United States presidential election, 1972

United States presidential election, 1972
United States
November 7, 1972

All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout 55.2%[1] Decrease 5.7%

 
Nominee Richard Nixon George McGovern
Party Republican Democratic
Home state California South Dakota
Running mate Spiro Agnew Sargent Shriver
(replacing Thomas Eagleton)
Electoral vote 520[2] 17
States carried 49 1 + DC
Popular vote 47,168,710 29,173,222
Percentage 60.7% 37.5%

United States presidential election in Alabama, 1972 United States presidential election in Alaska, 1972 United States presidential election in Arizona, 1972 United States presidential election in Arkansas, 1972 United States presidential election in California, 1972 United States presidential election in Colorado, 1972 United States presidential election in Connecticut, 1972 United States presidential election in Delaware, 1972 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia, 1972 United States presidential election in Florida, 1972 United States presidential election in Georgia, 1972 United States presidential election in Hawaii, 1972 United States presidential election in Idaho, 1972 United States presidential election in Illinois, 1972 United States presidential election in Indiana, 1972 United States presidential election in Iowa, 1972 United States presidential election in Kansas, 1972 United States presidential election in Kentucky, 1972 United States presidential election in Louisiana, 1972 United States presidential election in Maine, 1972 United States presidential election in Maryland, 1972 United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1972 United States presidential election in Michigan, 1972 United States presidential election in Minnesota, 1972 United States presidential election in Mississippi, 1972 United States presidential election in Missouri, 1972 United States presidential election in Montana, 1972 United States presidential election in Nebraska, 1972 United States presidential election in Nevada, 1972 United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 1972 United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1972 United States presidential election in New Mexico, 1972 United States presidential election in New York, 1972 United States presidential election in North Carolina, 1972 United States presidential election in North Dakota, 1972 United States presidential election in Ohio, 1972 United States presidential election in Oklahoma, 1972 United States presidential election in Oregon, 1972 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania, 1972 United States presidential election in Rhode Island, 1972 United States presidential election in South Carolina, 1972 United States presidential election in South Dakota, 1972 United States presidential election in Tennessee, 1972 United States presidential election in Texas, 1972 United States presidential election in Utah, 1972 United States presidential election in Vermont, 1972 United States presidential election in Virginia, 1972 United States presidential election in Washington, 1972 United States presidential election in West Virginia, 1972 United States presidential election in Wisconsin, 1972 United States presidential election in Wyoming, 1972 United States presidential election in Delaware, 1972 United States presidential election in Maryland, 1972 United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 1972 United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1972 United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1972 United States presidential election in Connecticut, 1972 United States presidential election in West Virginia, 1972 United States presidential election in Vermont, 1972 United States presidential election in Rhode Island, 1972ElectoralCollege1972.svg
About this image
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew, blue denotes the one won by McGovern/Shriver, gold is the electoral vote for Hospers/Nathan by a Virginia faithless elector. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election

Richard Nixon
Republican

Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1972, the 47th quadrennial presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. The Democratic Party’s nomination was eventually won by Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, who ran an anti-war campaign against Republican incumbent President Richard Nixon, but was handicapped by his outsider status, limited support from his own party, the perception of many voters that he was a left-wing extremist and the scandal that resulted from the withdrawal of vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton.

Emphasizing a good economy and his successes in foreign affairs, such as coming near to ending American involvement in the Vietnam War and establishing relations with China, Nixon won the election in a landslide. Overall, he won 60.7% of the popular vote, a percentage only slightly lower than Lyndon B. Johnson’s in 1964, but with a larger margin of victory in the popular vote (23.2%), thus becoming the fourth largest in presidential election history. He received almost 18 million more popular votes than McGovern, the widest margin of any United States presidential election. McGovern only won the electoral votes in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. No candidate since has managed to equal or surpass Nixon’s total percentage or margin of the popular vote, and his electoral vote total and percentage, which rank sixth, have been surpassed only once, and his state total matched only once, by Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Also in this election, Democrat Shirley Chisholm became the first African American to run for a major party nomination, and Patsy Mink was the first Asian American candidate to run for the Democratic Party candidacy. It was also the first time that Hawaii was carried by a Republican. Together with the House and Senate elections of 1972, it was the first electoral event in which people aged 18 to 20 could vote in every state, according to the provisions of the 26th Amendment. It was also the first election in which California had the most votes in the electoral college and it has remained the most populous state since then.

Furthermore, the presidential term of 1973–1977 is notable for being the only one in American history in which both the original President and Vice President fail to complete the term. Vice President Spiro Agnew, who resigned less than a year after the election over allegations that he had accepted bribes as Governor of Maryland, was replaced by Gerald Ford under the terms of the 25th Amendment, while Nixon would resign due to the Watergate Scandal in August 1974. Ultimately, the 1973–77 term would see two different Presidents and three different Vice Presidents. As of 2017, the 1972 election was the last one where the winning candidate did not serve his full term of office.

As of 2017, this is the last time Minnesota voted for the Republican candidate.

Democratic nomination

Overall, fifteen people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were:[3][4]

Democratic Party Ticket, 1972
George McGovern Sargent Shriver
for President for Vice President
U.S. Senator
from South Dakota
(1963–1981)
21st
U.S. Ambassador to France
(1968–1970)
Campaign

Primaries

Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of late President John F. Kennedy and late United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was the favorite to win the 1972 nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.[5] The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Senator Ed Muskie,[6] the 1968 vice-presidential nominee.[7] Muskie’s momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the so-called "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. 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.[8]

Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.[9] 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 the Democratic or Republican presidential nomination. Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink also announced she would run and became the first Asian American to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.[10]

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.[11][12]

Alabama Governor George Wallace, an anti-integrationist, did well in the South (he won every county in the Florida primary) and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the North. 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. The fundamental principle of the McGovern Commission—that the Democratic primaries should determine the winner of the Democratic nomination—have lasted throughout every subsequent nomination contest. 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.

Primary results

Statewide contest by winner

Primaries popular vote results:[13]

Notable endorsements

Edmund Muskie

Hubert Humphrey

George McGovern

George Wallace

Shirley Chisholm

Terry Sanford

Henry M. Jackson

1972 Democratic National Convention

Results:

The vice presidential vote

With hundreds of delegates displeased with McGovern, the vote was chaotic, with at least three other candidates having their names put into nomination and votes scattered over 70 candidates.[23] The eventual winner was Senator Thomas Eagleton from Missouri.

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.[24] McGovern subsequently consulted confidentially with preeminent 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.[25][26][27][28][29] McGovern had initially claimed that he would back Eagleton "1000 percent," 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 different 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.[30] 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.

Republican nomination

Republican candidates:

Republican Party Ticket, 1972
Richard Nixon Spiro Agnew
for President for Vice President
37th
President of the United States
(1969–1974)
39th
Vice President of the United States
(1969–1973)
Campaign

Primaries

Richard Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he was credited with achieving détente with the People's Republic of China and 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%.[31] 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 the loss of Agnew’s base of conservative supporters would be too big of a risk.

Primary results

Primaries popular vote result:[32]

Convention

Seven members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War were brought on federal charges for conspiring to disrupt the Republican convention.[33] They were acquitted by a federal jury in Gainesville, Florida.[33]

Third parties

The only major third party candidate in the 1972 election was conservative Republican Representative John G. Schmitz, who ran on the American 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,[34] becoming the first third-party candidate to finish even second in any free or postbellum state county since William Lemke did so in five North Dakota counties in 1936.[35]

John Hospers of the newly formed Libertarian Party was on the ballot only in Colorado and Washington and received 3,573 votes, winning no states. However, he did receive one electoral vote from Virginia from a Republican faithless elector (see below). The Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Theodora "Tonie" Nathan became the first woman in U.S. history to receive an electoral vote.[36]

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.

General election

Campaign

Richard Nixon during an August 1972 campaign stop
George McGovern speaking at an October 1972 campaign rally

McGovern ran on a platform of immediately ending the Vietnam War and instituting guaranteed minimum incomes 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, the Republicans successfully portrayed him as a radical left-wing extremist incompetent to serve as president. 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, select audiences, leaving much of the retail campaigning to surrogates like Vice President Agnew. Nixon did not, by design, try to extend his coattails to Republican congressional or gubernatorial candidates, preferring to pad his own margin of victory.

Results

Election results by county.
1972 Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District

Nixon’s percentage of the popular vote was only marginally less than Lyndon Johnson’s record in the 1964 election, 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. It was the first election 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.

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, the plan backfired when most of the youth vote went to Nixon.[37] 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 into a Republican one 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 the one in 1964 (although Republican candidates carried Texas in 1928, 1952 and 1956). As a result of this election, Massachusetts was the only state that Nixon did not carry in any of his three presidential campaigns.

Through 2016 this remains the last election when Minnesota was carried by the Republican candidate.[38] Minnesota was later the only state not won by Ronald Reagan in either 1980 or 1984. It also proved the last occasion that Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island and West Virginia would be won by Republicans until 1984.

McGovern won a mere 130 counties, plus the District of Columbia and three county-equivalents in Alaska, easily the fewest counties won by any major-party presidential nominee since the advent of popular presidential elections.[39] In nineteen states, McGovern failed to carry a single county;[lower-alpha 1] he carried a mere one county-equivalent in a further nine states,[lower-alpha 2] and just two counties in a further seven.[lower-alpha 3] In contrast to Walter Mondale’s narrow 1984 win in Minnesota, McGovern comfortably did win 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 serves two terms back-to-back, after Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804. Since McGovern carried only one state, bumper stickers reading “Nixon 49 America 1”, “Don't Blame Me I’m From Massachusetts” and “Massachusetts: The One And Only” were popular for a short time in Massachusetts.

Nixon managed to win 18% of the African American vote (Gerald Ford would get 16% in 1976). He also remains the only Republican in modern times to threaten the oldest extant Democratic stronghold of South Texas: this is the last election when the Republicans have won Hidalgo or Dimmit Counties, the only time Republicans have won La Salle County since William McKinley in 1900, and one of only two occasions since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904[lower-alpha 4] that Republicans have gained a majority in Presidio County.[38] More significantly, the 1972 election is the last 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.[38]

Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote
Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Richard Milhous Nixon (Incumbent) Republican California 47,168,710 60.67% 520 Spiro Theodore Agnew Maryland 520
George Stanley McGovern Democratic South Dakota 29,173,222 37.52% 17 Robert Sargent Shriver Maryland 17
John G. Schmitz American Independent California 1,100,868 1.42% 0 Thomas J. Anderson Tennessee 0
Linda Jenness Socialist Workers Georgia 83,380[lower-alpha 5] 0.11% 0 Andrew Pulley Illinois 0
Benjamin Spock People's California 78,759 0.10% 0 Julius Hobson District of Columbia 0
Louis Fisher Socialist Labor Illinois 53,814 0.07% 0 Genevieve Gunderson Minnesota 0
Gus Hall Communist New York 25,597 0.03% 0 Jarvis Tyner Pennsylvania 0
Evelyn Reed Socialist Workers New York 13,878 0.02% 0 Clifton DeBerry Illinois 0
E. Harold Munn Prohibition Michigan 13,497 0.02% 0 Marshall Uncapher Kansas 0
John G. Hospers Libertarian California 3,674 0.00% 1[lower-alpha 6][36] Theodora Nathan Oregon 1[lower-alpha 7][36]
John Mahalchik America First New Jersey 1,743 0.00% 0 Irv Homer Pennsylvania 0
Other 26,880 0.04% Other
Total 77,744,027 100% 538 538
Needed to win 270 270

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1972 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 7, 2005.  Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 7, 2005.  Source (Close States): Leip, David "How close were U.S. Presidential Elections?", Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved: January 24, 2013.

John Hospers received one faithless electoral vote from Virginia.
Popular vote
Nixon
 
60.67%
McGovern
 
37.52%
Schmitz
 
1.42%
Others
 
0.4%
Electoral vote
Nixon
 
96.65%
McGovern
 
3.16%
Hospers
 
0.19%

Results by state

[40]

States/districts won by Nixon/Agnew
States/districts won by McGovern/Shriver
Richard Nixon
Republican
George McGovern
Democratic
John Schmitz
American Independent
John Hospers
Libertarian
Margin State Total
State electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % #
Alabama 9 728,701 72.43 9 256,923 25.54   11,918 1.18         471,778 46.89 1,006,093 AL
Alaska 3 55,349 58.13 3 32,967 34.62   6,903 7.25         22,382 23.51 95,219 AK
Arizona 6 402,812 61.64 6 198,540 30.38   21,208 3.25         204,272 31.26 653,505 AZ
Arkansas 6 445,751 68.82 6 198,899 30.71   3,016 0.47         246,852 38.11 647,666 AR
California 45 4,602,096 55.00 45 3,475,847 41.54   232,554 2.78   980 0.01   1,126,249 13.46 8,367,862 CA
Colorado 7 597,189 62.61 7 329,980 34.59   17,269 1.81   1,111 0.12   267,209 28.01 953,884 CO
Connecticut 8 810,763 58.57 8 555,498 40.13   17,239 1.25         255,265 18.44 1,384,277 CT
Delaware 3 140,357 59.60 3 92,283 39.18   2,638 1.12         48,074 20.41 235,516 DE
D.C. 3 35,226 21.56   127,627 78.10 3             −92,401 −56.54 163,421 DC
Florida 17 1,857,759 71.91 17 718,117 27.80               1,139,642 44.12 2,583,283 FL
Georgia 12 881,496 75.04 12 289,529 24.65   812 0.07         591,967 50.39 1,174,772 GA
Hawaii 4 168,865 62.48 4 101,409 37.52               67,456 24.96 270,274 HI
Idaho 4 199,384 64.24 4 80,826 26.04   28,869 9.30         118,558 38.20 310,379 ID
Illinois 26 2,788,179 59.03 26 1,913,472 40.51   2,471 0.05         874,707 18.52 4,723,236 IL
Indiana 13 1,405,154 66.11 13 708,568 33.34               696,586 32.77 2,125,529 IN
Iowa 8 706,207 57.61 8 496,206 40.48   22,056 1.80         210,001 17.13 1,225,944 IA
Kansas 7 619,812 67.66 7 270,287 29.50   21,808 2.38         349,525 38.15 916,095 KS
Kentucky 9 676,446 63.37 9 371,159 34.77   17,627 1.65         305,287 28.60 1,067,499 KY
Louisiana 10 686,852 65.32 10 298,142 28.35   52,099 4.95         388,710 36.97 1,051,491 LA
Maine 4 256,458 61.46 4 160,584 38.48   117 0.03   1 0.00   95,874 22.98 417,271 ME
Maryland 10 829,305 61.26 10 505,781 37.36   18,726 1.38         323,524 23.90 1,353,812 MD
Massachusetts 14 1,112,078 45.23   1,332,540 54.20 14 2,877 0.12   43 0.00   −220,462 −8.97 2,458,756 MA
Michigan 21 1,961,721 56.20 21 1,459,435 41.81   63,321 1.81         502,286 14.39 3,490,325 MI
Minnesota 10 898,269 51.58 10 802,346 46.07   31,407 1.80         95,923 5.51 1,741,652 MN
Mississippi 7 505,125 78.20 7 126,782 19.63   11,598 1.80         378,343 58.57 645,963 MS
Missouri 12 1,154,058 62.29 12 698,531 37.71               455,527 24.59 1,852,589 MO
Montana 4 183,976 57.93 4 120,197 37.85   13,430 4.23         63,779 20.08 317,603 MT
Nebraska 5 406,298 70.50 5 169,991 29.50               236,307 41.00 576,289 NE
Nevada 3 115,750 63.68 3 66,016 36.32               49,734 27.36 181,766 NV
New Hampshire 4 213,724 63.98 4 116,435 34.86   3,386 1.01         97,289 29.12 334,055 NH
New Jersey 17 1,845,502 61.57 17 1,102,211 36.77   34,378 1.15         743,291 24.80 2,997,229 NJ
New Mexico 4 235,606 61.05 4 141,084 36.56   8,767 2.27         94,522 24.49 385,931 NM
New York 41 4,192,778 58.54 41 2,951,084 41.21               1,241,694 17.34 7,161,830 NY
North Carolina 13 1,054,889 69.46 13 438,705 28.89   25,018 1.65         616,184 40.58 1,518,612 NC
North Dakota 3 174,109 62.07 3 100,384 35.79   5,646 2.01         73,725 26.28 280,514 ND
Ohio 25 2,441,827 59.63 25 1,558,889 38.07   80,067 1.96         882,938 21.56 4,094,787 OH
Oklahoma 8 759,025 73.70 8 247,147 24.00   23,728 2.30         511,878 49.70 1,029,900 OK
Oregon 6 486,686 52.45 6 392,760 42.33   46,211 4.98         93,926 10.12 927,946 OR
Pennsylvania 27 2,714,521 59.11 27 1,796,951 39.13   70,593 1.54         917,570 19.98 4,592,105 PA
Rhode Island 4 220,383 53.00 4 194,645 46.81   25 0.01   2 0.00   25,738 6.19 415,808 RI
South Carolina 8 478,427 70.58 8 189,270 27.92   10,166 1.50         289,157 42.66 677,880 SC
South Dakota 4 166,476 54.15 4 139,945 45.52               26,531 8.63 307,415 SD
Tennessee 10 813,147 67.70 10 357,293 29.75   30,373 2.53         455,854 37.95 1,201,182 TN
Texas 26 2,298,896 66.20 26 1,154,291 33.24   7,098 0.20         1,144,605 32.96 3,472,714 TX
Utah 4 323,643 67.64 4 126,284 26.39   28,549 5.97         197,359 41.25 478,476 UT
Vermont 3 117,149 62.66 3 68,174 36.47               48,975 26.20 186,947 VT
Virginia 12 988,493 67.84 11 438,887 30.12   19,721 1.35       1 549,606 37.72 1,457,019 VA
Washington 9 837,135 56.92 9 568,334 38.64   58,906 4.00   1,537 0.10   268,801 18.28 1,470,847 WA
West Virginia 6 484,964 63.61 6 277,435 36.39               207,529 27.22 762,399 WV
Wisconsin 11 989,430 53.40 11 810,174 43.72   47,525 2.56         179,256 9.67 1,852,890 WI
Wyoming 3 100,464 69.01 3 44,358 30.47   748 0.51         56,106 38.54 145,570 WY
TOTALS: 538 47,168,710 60.67 520 29,173,222 37.52 17 1,100,868 1.42 0 3,674 0.00 1 17,995,488 23.15 77,744,027 US

Close states

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

Scandals

Watergate

On June 17, 1972, five months before election day, five men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C.; the resulting investigation led to the revelation of attempted cover-ups within the Nixon administration. Known as the Watergate scandal, the exposed corruption cost Nixon public and political support, 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.

Corporate campaign contributions

As part of the continuing investigation in 1974–75, Watergate scandal prosecutors offered companies that had given illegal campaign contributions to Nixon's re-election campaign lenient sentences if they came forward.[41] Many companies complied, including Northrop Grumman, 3M, American Airlines and Braniff Airlines.[41] By 1976, prosecutors had convicted 18 American corporations of contributing illegally to Nixon's campaign.[41]

See also

References

  1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  2. A faithless Republican elector voted for the Libertarian ticket
  3. "CQ Almanac Online Edition". Library.cqpress.com. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  4. "Hawai'i, nation lose "a powerful voice" | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii’s Newspaper". The Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  5. Jack Anderson (June 4, 1971). "Don’t count out Ted Kennedy". The Free Lance–Star. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  6. Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 298. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.
  7. "Muskie, Edmund Sixtus, (1914 - 1996)". United States Congress.
  8. "Remembering Ed Muskie", Online NewsHour, PBS, March 26, 1996.
  9. R. W. Apple, Jr. (January 18, 1971). "McGovern Enters '72 Race, Pledging Troop Withdrawal" (fee required). The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  10. Jo Freeman (February 2005). "Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 Presidential Campaign". University of Illinois at Chicago Women’s History Project.
  11. Robert D. Novak (2008). The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 225. ISBN 9781400052004.
  12. Nancy L. Cohen (2012). Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America. Counterpoint Press. pp. 37–38. ISBN 9781619020689.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "D Primaries Race – Mar 07, 1972". US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  14. "D Primary Race – Mar 21, 1972". IL US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  15. "More Muskie Support". New York Times. January 15, 1972. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  16. 1 2 "Stephen M. Young". Candidate. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  17. 1 2 "Gertrude W. Donahey". Candidate. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  18. "D Primary Race – May 2, 1972". OH US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  19. Life So Far: A Memoir – Google Books. Books.google.com. August 1, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7432-9986-2. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  20. "POV – Chisholm '72 . Video: Gloria Steinem reflects on Chisholm’s legacy". PBS. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  21. Terry Sanford: politics, progress ... – Google Books. Books.google.com. 1999. ISBN 978-0-8223-2356-3. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  22. "D Convention Race – Jul 10, 1972". US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  23. "All Politics: CNN Time. "All The Votes...Really"". Cnn.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  24. Garofoli, Joe (March 26, 2008). "Obama bounces back – speech seemed to help". Sfgate.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  25. McGovern, George S., Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern, New York: Random House, 1977, pp. 214-215
  26. McGovern, George S., Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism, New York: Random House, 1996, pp. 97
  27. Marano, Richard Michael, Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign of George McGovern, Praeger Publishers, 2003, pp. 7
  28. The Washington Post, "George McGovern & the Coldest Plunge", Paul Hendrickson, September 28, 1983
  29. The New York Times, "'Trashing' Candidates" (op-ed), George McGovern, May 11, 1983
  30. Liebovich, Louis (2003). Richard Nixon, Watergate, and the Press: A Historical Retrospective. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 53. ISBN 9780275979157.
  31. "New Hampshire Primary historical past election results. 2008 Democrat & Republican past results. John McCain, Hillary Clinton winners". Primarynewhampshire.com. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  32. "R Primaries Race – Mar 07, 1972". US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  33. 1 2 Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 52. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.
  34. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 100 ISBN 0786422173
  35. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 339, 343 ISBN 0405077114
  36. 1 2 3 "Libertarians trying to escape obscurity". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. December 30, 1973. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  37. Walker, Jesse (July 2008). "The Age of Nixon: Rick Perlstein on the left, the right, the '60s, and the illusion of consensus". Reason. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  38. 1 2 3 Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  39. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 98 ISBN 0786422173
  40. "1972 Presidential General Election Data — National". Retrieved March 18, 2013.
  41. 1 2 3 Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 31. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.

Notes

  1. 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
  2. McGovern carried only one county-equivalent in Arizona (Greenlee), Illinois (Jackson), Louisiana (West Feliciana Parish), Maine (Androscoggin), Maryland (Baltimore City), North Dakota (Rolette), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Virginia (Charles City) and West Virginia (Logan)
  3. McGovern carried just two counties in Colorado, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington State
  4. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 also obtained a plurality in Presidio County
  5. In Arizona, Pima and Yavapai counties had a confusing ballot that resulted in many voters voting for both a major party candidate, and 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

Bibliography and further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.