=3741,7501174&dq=john-hospers+electoral+vote+1972&hl=en |url-status=live }} Linda Jenness was nominated by the Socialist Workers Party, with Andrew Pulley as her running-mate. Benjamin Spock and Julius Hobson were nominated for president and vice-president, respectively, by the People's Party.{{clear}}

The following graph depicts the standing of each candidate in the poll aggregators from February 1972 to Election Day.

[[File:OpinionPolling1972UnitedStatesPresidentialElection.svg|thumb|800px|center| {{columns-list|colwidth=18em|

{{Legend-line|#e81b23 solid 5px|Richard Nixon}}

{{Legend-line|#3333ff solid 5px|George McGovern}}

{{Legend-line|#FF7F00 solid 5px|George Wallace{{efn|Despite running for the Democratic Presidential nomination, there was an expectation that Wallace would again bolt the Democratic Party and run as an independent in the general election; as a result, some polls made an assumption that this was going to be the case. To reflect this, the aggregate includes those polls up to the point where Wallace definitively declined to make an independent run for the Presidency.}}}}

}}]]

{{See also|Nationwide opinion polling for the 1972 United States presidential election}}

File:Richard Nixon greeted by children during campaign 1972.png

File:George McGovern UH.jpeg

McGovern ran on a platform of immediately ending the Vietnam War and instituting a guaranteed minimum income for the nation's poor. His campaign was harmed by his views during the primaries, which alienated many powerful Democrats, the perception that his foreign policy was too extreme, and the Eagleton debacle. With McGovern's campaign weakened by these factors, with the Republicans portraying McGovern as a radical left-wing extremist, Nixon led in the polls by large margins throughout the entire campaign. With an enormous fundraising advantage and a comfortable lead in the polls, Nixon concentrated on large rallies and focused speeches to closed and select audiences, leaving much of the retail campaigning to surrogates like Vice President Agnew. Nixon did not try by design to extend his coattails to Republican congressional or gubernatorial candidates, preferring to pad his own margin of victory.

File:1972prescountymap2.PNG|border=1px #AAAAAA solid}}

{{legend|#1560BD|George McGovern|border=1px #AAAAAA solid}}]]

File:1972 Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District.png

Nixon's percentage of the popular vote was only marginally less than Lyndon B. Johnson's record in 1964, and his margin of victory was slightly larger. Nixon won a majority vote in 49 states, including McGovern's home state of South Dakota. Only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia voted for the challenger, resulting in an even more lopsided Electoral College tally. McGovern garnered only 37.5 percent of the national popular vote, the lowest share received by a Democratic Party nominee since John W. Davis won only 28.8 percent of the vote in 1924. The only major party candidate since 1972 to receive less than 40 percent of the vote was Republican incumbent President George H. W. Bush who won 37.4 percent of the vote in 1992, an election that, as in 1924, was impacted by a strong third-party vote.{{cite web| last=Feinman| first=Ronald| title=Donald Trump Could Be On Way To Worst Major Party Candidate Popular Vote Percentage Since William Howard Taft In 1912 And John W. Davis In 1924!| date=September 2, 2016| url=http://www.theprogressiveprofessor.com/?p=28297| work=The Progressive Professor| access-date=November 7, 2019| archive-date=December 20, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220001137/http://www.theprogressiveprofessor.com/?p=28297| url-status=live}} Nixon received the highest share of the popular vote for a Republican in history.

Although the McGovern campaign believed that its candidate had a better chance of defeating Nixon because of the new Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution that lowered the national voting age to 18 from 21, most of the youth vote went to Nixon.{{cite news |url=http://reason.com/archives/2008/06/10/the-age-of-nixon |title=The Age of Nixon: Rick Perlstein on the left, the right, the '60s, and the illusion of consensus |work=Reason |date=July 2008 |access-date=July 27, 2013 |author=Jesse Walker |archive-date=July 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718110125/http://reason.com/archives/2008/06/10/the-age-of-nixon |url-status=live }} This was the first election in American history in which a Republican candidate carried every single Southern state, continuing the region's transformation from a Democratic bastion (Solid South) into a Republican stronghold as Arkansas was carried by a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in a century. By this time, all the Southern states, except Arkansas and Texas, had been carried by a Republican in either the previous election or that of 1964, although Republican candidates carried Texas in 1928, 1952, and 1956. As a result of this election, Massachusetts became the only state that Nixon did not carry in any of the three presidential elections in which he was a candidate. Notably, Nixon became the first Republican to ever win two terms in the White House without carrying Massachusetts at least once, and the same feat would later be duplicated by George W. Bush and Donald Trump, as they won both their first and second elections without winning Massachusetts. This presidential election was the first since 1808 in which New York did not have the largest number of electors in the Electoral College, having fallen to 41 electors vs. California's 45. Additionally, this remains the last one in which Minnesota was carried by the Republican candidate.Sullivan, Robert David; [http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/how-red-and-blue-map-evolved-over-past-century 'How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116163625/http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/how-red-and-blue-map-evolved-over-past-century |date=November 16, 2016 }}; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016

McGovern won a mere 130 counties, plus the District of Columbia and four county-equivalents in Alaska,{{efn|These were North Slope Borough, plus Bethel, Kusilvak and Hoonah-Angoon Census Areas}} easily the fewest counties won by any major-party presidential nominee since the advent of popular presidential elections, and only about a third of the previous lowest number, which had been recorded by Herbert Hoover in 1932.Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, p. 98 {{ISBN|0786422173}} In nineteen states, McGovern failed to carry a single county;{{efn|McGovern failed to carry a single county in Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont or Wyoming}} he carried a mere one county-equivalent in a further nine states,{{efn|McGovern carried only one county-equivalent in Arizona (Greenlee), Illinois (Jackson), Louisiana (West Feliciana Parish), Maine (Androscoggin), Maryland (Baltimore), North Dakota (Rolette), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Virginia (Charles City), and West Virginia (Logan)}} and just two counties in a further seven.{{efn|McGovern carried just two counties in Colorado, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington State}} In contrast to Walter Mondale's narrow 1984 win in Minnesota, McGovern comfortably won Massachusetts but lost every other state by no less than five percentage points, as well as 45 states by more than ten percentage points, the exceptions being Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and his home state of South Dakota. This election also made Nixon the second former vice president in American history to serve two terms back-to-back, after Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804, as well as the only two-term Vice President to be elected President twice. Since McGovern carried only one state, bumper stickers reading "Nixon 49 America 1",{{Cite magazine |date=1973-08-27 |title=New York Intelligencer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOYCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57 |magazine=New York |language=en |publisher=New York Media, LLC |volume=6 |issue=35 |page=57 |access-date=2019-03-16 |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145342/https://books.google.com/books?id=qOYCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57 |url-status=live }} "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts", and "Massachusetts: The One And Only" were popular for a short time in Massachusetts.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/14/archives/as-massachusetts-went-im-frommassachusetts-dont-blame-me.html |title=As Massachusetts went— |last=Lukas |first=J. Anthony |date=1973-01-14 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-03-16 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=May 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517204221/https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/14/archives/as-massachusetts-went-im-frommassachusetts-dont-blame-me.html |url-status=live }}

Nixon managed to win 18% of the African American vote (Gerald Ford would get 16% in 1976).{{Cite news |title=Exit Polls – Election Results 2008 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2008/results/president/national-exit-polls.html |access-date=2020-05-11 |archive-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523220252/https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2008/results/president/national-exit-polls.html |url-status=live }} Until 2024, he was the only Republican in modern times to threaten the oldest extant Democratic stronghold of South Texas; this is also the most recent election in which the Republicans have won Dimmit County, Texas, the only time Republicans carried La Salle County between William McKinley in 1900 and Donald Trump in 2020, and one of only two occasions since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 (Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 also obtained a plurality) that Republicans have gained a majority in Presidio County. The 1972 election was also the most recent time several highly populous urban counties, including Cook in Illinois, Orleans in Louisiana, Hennepin in Minnesota, Cuyahoga in Ohio, Durham in North Carolina, Queens in New York, and Prince George's in Maryland, have voted Republican.

The Wallace vote had been crucial to Nixon being able to sweep the states that had narrowly held out against him in 1968 (Maryland, Texas, and West Virginia), as well as the states Wallace won himself (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi). The pro-Wallace group of voters had only given AIP nominee John Schmitz a depressing 2.4% of its support, while 19.1% backed McGovern, and the majority 78.5% broke for Nixon. Nixon, who became term-limited under the provisions of the Twenty-second Amendment as a result of his victory, became the first presidential candidate to win a significant number of electoral votes in three presidential elections since the ratification of that Amendment, only Trump has done the same. As of 2024, Nixon was the seventh of eight presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, the others being Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Trump. The 520 electoral votes received by Nixon, added to the 301 electoral votes he received in 1968, and the 219 electoral votes he received in 1960, gave him the second largest number of electoral votes received by any presidential candidate (after Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1,876 total electoral votes).{{cite news |last=Bump |first=Philip |date=December 20, 2016 |title=Donald Trump is 27th on the all-time list of electoral votes received by an individual |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/20/more-people-received-electoral-votes-in-2016-than-any-election-since-1796/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221102105/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/20/more-people-received-electoral-votes-in-2016-than-any-election-since-1796/ |archive-date=December 21, 2016 |access-date=January 16, 2025 |newspaper=The Washington Post |quote=The all-time champion in most electoral votes won is, of course, Franklin Roosevelt, who handily won four presidential elections, cobbling together an impressive 1,876 total votes. In second is Richard Nixon, who got a large number of votes in three races: 1960, 1968 and 1972. In third is Ronald Reagan, who had big wins in 1980 and 1984. But he came into the 1980 election with an electoral vote in his past, too; in 1976, a faithless elector jumped the gun a bit and cast his ballot for Reagan four years before it mattered. (Reagan had challenged the nomination of incumbent President Gerald Ford that year — almost successfully.)}}

{{start U.S. presidential ticket box| pv_footnote={{Leip PV source 2| year=1972| as of=August 7, 2005}}| ev_footnote={{National Archives EV source| year=1972| as of=August 7, 2005}}}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=Richard Nixon (incumbent)| party=Republican| state=California| pv=47,168,710| pv_pct=60.67%| ev=520| vp_name=Spiro T. Agnew (incumbent)| vp_state=Maryland}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=George McGovern| party=Democratic| state=South Dakota| pv=29,173,222| pv_pct=37.52%| ev=17| vp_name=Sargent Shriver| vp_state=Maryland}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=John G. Schmitz| party=American Independent| state=California| pv=1,100,896| pv_pct=1.42%| ev=0| vp_name=Thomas J. Anderson| vp_state=Tennessee}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=Linda Jenness| party=Socialist Workers| state=Georgia| pv=83,380{{efn|In Arizona, Pima and Yavapai counties had an unusually formatted ballot that led voters to believe they could vote for a major party presidential candidate and simultaneously vote the six individual Socialist Workers Party presidential electors. Technically, these were overvotes, and should not have counted for either the major party candidates or the Socialist Workers Party electors. Within two days of the election, the Attorney General and Pima County Attorney had agreed that all votes should count. The Socialist Workers Party had not qualified as a party, and thus did not have a presidential candidate. In the official state canvass, votes for Nixon, McGovern, or Schmitz, are shown as being for the presidential candidate, the party, and the elector slate of the party; while those for the Socialist Worker Party elector candidates were for those candidates only. In the view of the Secretary of State, the votes were not for Linda Jenness. Some tabulations count the votes for Jenness. Historically, presidential candidate names did not appear on ballots, and voters voted directly for the electors. Nonetheless, votes for the electors are attributed to the presidential candidate. Counting the votes in Arizona for Jenness is consistent with this practice. Because of the confusing ballots, Socialist Workers Party electors received votes on about 21 percent and 8 percent of ballots in Pima and Yavapai, respectively. 30,579 of the party's 30,945 Arizona votes are from those two counties.{{Cite web|last=Seeley|first=John|date=2000-11-22|title=Early and Often|url=https://www.laweekly.com/early-and-often-3/|access-date=2021-04-10|website=LA Weekly|language=en-US|archive-date=June 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601152311/https://www.laweekly.com/early-and-often-3/|url-status=live}}

}}| pv_pct=0.11%| ev=0| vp_name=Andrew Pulley| vp_state=Illinois}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=Benjamin Spock| party=People's| state=California| pv=78,759| pv_pct=0.10%| ev=0| vp_name=Julius Hobson| vp_state=District of Columbia }}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=Louis Fisher| party=Socialist Labor| state=Illinois| pv=53,814| pv_pct=0.07%| ev=0| vp_name=Genevieve Gunderson| vp_state=Minnesota}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=John G. Hospers| party=Libertarian| state=California| pv=3,674| pv_pct=0.00%| ev=1{{efn|A Virginia faithless elector, Roger MacBride, though pledged to vote for Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, instead voted for Libertarian candidates John Hospers and Theodora "Tonie" Nathan.}}| vp_name=Theodora Nathan| vp_state=Oregon}}

{{U.S. presidential ticket box other| footnote=| pv= 81,575| pv_pct=0.10%}}

{{end U.S. presidential ticket box| pv=77,744,030| ev=538| to_win=270}}

File:John Hospers Presidential.jpg received one faithless electoral vote from Virginia.]]

{{bar box

|title=Popular vote

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=600px

|barwidth=410px

|bars=

{{bar percent|Nixon|{{party color|Republican Party (US)}}|60.67}}

{{bar percent|McGovern|{{party color|Democratic Party (US)}}|37.52}}

{{bar percent|Schmitz|{{party color|American Independent Party}}|1.42}}

{{bar percent|Others|#777777|0.39}}

}}

{{bar box

|title=Electoral vote

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=600px

|barwidth=410px

|bars=

{{bar percent|Nixon|{{party color|Republican Party (US)}}|96.65}}

{{bar percent|McGovern|{{party color|Democratic Party (US)}}|3.16}}

{{bar percent|Hospers|{{party color|Libertarian Party (US)}}|0.19}}

}}

File:1972 Electoral Map.png

Image:1972 United States presidential election results map by county.svg|Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

;Legend

For the first time since 1828, Maine allowed its electoral votes to be split between candidates. Two electoral votes were awarded to the winner of the statewide race and one electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district. This was the first time the Congressional District Method had been used since Michigan used it in 1892. Nixon won all four votes.{{cite book |last1=Barone |first1=Michael |last2=Matthews |first2=Douglas|last3=Ujifusa |first3=Grant|title=The Almanac of American Politics, 1974 |date=1973 |publisher=Gambit Publications}}

• Connecticut
• Hawaii
• Maine
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Texas
• Washington
• West Virginia

• Georgia
• Louisiana
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Arkansas

States where margin of victory was more than 5 percentage points, but less than 10 percentage points (43 electoral votes):

{{col-begin}}

{{col-break|width=25%}}

1. Minnesota, 5.51% (95,923 votes)
2. Rhode Island, 6.19% (25,738 votes)
3. South Dakota, 8.63% (26,531 votes)
4. Massachusetts, 8.97% (220,462 votes)
5. Wisconsin, 9.67% (179,256 votes)

{{col-end}}

Tipping point states:

1. Ohio, 21.56% (882,938 votes) (tipping point for a Nixon victory)
2. Maine-1, 22.85% (50,360 votes) (tipping point for a McGovern victory)Leip, David [https://web.archive.org/web/20120825102042/http://www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html#1972 "How close were U.S. Presidential Elections?"], Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved: January 24, 2013.

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Republican)

1. Dade County, Georgia 93.45%
2. Glascock County, Georgia 93.38%
3. George County, Mississippi 92.90%
4. Holmes County, Florida 92.51%
5. Smith County, Mississippi 92.35%

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Democratic)

1. Duval County, Texas 85.68%
2. Washington, D. C. 78.10%
3. Shannon County, South Dakota 77.34%
4. Greene County, Alabama 68.32%
5. Charles City County, Virginia 67.84%

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Other)

1. Jefferson County, Idaho 27.51%
2. Lemhi County, Idaho 19.77%
3. Fremont County, Idaho 19.32%
4. Bonneville County, Idaho 18.97%
5. Madison County, Idaho 17.04%

{{Cite web |date=2010-07-21 |title=Election Polls -- Vote by Groups, 1968-1972 |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/9457/election-polls-vote-groups-19681972.aspx |access-date=2024-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721032858/http://www.gallup.com/poll/9457/election-polls-vote-groups-19681972.aspx |archive-date=July 21, 2010 }}

Nixon won 36 percent of the Democratic vote, according to an exit poll conducted for CBS News by George Fine Research, Inc. This represents more than twice the percentage of voters who typically defect from their party in presidential elections. Nixon also became the first Republican presidential candidate in American history to win the Roman Catholic vote (53–46), and the first in recent history to win the blue-collar vote, which he won by a 5-to-4 margin. McGovern narrowly won the union vote (50–48), although this difference was within the survey's margin of error of 2 percentage points. McGovern also narrowly won the youth vote (i. e. those aged 18 to 24) 52–46, a narrower margin than many of his strategists had predicted. This was the first presidential election held after the ratification of the 26th Amendment, lowering the minimum voting age to 18. Early on, the McGovern campaign also significantly over-estimated the number of young people who would vote in the election; they predicted that 18 million would have voted in total but exit polls indicate that the actual number was about 12 million. McGovern comfortably won among both African-American and Jewish voters but by somewhat smaller margins than usual for a Democratic candidate.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/09/archives/new-jersey-pages-desertion-rate-doubles-defectors-gave-nixon.html |title=Desertion Rate Doubles |last=Rosenthal |first=Jack |author-link=Jack Rosenthal (journalist) |date=1972-11-09 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-12-01 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=December 29, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229112859/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/09/archives/new-jersey-pages-desertion-rate-doubles-defectors-gave-nixon.html |url-status=live }} McGovern won the African American vote by 87% to Nixon's 13%.{{cite news|title=Survey Reports McGovern Got 87% of the Black Vote|work=The New York Times |date=November 12, 1972 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/12/archives/survey-reports-mcgovern-got-87-of-the-black-vote.html|access-date=February 8, 2023|archive-date=February 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208095134/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/12/archives/survey-reports-mcgovern-got-87-of-the-black-vote.html|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Watergate scandal}}

On June 17, 1972, five months before election day, five men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.. The resulting investigation led to the revelation of attempted cover-ups of the break-in within the Nixon administration. What became known as the Watergate scandal eroded President Nixon's public and political support in his second term, and he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of probable impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal from office by the Senate. As part of the continuing Watergate investigation in 1974–1975, federal prosecutors offered companies that had given illegal campaign contributions to President Nixon's re-election campaign lenient sentences if they came forward.{{cite book|title= How We Got Here: The '70s|last= Frum|first= David|author-link= David Frum|year= 2000|publisher= Basic Books|location= New York, New York|isbn= 0-465-04195-7|page= [https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/31 31]|url= https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/31}} Many companies complied, including Northrop Grumman, 3M, American Airlines, and Braniff Airlines. By 1976, prosecutors had convicted 18 American corporations of contributing illegally to Nixon's campaign. Despite this election delivering Nixon's greatest electoral triumph, Nixon later wrote in his memoirs that "it was one of the most frustrating and in many ways the least satisfying of all".{{Cite web |last=Emig |first=David |date=November 7, 2009 |title=My Morris Moment » |url=https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/11/my-morris-moment/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145324/https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/11/my-morris-moment/ |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |access-date=March 29, 2021}}

• 1972 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1972 United States Senate elections
• 1972 United States gubernatorial elections
• George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign
• Second inauguration of Richard Nixon
• Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, a collection of articles by Hunter S. Thompson on the subject of the election, focusing on the McGovern campaign.

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• Alexander, Herbert E. Financing the 1972 Election (1976) [https://archive.org/details/financing1972ele0000alex online]
• {{cite journal |last=Giglio |first=James N. |title=The Eagleton Affair: Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern, and the 1972 Vice Presidential Nomination |journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly |year=2009 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=647–676 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-5705.2009.03731.x |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last=Graebner |first=Norman A. |title=Presidential Politics in a Divided America: 1972 |journal=Australian Journal of Politics and History |year=1973 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=28–47 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.1973.tb00722.x }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hofstetter |first1=C. Richard |last2=Zukin |first2=Cliff |title=TV Network News and Advertising in the Nixon and McGovern Campaigns |journal=Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly |year=1979 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=106–152 |doi=10.1177/107769907905600117 |s2cid=144048423 }}
• Hofstetter, C. Richard. Bias in the news: Network television coverage of the 1972 election campaign (Ohio State University Press, 1976) [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/159552578.pdf online]
• Johnstone, Andrew, and Andrew Priest, eds. US Presidential Elections and Foreign Policy: Candidates, Campaigns, and Global Politics from FDR to Bill Clinton (2017) pp 203–228. [https://muse.jhu.edu/book/50578/ online]
• Miller, Arthur H., et al. "A majority party in disarray: Policy polarization in the 1972 election." American Political Science Review 70.3 (1976): 753–778; widely cited; [https://doi.org/10.2307/1959866 online]
• {{cite journal |last=Nicholas |first=H. G. |author-link = H. G. Nicholas |title=The 1972 Elections |journal=Journal of American Studies |year=1973 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1017/S0021875800012585 |s2cid=145606732 }}
• Perry, James M. Us & them: how the press covered the 1972 election (1973) [https://archive.org/details/usthemhowpress00perr online]
• Simons, Herbert W., James W. Chesebro, and C. Jack Orr. "A movement perspective on the 1972 presidential election." Quarterly Journal of Speech 59.2 (1973): 168–179. [https://nca.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00335637309383165 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220923034438/https://nca.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00335637309383165 |date=September 23, 2022 }}
• Trent, Judith S., and Jimmie D. Trent. "The rhetoric of the challenger: George Stanley McGovern." Communication Studies 25.1 (1974): 11–18.
• {{cite book |last=White |first=Theodore H. |author-link=Theodore H. White |title=The Making of the President, 1972 |location=New York |publisher=Atheneum |year=1973 |isbn=0-689-10553-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofpresident00whit |url-access=registration }}

• Chester, Edward W. (1977). [https://archive.org/details/guidetopolitical0000ches A guide to political platforms].
• Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840–1972 (1973)

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120825102042/http://www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html#1972 The Election Wall's 1972 Election Video Page]
• [http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1972.htm 1972 popular vote by counties]
• [http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/u/usa/pres/1972.txt 1972 popular vote by states]
• [http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/datagraph.php?year=1972&fips=0&f=1&off=0&elect=0 1972 popular vote by states (with bar graphs)]
• [http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1972 Campaign commercials from the 1972 election]
• [http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/153283-1 C-SPAN segment on 1972 campaign commercials]
• [http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JJosh C-SPAN segment on the "Eagleton Affair"]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160312073636/http://www.countingthevotes.com/1972 Election of 1972 in Counting the Votes]

{{1972 United States presidential election}}

{{State results of the 1972 U.S. presidential election}}

{{United States elections, 1972}}

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{{Richard Nixon}}

{{George McGovern}}

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Category:Presidency of Richard Nixon

Category:Richard Nixon

Category:Spiro Agnew

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