Просмотр кода страницы Английская Википедия:1972 United States presidential election

{{Английская Википедия/Панель перехода}}
{{short description|47th quadrennial U.S. presidential election}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2013}}{{Infobox election
| election_name = 1972 United States presidential election
| country = United States
| flag_year = 1960
| type = presidential
| previous_election = 1968 United States presidential election
| previous_year = 1968
| election_date = November 7, 1972
| next_election = 1976 United States presidential election
| next_year = 1976
| votes_for_election = 538 members of the [[United States Electoral College|Electoral College]]
| needed_votes = 270 electoral
| turnout = 56.2%<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present|title=National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present|work=United States Election Project|publisher=[[CQ Press]]|access-date=February 21, 2023|archive-date=July 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725110444/http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present|url-status=live}}</ref> {{decrease}} 6.3 [[percentage point|pp]]
| image_size = 200x200px
| image1 = Richard Nixon presidential portrait (1).jpg
| nominee1 = '''[[Richard Nixon]]'''
| party1 = Republican Party (United States)
| home_state1 = [[California]]
| running_mate1 = '''[[Spiro Agnew]]'''
| electoral_vote1 = '''520'''{{efn|A faithless Republican elector voted for the Libertarian ticket: Hospers–Nathan}}
| states_carried1 = '''49'''
| popular_vote1 = '''47,168,710'''
| percentage1 = '''{{percent|47,168,710|77,744,027|1|pad=yes}}'''
| image2 = George McGovern (D-SD) (3x4-1).jpg
| nominee2 = [[George McGovern]]
| party2 = Democratic Party (United States)
| home_state2 = [[South Dakota]]
| running_mate2 = [[Sargent Shriver]]<br /><small>(replacing [[Thomas Eagleton]])</small>
| electoral_vote2 = 17
| states_carried2 = 1 + [[Washington, D.C.|DC]]
| popular_vote2 = 29,173,222
| percentage2 = {{percent|29,173,222|77,744,027|1|pad=yes}}
| image3 = 
| nominee3 = 
| party3 = 
| home_state3 = 
| running_mate3 = 
| electoral_vote3 = 
| states_carried3 = 
| popular_vote3 = 
| percentage3 = 
| map_size = 350px
| map = {{1972 United States presidential election imagemap}}
| map_caption = Presidential election results map. <span style="color:red;">Red</span> denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew and <span style="color:blue;">Blue</span> denotes those won by McGovern/Shriver. <span style="color:#b78f21;">Gold</span> is the electoral vote for [[John Hospers|Hospers]]/[[Tonie Nathan|Nathan]] by a [[Virginia]] [[faithless elector]]. Numbers indicate [[electoral votes]] cast by each state and the District of Columbia.
| title = President
| before_election = [[Richard Nixon]]
| before_party = Republican Party (United States)
| after_election = [[Richard Nixon]]
| after_party = Republican Party (United States)
| ongoing = 
}}
{{Watergate|Events}}
The '''1972 United States presidential election''' was the 47th [[United States presidential election|quadrennial presidential election]] held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Incumbent [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] president [[Richard Nixon]] defeated [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] U.S. senator [[George McGovern]] in a historic-level landslide. 

Nixon swept aside challenges from two Republican representatives in [[1972 Republican Party presidential primaries|the Republican primaries]] to win renomination. McGovern, who had played a significant role in [[McGovern–Fraser Commission|changing the Democratic nomination system]] after [[1968 United States presidential election|the 1968 presidential election]], mobilized the [[anti-Vietnam War movement]] and other liberal supporters to win [[1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries|his party's nomination]]. Among the candidates he defeated were early front-runner [[Edmund Muskie]], 1968 nominee [[Hubert Humphrey]], governor [[George Wallace]], and representative [[Shirley Chisholm]].

Nixon emphasized the strong economy and his success in foreign affairs, while McGovern ran on a platform calling for an immediate end to the Vietnam War and the institution of a [[guaranteed minimum income]]. Nixon maintained a large lead in polling. Separately, Nixon's [[Committee for the Re-Election of the President|reelection committee]] broke into the [[Watergate complex]] to wiretap the [[Democratic National Committee]]'s headquarters as part of the [[Watergate scandal]]. McGovern's general election campaign was damaged early on by the revelation of his running mate [[Thomas Eagleton]], as well as the perception that McGovern's platform was radical. Eagleton had undergone [[electroconvulsive therapy]] as a treatment for depression, and he was replaced by [[Sargent Shriver]] after only nineteen days on the ticket.

Nixon won the election in a [[landslide victory]], taking 60.7% of the popular vote and carrying 49 states and becoming the first Republican to sweep [[Southern United States|the South]], whereas McGovern took just 37.5% of the popular vote. Meanwhile, this marked the last time the Republican nominee carried [[Minnesota]] in a presidential election. The 1972 election was the first since the ratification of the [[Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|26th Amendment]], which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, further expanding the electorate. 

Both Nixon and his vice president [[Spiro Agnew]] would resign from office within two years of the election. The latter resigned due to a bribery scandal in October 1973, and the former resigned in the face of likely impeachment and conviction as a result of the Watergate scandal in August 1974. Republican House Minority Leader [[Gerald Ford]] replaced Agnew as vice president in December 1973, and thus, replaced Nixon as president in August 1974. Ford remains the only person in American history to become president without winning an election for president or vice president.

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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/11/my-morris-moment/|title=My Morris Moment »|first=David|last=Emig|date=November 7, 2009|access-date=March 29, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145324/https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/11/my-morris-moment/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Republican nomination==
{{Main|1972 Republican Party presidential primaries}}

Republican candidates:
*[[Richard Nixon]], [[President of the United States]] from [[California]]
*[[Pete McCloskey]], [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] from [[California]]
*[[John M. Ashbrook]], Representative from [[Ohio]]

{{Richard Nixon series}}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
|-
| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|[[File:Republican Disc.svg|65px|center|link=Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party (United States)]]<big> '''1972 Republican Party ticket'''</big>
|-
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#E81B23; width:200px;"| [[Richard Nixon|{{color|white|Richard Nixon}}]]
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#E81B23; width:200px;"| [[Spiro Agnew|{{color|white|Spiro Agnew}}]]
|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#ffd0d7;"
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for President'''''
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for Vice President'''''
|-
| [[File:Richard Nixon presidential portrait.jpg|center|200x200px]]
| [[File:Spiro Agnew.jpg|center|200x200px]]
|-
|[[List of presidents of the United States|37th]]<br />[[President of the United States]]<br /><small>(1969–1974)</small>
|[[List of vice presidents of the United States|39th]]<br />[[Vice President of the United States]]<br /><small>(1969–1973)</small>
|-
| colspan=2 |[[Presidency of Richard Nixon#Election of 1972|'''Campaign''']]
|-
| colspan=2 |[[File:Nixon Agnew 1972 campaign logo.svg|200x200px]]
|-
|}

===Primaries===
Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he was credited with opening the [[People's Republic of China]] as a result of [[Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China|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: [[modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] [[Pete McCloskey]] from California, and [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[John Ashbrook]] from Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards [[People's Republic of China|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%.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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.

===Primary results===
{{Election box begin no party no change|title=1972 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] presidential primaries<ref name="Kalb">{{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}}</ref>}}
{{Election box winning candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Richard Nixon|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 Ashbrook|John M. Ashbrook]]|votes=311,543|percentage=5.0}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Pete McCloskey|Paul N. McCloskey]]|votes=132,731|percentage=2.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[George Wallace|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=[[Write-in candidate|Others]]|votes=22,433|percentage=0.4}}
{{Election box total no party no change|votes=6,188,281|percentage=100}}
{{End}}

===Convention===
Seven members of [[Vietnam Veterans Against the War]] were brought on federal charges for conspiring to disrupt the Republican convention.<ref name="'70s 52">{{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}}</ref> They were acquitted by a federal jury in [[Gainesville, Florida|Gainesville]], [[Florida]].<ref name="'70s 52"/>

==Democratic nomination==
{{Main|1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries}}

Overall, fifteen people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal72-1249975 |title=CQ Almanac Online Edition |publisher=Library.cqpress.com |access-date=2016-08-17 |archive-date=June 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608024554/http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/searchform.php?alert=The+document+you+requested+could+not+be+located.+Use+this+search+screen+to+locate+the+document+based+on+its+title+or+other+pertinent+details.%2F |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Sep/29/ln/ln04a.html |title=Hawai'i, nation lose "a powerful voice" &#124; The Honolulu Advertiser &#124; Hawaii's Newspaper |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |access-date=2016-08-17 |archive-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219165527/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Sep/29/ln/ln04a.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
*[[George McGovern]], [[United States Senate|senator]] from [[South Dakota]]
*[[Hubert Humphrey]], senator from [[Minnesota]], former [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]], and presidential nominee in 1968
*[[George Wallace]], Governor of Alabama
*[[Edmund Muskie]], senator from Maine, vice presidential nominee in 1968
*[[Eugene J. McCarthy]], former senator from Minnesota
*[[Henry M. Jackson]], senator from [[Washington (state)|Washington]]
*[[Shirley Chisholm]], Representative of [[New York's 12th congressional district]]
*[[Terry Sanford]], former governor of North Carolina
*[[John Lindsay]], Mayor of New York City
*[[Wilbur Mills]], representative of [[Arkansas's 2nd congressional district]]
*[[Vance Hartke]], senator from Indiana
*[[Fred R. Harris|Fred Harris]], senator from Oklahoma
*[[Sam Yorty]], Mayor of Los Angeles
*[[Patsy Mink]], representative of [[Hawaii's 2nd congressional district]]
*[[Walter Fauntroy]], Delegate from Washington, D. C.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
|-
| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|[[File:Democratic Disc.svg|65px|center|link=Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party (United States)]]<big> '''1972 Democratic Party ticket'''</big>
|-
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#3333FF; width:200px;"| [[George McGovern|{{color|white|George McGovern}}]]
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#3333FF; width:200px;"| [[Sargent Shriver|{{color|white|Sargent Shriver}}]]
|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#c8ebff;"
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for President'''''
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for Vice President'''''
|-
| [[File:George McGovern (D-SD) (3x4-1).jpg|center|201x201px]]
| [[File:Sargent Shriver 1961.jpg|center|200x200px]]
|-
| [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]]<br />from [[South Dakota]]<br /><small>(1963–1981)</small>
| [[United States Ambassador to France#United States Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France|21st]]<br />[[United States Ambassador to France|U.S. Ambassador to France]]<br /><small>(1968–1970)</small>
|-
| colspan=2 |[[George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign|'''Campaign''']]
|-
| colspan=2 |[[File:McGovern Shriver 1972 campaign logo.svg|200x200px]]
|-
|}

===Primaries===
[[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Whip]] [[Ted Kennedy]], the youngest brother of late [[President of the United States|President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] and late [[United States Senator]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]], was the favorite to win the 1972&nbsp;nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.<ref name="Kennedy">{{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}}</ref> The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Maine Senator [[Ed Muskie]],<ref name="'70s 298">{{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}}</ref> the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968]] vice-presidential nominee.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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 Canadian|French-Canadians]]&nbsp;– a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern [[New England]].<ref name="WP 2020">{{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 }}</ref> Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife [[Jane Muskie|Jane]], reporting that she drank and used [[Off-color humor|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.<ref name="WP 2020"/><ref>"[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html Remembering Ed Muskie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990427124548/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html |date=April 27, 1999 }}", ''[[The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer|Online NewsHour]]'', [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]], March 26, 1996.{{dead link|date=March 2020}}</ref>

Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator [[George McGovern]] entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.<ref name="nyt011971">{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="uic">{{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 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

[[Governor of Alabama|Alabama Governor]] [[George Wallace]], an infamous segregationist who ran on a third-party ticket in [[1968 United States presidential election|1968]], did well in the [[Southern United States|South]] (winning nearly every county in the Florida primary) and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the [[Northern United States|North]].<ref>{{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 }}</ref> What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when [[George Wallace#1972 Democratic presidential primaries and assassination attempt|Wallace was shot]] in an assassination attempt by [[Arthur Bremer]] on May 15. Wallace was struck by five bullets and left [[paralysis|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 United States presidential election|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 like McGovern and Carter.

===Primary results===
[[File:1972DemocraticPresidentialPrimaries.svg|thumb|400px|Statewide contest by winner<br>{{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]]}}]]
{{Election box begin no party no change|title=1972 [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] presidential primaries<ref name="Kalb"/>}}
{{Election box winning candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Hubert Humphrey|Hubert H. Humphrey]]|votes=4,121,372|percentage=25.8}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[George McGovern|George S. McGovern]]|votes=4,053,451|percentage=25.3}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[George Wallace|George C. Wallace]]|votes=3,755,424|percentage=23.5}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Edmund Muskie|Edmund S. Muskie]]|votes=1,840,217|percentage=11.5}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Eugene McCarthy|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 Chisholm|Shirley A. Chisholm]]|votes=430,703|percentage=2.7}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Terry Sanford|James T. Sanford]]|votes=331,415|percentage=2.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[John Lindsay|John V. Lindsay]]|votes=196,406|percentage=1.2}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Sam Yorty|Sam W. Yorty]]|votes=79,446|percentage=0.5}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Wilbur Mills|Wilbur D. Mills]]|votes=37,401|percentage=0.2}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Walter Fauntroy|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 Kennedy|Edward M. Kennedy]]|votes=16,693|percentage=0.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Vance Hartke|Rupert V. Hartke]]|votes=11,798|percentage=0.1}}
{{Election box candidate no party no change|candidate=[[Patsy Mink|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=[[Write-in candidate|Others]]|votes=5,181|percentage=0}}
{{Election box total no party no change|votes=15,993,965|percentage=100}}
{{End}}

===Notable endorsements===
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
'''Edmund Muskie'''
* Former [[Governor of New York|Governor]] of and [[U.S. Secretary of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] [[W. Averell Harriman]] from [[New York (state)|New York]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* Senator [[Harold Hughes]] from [[Iowa]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* Senator [[Birch Bayh]] from [[Indiana]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* Senator [[Adlai Stevenson III]] from [[Illinois]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* Senator [[Mike Gravel]] of [[Alaska]]<ref>{{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}}</ref>
* Former Senator [[Stephen M. Young]] from [[Ohio]]<ref name="StickingMuskie">{{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 }}</ref>
* [[Governor of Pennsylvania|Governor]] [[Milton Shapp]] of [[Pennsylvania]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* Former [[Governor of Ohio|Governor]] [[Michael DiSalle]] of [[Ohio]]<ref name="StickingMuskie"/>
* Ohio State Treasurer [[Gertrude W. Donahey]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* Astronaut [[John Glenn]] from [[Ohio]]<ref name="StickingMuskie"/>

'''George McGovern'''
* Senator [[Frank Church]] from [[Idaho]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

'''George Wallace'''
* Former Governor [[Lester Maddox]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

'''Shirley Chisholm'''
* Representative [[Ron Dellums]] from California<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* [[Feminist Movement in the United States|Feminist leader]] and author [[Betty Friedan]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
* [[Feminist Movement in the United States|Feminist leader]], journalist, and DNC official [[Gloria Steinem]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

'''Terry Sanford'''
* Former President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] from [[Texas]]<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

'''Henry M. Jackson'''
* Governor [[Jimmy Carter]] of Georgia<ref>{{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 }}</ref>
}}

===1972 Democratic National Convention===
[[File:Democrats and Republicans in Convention--2 (3525637530).ogv|thumb|right|thumbtime=3.549|300px|Video from the Florida conventions]]
{{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 R. Harris|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}}

===Vice presidential vote===
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]] of [[Arkansas]] and [[Mayor of Boston|Boston Mayor]] [[Kevin White (mayor)|Kevin White]].<ref name="time">{{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}}</ref> 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]] of Missouri, who accepted the offer.<ref name="time" />

With hundreds of [[Delegate (American politics)|delegate]]s 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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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 [[clinical depression|depression]] and had concealed this information from McGovern. A ''[[Time (magazine)|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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref>McGovern, George S., ''Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern'', New York: Random House, 1977, pp. 214–215</ref><ref>McGovern, George S., ''Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism'', New York: Random House, 1996, pp. 97</ref><ref>Marano, Richard Michael, ''Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign of George McGovern'', Praeger Publishers, 2003, pp. 7</ref><ref>''The Washington Post'', "George McGovern & the Coldest Plunge", [[Paul Hendrickson]], September 28, 1983</ref><ref>''The New York Times'', "'Trashing' Candidates" (op-ed), George McGovern, May 11, 1983</ref> McGovern had initially claimed that he would back Eagleton "1000 percent",<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 [[United States Ambassador to France|Ambassador to France]], and former [[Peace Corps#Directors|Director]] of the [[Peace Corps]], later accepted.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.

==Third parties==

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
|-
| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|<big> '''1972 American Independent Party ticket'''</big>
|-
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:{{party color|American Independent Party}}; width:200px;"| [[John G. Schmitz|{{color|white|John G. Schmitz}}]]
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:{{party color|American Independent Party}}; width:200px;"| [[Thomas J. Anderson (author)|{{color|white|Thomas J. Anderson}}]]
|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:{{Party shading/American Independent}};"
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for President'''''
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for Vice President'''''
|-
| [[File:John G. Schmitz.jpg|center|200x200px]]
| [[File:Thomas J. Anderson.jpg|center|200x200px]]
|-
| [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] from [[California's 35th congressional district|California's 35th district]]<br><small>(1970–1973)</small>
| Magazine publisher; conservative speaker
|-
| colspan=2 | [[John G. Schmitz#US Representative and presidential campaign|'''Campaign''']]
|-
| colspan=2 |[[File:John G. Schmitz 1972 bumper sticker.jpg|200x200px]]
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"
|- <sup>†</sup>
| colspan="9" style="text-align:center; width:600px; font-size:120%; color:white; background: {{party color|American Independent Party}};"|Other Candidates
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|[[Lester Maddox]]
! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|[[Thomas J. Anderson (author)|Thomas J. Anderson]]
! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|[[George Wallace]]
|-
|[[File:Lester Maddox.jpg|center|120x120px]]
|[[File:Thomas J. Anderson.jpg|center|120x120px]]
|[[File:George C Wallace.jpg|center|120x120px]]
|- style="text-align:center"
| Lieutenant Governor of [[Georgia (U.S. State)|Georgia]] <br><small>(1971–1975)</small><br /> Governor of [[Georgia (U.S. State)|Georgia]]<br><small>(1967–1971)</small>
| Magazine publisher; conservative speaker
| Governor of [[Alabama]] <br><small>(1963–1967), (1971–1979)</small> <br> 1968 AIP Presidential Nominee
|- style="text-align:center"
| [[Lester Maddox|Campaign]]
| [[Thomas J. Anderson (author)|Campaign]]
| [[George Wallace#1972 Democratic presidential primaries and assassination attempt|Campaign]]
|- style="text-align:center"
|'''56''' votes
|'''24''' votes
|'''8''' votes
|}

The only major [[third party (United States)|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 [[United States presidential election in Idaho, 1972|Idaho]] counties.<ref>Menendez, Albert J.; ''The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004'', p. 100 {{ISBN|0786422173}}</ref> Schmitz's performance in archconservative [[Jefferson County, Idaho|Jefferson County]] was the best by a third-party Presidential candidate in any [[slave states and free states|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 County, North Dakota|Burke]], [[Sheridan County, North Dakota|Sheridan]] and [[Hettinger County, North Dakota|Hettinger]].<ref>Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); ''America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920–1964''; pp. 339, 343 {{ISBN|0405077114}}</ref> Schmitz was endorsed by fellow [[John Birch Society]] member [[Walter Brennan]], who also served as finance chairman for his campaign.<ref>Actor to Aid Schmitz; The New York Times, August 9, 1972</ref>

[[John Hospers]] and Tonie Nathan of the newly formed [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] were on the ballot only in Colorado and [[Washington (state)|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|Theodora "Tonie" Nathan]] became the first [[Jew]] and the first woman in U.S. history to receive an Electoral College vote.<ref name="lp">{{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 }}</ref>

[[Linda Jenness]] was nominated by the [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|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 (United States, 1970s)|People's Party]].
{{clear}}

==General election==

===Campaign===
[[File:Richard Nixon greeted by children during campaign 1972.png|left|thumb|Richard Nixon during an August 1972 campaign stop]]
[[File:George McGovern UH.jpeg|left|thumb|upright|George McGovern speaking at an October 1972 campaign rally]]

McGovern ran on a platform of immediately ending the Vietnam War and instituting a radical [[guaranteed minimum income]]s 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 [[Historical polling for U.S. Presidential elections#1972 United States presidential election|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===
[[File:1972prescountymap2.PNG|thumb|right|400px|Election results by county.{{legend|#E32636|[[Richard Nixon]]|border=1px #AAAAAA solid}}
{{legend|#1560BD|[[George McGovern]]|border=1px #AAAAAA solid}}]]
[[File:1972 Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District.png|thumb|right|400px|Results by congressional district.]]
Nixon's percentage of the popular vote was only marginally less than Lyndon Johnson's record in the [[1964 United States presidential election|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 (United States)|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 the [[1924 United States presidential election|1924 election]]. 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 the [[1992 United States presidential election|1992 election]], a race that (as in 1924) was complicated by a strong non-major-party vote.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="walker200807">{{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 }}</ref> This was the first election in American history in which a [[Republican Party (U.S.)|Republican]] candidate carried every single [[American South|Southern state]], continuing the region's transformation from [[Solid South|a Democratic bastion]] into a Republican stronghold as [[United States presidential elections in Arkansas|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 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. This presidential election was the first since [[1808 United States presidential election|1808]] in which [[New York (state)|New York]] did not have the largest number of electors in the Electoral College, having fallen to 41 electors vs. [[California]]'s 45. Additionally, through [[2020 United States presidential election|2020]] it remains the last one in which Minnesota was carried by the Republican candidate.<ref name="how">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</ref>

McGovern won a mere 130 counties, plus the District of Columbia and four county-equivalents in Alaska,{{efn|These were [[North Slope Borough, Alaska|North Slope Borough]], plus [[Bethel Census Area, Alaska|Bethel]], [[Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska|Kusilvak]] and [[Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska|Hoonah-Angoon Census Areas]]}} easily the fewest counties won by any major-party presidential nominee since the advent of popular presidential elections.<ref>Menendez, Albert J.; ''The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004'', p. 98 {{ISBN|0786422173}}</ref> In nineteen states, McGovern failed to carry a single county;{{efn|McGovern failed to carry a single county in Arkansas, [[United States presidential election in Connecticut, 1972|Connecticut]], Delaware, [[United States presidential election in Florida, 1972|Florida]], Georgia, [[United States presidential election in Hawaii, 1972|Hawaii]], Idaho, Indiana, [[United States presidential election in Kansas, 1972|Kansas]], Nebraska, Nevada, [[United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1972|New Jersey]], [[United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 1972|New Hampshire]], Oklahoma, [[United States presidential election in Rhode Island, 1972|Rhode Island]], [[United States presidential election in South Carolina, 1972|South Carolina]], [[United States presidential election in Utah, 1972|Utah]], [[United States presidential election in Vermont, 1972|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 County, Arizona|Greenlee]]), [[United States presidential election in Illinois, 1972|Illinois]] ([[Jackson County, Illinois|Jackson]]), Louisiana ([[West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana|West Feliciana Parish]]), [[United States presidential election in Maine, 1972|Maine]] ([[Androscoggin County, Maine|Androscoggin]]), [[United States presidential election in Maryland, 1972|Maryland]] ([[Baltimore]]), North Dakota ([[Rolette County, North Dakota|Rolette]]), [[United States presidential election in Pennsylvania, 1972|Pennsylvania]] ([[Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]]), [[United States presidential election in Virginia, 1972|Virginia]] ([[Charles City County, Virginia|Charles City]]), and West Virginia ([[Logan County, West Virginia|Logan]])}} and just two counties in a further seven.{{efn|McGovern carried just two counties in [[United States presidential election in Colorado, 1972|Colorado]], Missouri, [[United States presidential election in Montana, 1972|Montana]], [[United States presidential election in New Mexico, 1972|New Mexico]], [[United States presidential election in North Carolina, 1972|North Carolina]], [[United States presidential election in Ohio, 1972|Ohio]] and [[United States presidential election in Washington (state), 1972|Washington State]]}} 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 serve two terms back-to-back, after [[Thomas Jefferson]] in [[1800 United States presidential election|1800]] and [[1804 United States presidential election|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",<ref>{{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 }}</ref> "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts", and "Massachusetts: The One And Only" were popular for a short time in Massachusetts.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>  

Nixon managed to win 18% of the African American vote (Gerald Ford would get 16% in 1976).<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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 County, Texas|Hidalgo]] or [[Dimmit County, Texas|Dimmit]] counties, the only time Republicans have won [[La Salle County, Texas|La Salle County]] between [[William McKinley]] in 1900 and [[Donald Trump]] in 2020, and one of only two occasions since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904{{efn|[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in 1952 also obtained a plurality in Presidio County}} that Republicans have gained a majority in [[Presidio County, Texas|Presidio County]].<ref name="how"/> More significantly, the 1972 election was the most recent time several highly populous urban counties – including [[Cook County, Illinois|Cook]] in Illinois, [[Orleans Parish, Louisiana|Orleans]] in Louisiana, [[Hennepin County, Minnesota|Hennepin]] in Minnesota, [[Cuyahoga County, Ohio|Cuyahoga]] in Ohio, [[Durham County, North Carolina|Durham]] in North Carolina, [[Queens County, New York|Queens]] in New York, and [[Prince George's County, Maryland|Prince George's]] in Maryland – have voted Republican.<ref name="how"/>

The [[George Wallace 1968 presidential campaign|Wallace vote]] had also been crucial to Nixon being able to sweep the states that had narrowly held out against him in 1968 (Texas, Maryland, and West Virginia), as well as the states Wallace won himself (Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia). 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 limits in the United States|term-limited]] under the provisions of the [[Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-second Amendment]] as a result of his victory, became the first (and, as of 2023, only) presidential candidate to win a significant number of electoral votes in three presidential elections since the ratification of that Amendment. As of 2023, Nixon was the seventh of seven presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, the others being Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is the only Republican ever to do so. 

The 520 electoral votes received by Nixon, added to the 301 electoral votes he received in [[1968 United States presidential election|1968]], and the 219 electoral votes he received in [[1960 United States presidential election|1960]], gave him the most total electoral votes received by any candidate who had been previously Vice President to become president (1,040) and the second largest number of electoral votes received by any candidate who was elected to the office of president behind [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s 1,876 total electoral votes.

{{start U.S. presidential ticket box| pv_footnote=<!--source for popular votes--><ref>{{Leip PV source 2| year=1972| as of=August 7, 2005}}</ref>| ev_footnote=<!--source for electoral votes--><ref>{{National Archives EV source| year=1972| as of=August 7, 2005}}</ref>}}
{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=[[Richard Nixon|Richard Milhous Nixon]] (Incumbent)| party=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]| state=[[California]]| pv=47,168,710| pv_pct=60.67%| ev=520| vp_name=[[Spiro T. Agnew|Spiro Theodore Agnew]]| vp_state=[[Maryland]]}}
{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=[[George McGovern|George Stanley McGovern]]| party=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]| state=[[South Dakota]]| pv=29,173,222| pv_pct=37.52%| ev=17| vp_name=[[R. Sargent Shriver|Robert Sargent Shriver]]| vp_state=[[Maryland]]}}
{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=[[John G. Schmitz]]| party=[[American Independent Party|American Independent]]| state=[[California]]| pv=1,100,896| pv_pct=1.42%| ev=0| vp_name=[[Thomas J. Anderson (author)|Thomas J. Anderson]]| vp_state=[[Tennessee]]}}
{{U.S. presidential ticket box row| name=[[Linda Jenness]]| party=[[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers]]| state=[[Georgia (U.S. 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
}}| 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 Party (United States, 1970s)|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 Party of America|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 Hospers|John G. Hospers]]| party=[[Libertarian Party (United States)|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]].}}<ref name="lp"/>| 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|thumb|[[John Hospers]] 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|650px|thumb|left]]
<gallery perrow="3" widths="500px" heights="317px">
Image:1972 United States presidential election results map by county.svg|Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
</gallery>

====Results by state====
;Legend

{|class="wikitable"
|+ Legend
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
|colspan=2| States/districts won by [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]]/[[Spiro Agnew|Agnew]]
|-{{Party shading/Democratic}}
|colspan=2| States/districts won by [[George McGovern|McGovern]]/[[Sargent Shriver|Shriver]]
|-
| † || At-large results (Maine used the Congressional District Method)
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
|+Outcomes of the 1972 United States presidential election by state<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1972&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0|title=1972 Presidential General Election Data&nbsp;— National|access-date=March 18, 2013|archive-date=February 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201035330/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1972&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
! scope="col" colspan=2 |
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| Richard Nixon<br />Republican
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| George McGovern<br />Democratic
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| John Schmitz<br />American Independent
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| John Hospers<br />Libertarian
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Margin
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| State Total
|-
! scope="col" align=center | State
! scope="col" style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | electoral<br />votes
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| #
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| %
! scope="col" style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | electoral<br />votes
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| #
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| %
! scope="col" style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | electoral<br />votes
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| #
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| %
! scope="col" style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | electoral<br />votes
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| #
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| %
! scope="col" style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | electoral<br />votes
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| #
! scope="col" style="text-align:center;" data-sort- type="number"| %
! scope="col" style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | #
!scope="col" |
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
|style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Alabama|Alabama]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 9
| 728,701
| 72.43
| 9
| 256,923
| 25.54
| &nbsp;
| 11,918
| 1.18
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 471,778
| 46.89
| 1,006,093
| style="text-align:center;" | AL
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Alaska|Alaska]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 55,349
| 58.13
| 3
| 32,967
| 34.62
| &nbsp;
| 6,903
| 7.25
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 22,382
| 23.51
| 95,219
| style="text-align:center;" | AK
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Arizona|Arizona]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 6
| 402,812
| 61.64
| 6
| 198,540
| 30.38
| &nbsp;
| 21,208
| 3.25
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 204,272
| 31.26
| 653,505
| style="text-align:center;" | AZ
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Arkansas|Arkansas]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 6
| 445,751
| 68.82
| 6
| 198,899
| 30.71
| &nbsp;
| 3,016
| 0.47
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 246,852
| 38.11
| 647,666
| style="text-align:center;" | AR
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in California|California]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 45
| 4,602,096
| 55.00
| 45
| 3,475,847
| 41.54
| &nbsp;
| 232,554
| 2.78
| &nbsp;
| 980
| 0.01
| &nbsp;
| 1,126,249
| 13.46
| 8,367,862
| style="text-align:center;" | CA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Colorado|Colorado]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 7
| 597,189
| 62.61
| 7
| 329,980
| 34.59
| &nbsp;
| 17,269
| 1.81
| &nbsp;
| 1,111
| 0.12
| &nbsp;
| 267,209
| 28.01
| 953,884
| style="text-align:center;" | CO
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Connecticut|Connecticut]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 8
| 810,763
| 58.57
| 8
| 555,498
| 40.13
| &nbsp;
| 17,239
| 1.25
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 255,265
| 18.44
| 1,384,277
| style="text-align:center;" | CT
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Delaware|Delaware]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 140,357
| 59.60
| 3
| 92,283
| 39.18
| &nbsp;
| 2,638
| 1.12
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 48,074
| 20.41
| 235,516
| style="text-align:center;" | DE
|-{{Party shading/Democratic}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia|D.C.]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 35,226
| 21.56
| &nbsp;
| 127,627
| 78.10
| 3
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| −92,401
| −56.54
| 163,421
| style="text-align:center;" | DC
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Florida|Florida]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 17
| 1,857,759
| 71.91
| 17
| 718,117
| 27.80
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 1,139,642
| 44.12
| 2,583,283
| style="text-align:center;" | FL
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Georgia|Georgia]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 12
| 881,496
| 75.04
| 12
| 289,529
| 24.65
| &nbsp;
| 812
| 0.07
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 591,967
| 50.39
| 1,174,772
| style="text-align:center;" | GA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Hawaii|Hawaii]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 168,865
| 62.48
| 4
| 101,409
| 37.52
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 67,456
| 24.96
| 270,274
| style="text-align:center;" | HI
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Idaho|Idaho]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 199,384
| 64.24
| 4
| 80,826
| 26.04
| &nbsp;
| 28,869
| 9.30
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 118,558
| 38.20
| 310,379
| style="text-align:center;" | ID
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Illinois|Illinois]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 26
| 2,788,179
| 59.03
| 26
| 1,913,472
| 40.51
| &nbsp;
| 2,471
| 0.05
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 874,707
| 18.52
| 4,723,236
| style="text-align:center;" | IL
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Indiana|Indiana]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 13
| 1,405,154
| 66.11
| 13
| 708,568
| 33.34
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 696,586
| 32.77
| 2,125,529
| style="text-align:center;" | IN
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Iowa|Iowa]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 8
| 706,207
| 57.61
| 8
| 496,206
| 40.48
| &nbsp;
| 22,056
| 1.80
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 210,001
| 17.13
| 1,225,944
| style="text-align:center;" | IA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Kansas|Kansas]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 7
| 619,812
| 67.66
| 7
| 270,287
| 29.50
| &nbsp;
| 21,808
| 2.38
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 349,525
| 38.15
| 916,095
| style="text-align:center;" | KS
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Kentucky|Kentucky]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 9
| 676,446
| 63.37
| 9
| 371,159
| 34.77
| &nbsp;
| 17,627
| 1.65
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 305,287
| 28.60
| 1,067,499
| style="text-align:center;" | KY
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Louisiana|Louisiana]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 10
| 686,852
| 65.32
| 10
| 298,142
| 28.35
| &nbsp;
| 52,099
| 4.95
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 388,710
| 36.97
| 1,051,491
| style="text-align:center;" | LA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Maine|Maine †]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 2
| 256,458
| 61.46
| 2
| 160,584
| 38.48
| &nbsp;
| 117
| 0.03
| &nbsp;
| 1
| 0.00
| &nbsp;
| 95,874
| 22.98
| 417,271
| style="text-align:center;" | ME
|- {{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" |[[1972 United States presidential election in Maine|''Maine-1'']]
| style="text-align:center;" | ''1''
| ''135,388''
| ''61.42''
| ''1''
| ''85,028''
| ''38.58''
| &nbsp;
| ''Unknown''
| ''Unknown''
| &nbsp;
| ''Unknown''
| ''Unknown''
| &nbsp;
| ''50,360''
| ''22.85''
| ''220,416''
| style="text-align:center;" | ''ME1''
|- {{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" |[[1972 United States presidential election in Maine|''Maine-2'']]
| style="text-align:center;" | ''1''
| ''121,120''
| ''61.58''
| ''1''
| ''75,556''
| ''38.42''
| &nbsp;
| ''Unknown''
| ''Unknown''
| &nbsp;
| ''Unknown''
| ''Unknown''
| &nbsp;
| ''45,564''
| ''23.17''
| ''196,676''
| style="text-align:center;" | ''ME2''
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Maryland|Maryland]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 10
| 829,305
| 61.26
| 10
| 505,781
| 37.36
| &nbsp;
| 18,726
| 1.38
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 323,524
| 23.90
| 1,353,812
| style="text-align:center;" | MD
|-{{Party shading/Democratic}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Massachusetts|Massachusetts]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 14
| 1,112,078
| 45.23
| &nbsp;
| 1,332,540
| 54.20
| 14
| 2,877
| 0.12
| &nbsp;
| 43
| 0.00
| &nbsp;
| −220,462
| −8.97
| 2,458,756
| style="text-align:center;" | MA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Michigan|Michigan]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 21
| 1,961,721
| 56.20
| 21
| 1,459,435
| 41.81
| &nbsp;
| 63,321
| 1.81
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 502,286
| 14.39
| 3,490,325
| style="text-align:center;" | MI
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Minnesota|Minnesota]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 10
| 898,269
| 51.58
| 10
| 802,346
| 46.07
| &nbsp;
| 31,407
| 1.80
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 95,923
| 5.51
| 1,741,652
| style="text-align:center;" | MN
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Mississippi|Mississippi]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 7
| 505,125
| 78.20
| 7
| 126,782
| 19.63
| &nbsp;
| 11,598
| 1.80
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 378,343
| 58.57
| 645,963
| style="text-align:center;" | MS
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Missouri|Missouri]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 12
| 1,154,058
| 62.29
| 12
| 698,531
| 37.71
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 455,527
| 24.59
| 1,852,589
| style="text-align:center;" | MO
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Montana|Montana]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 183,976
| 57.93
| 4
| 120,197
| 37.85
| &nbsp;
| 13,430
| 4.23
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 63,779
| 20.08
| 317,603
| style="text-align:center;" | MT
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Nebraska|Nebraska]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 5
| 406,298
| 70.50
| 5
| 169,991
| 29.50
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 236,307
| 41.00
| 576,289
| style="text-align:center;" | NE
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Nevada|Nevada]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 115,750
| 63.68
| 3
| 66,016
| 36.32
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 49,734
| 27.36
| 181,766
| style="text-align:center;" | NV
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in New Hampshire|New Hampshire]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 213,724
| 63.98
| 4
| 116,435
| 34.86
| &nbsp;
| 3,386
| 1.01
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 97,289
| 29.12
| 334,055
| style="text-align:center;" | NH
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in New Jersey|New Jersey]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 17
| 1,845,502
| 61.57
| 17
| 1,102,211
| 36.77
| &nbsp;
| 34,378
| 1.15
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 743,291
| 24.80
| 2,997,229
| style="text-align:center;" | NJ
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in New Mexico|New Mexico]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 235,606
| 61.05
| 4
| 141,084
| 36.56
| &nbsp;
| 8,767
| 2.27
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 94,522
| 24.49
| 385,931
| style="text-align:center;" | NM
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in New York|New York]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 41
| 4,192,778
| 58.54
| 41
| 2,951,084
| 41.21
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 1,241,694
| 17.34
| 7,161,830
| style="text-align:center;" | NY
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in North Carolina|North Carolina]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 13
| 1,054,889
| 69.46
| 13
| 438,705
| 28.89
| &nbsp;
| 25,018
| 1.65
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 616,184
| 40.58
| 1,518,612
| style="text-align:center;" | NC
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in North Dakota|North Dakota]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 174,109
| 62.07
| 3
| 100,384
| 35.79
| &nbsp;
| 5,646
| 2.01
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 73,725
| 26.28
| 280,514
| style="text-align:center;" | ND
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Ohio|Ohio]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 25
| 2,441,827
| 59.63
| 25
| 1,558,889
| 38.07
| &nbsp;
| 80,067
| 1.96
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 882,938
| 21.56
| 4,094,787
| style="text-align:center;" | OH
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Oklahoma|Oklahoma]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 8
| 759,025
| 73.70
| 8
| 247,147
| 24.00
| &nbsp;
| 23,728
| 2.30
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 511,878
| 49.70
| 1,029,900
| style="text-align:center;" | OK
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Oregon|Oregon]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 6
| 486,686
| 52.45
| 6
| 392,760
| 42.33
| &nbsp;
| 46,211
| 4.98
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 93,926
| 10.12
| 927,946
| style="text-align:center;" | OR
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 27
| 2,714,521
| 59.11
| 27
| 1,796,951
| 39.13
| &nbsp;
| 70,593
| 1.54
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 917,570
| 19.98
| 4,592,105
| style="text-align:center;" | PA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Rhode Island|Rhode Island]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 220,383
| 53.00
| 4
| 194,645
| 46.81
| &nbsp;
| 25
| 0.01
| &nbsp;
| 2
| 0.00
| &nbsp;
| 25,738
| 6.19
| 415,808
| style="text-align:center;" | RI
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in South Carolina|South Carolina]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 8
| 478,427
| 70.58
| 8
| 189,270
| 27.92
| &nbsp;
| 10,166
| 1.50
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 289,157
| 42.66
| 677,880
| style="text-align:center;" | SC
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in South Dakota|South Dakota]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 166,476
| 54.15
| 4
| 139,945
| 45.52
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 26,531
| 8.63
| 307,415
| style="text-align:center;" | SD
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Tennessee|Tennessee]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 10
| 813,147
| 67.70
| 10
| 357,293
| 29.75
| &nbsp;
| 30,373
| 2.53
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 455,854
| 37.95
| 1,201,182
| style="text-align:center;" | TN
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Texas|Texas]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 26
| 2,298,896
| 66.20
| 26
| 1,154,291
| 33.24
| &nbsp;
| 7,098
| 0.20
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 1,144,605
| 32.96
| 3,472,714
| style="text-align:center;" | TX
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Utah|Utah]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 4
| 323,643
| 67.64
| 4
| 126,284
| 26.39
| &nbsp;
| 28,549
| 5.97
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 197,359
| 41.25
| 478,476
| style="text-align:center;" | UT
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Vermont|Vermont]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 117,149
| 62.66
| 3
| 68,174
| 36.47
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 48,975
| 26.20
| 186,947
| style="text-align:center;" | VT
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Virginia|Virginia]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 12
| 988,493
| 67.84
| 11
| 438,887
| 30.12
| &nbsp;
| 19,721
| 1.35
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| '''1'''
| 549,606
| 37.72
| 1,457,019
| style="text-align:center;" | VA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Washington (state)|Washington]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 9
| 837,135
| 56.92
| 9
| 568,334
| 38.64
| &nbsp;
| 58,906
| 4.00
| &nbsp;
| 1,537
| 0.10
| &nbsp;
| 268,801
| 18.28
| 1,470,847
| style="text-align:center;" | WA
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in West Virginia|West Virginia]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 6
| 484,964
| 63.61
| 6
| 277,435
| 36.39
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 207,529
| 27.22
| 762,399
| style="text-align:center;" | WV
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Wisconsin|Wisconsin]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 11
| 989,430
| 53.40
| 11
| 810,174
| 43.72
| &nbsp;
| 47,525
| 2.56
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 179,256
| 9.67
| 1,852,890
| style="text-align:center;" | WI
|-{{Party shading/Republican}}
| style="text-align:center;" | [[1972 United States presidential election in Wyoming|Wyoming]]
| style="text-align:center;" | 3
| 100,464
| 69.01
| 3
| 44,358
| 30.47
| &nbsp;
| 748
| 0.51
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| 56,106
| 38.54
| 145,570
| style="text-align:center;" | 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
| style="text-align:center;" | US
|}

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.<ref name="MaineDistrict">{{cite book |last1=Barone |first1=Michael |last2=Matthews |first2=Douglas|last3=Ujifusa |first3=Grant|title=The Almanac of American Politics, 1974 |date=1973 |work=National Journal}}</ref>

===Close states===
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%}}
#<span style="color:red;">'''Minnesota''', 5.51% (95,923 votes) </span>
#<span style="color:red;">'''Rhode Island''', 6.19% (25,738 votes)</span>
#<span style="color:red;">'''South Dakota''', 8.63% (26,531 votes)</span>
#<span style="color:blue;">'''Massachusetts''', 8.97% (220,462 votes)</span>
#<span style="color:red;">'''Wisconsin''', 9.67% (179,256 votes)</span>
{{col-end}}

Tipping point states:
#<span style="color:red;">'''Ohio''', 21.56% (882,938 votes)</span> (tipping point for a Nixon victory)
#<span style="color:red;">'''Maine-1''', 22.85% (50,360 votes)</span> (tipping point for a McGovern victory)<ref>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.</ref>

==== Statistics ====
<ref name="auto"/>

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Republican)
# '''<span style="color:red;">[[Dade County, Georgia]] 93.45%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:red;">[[Glascock County, Georgia]] 93.38%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:red;">[[George County, Mississippi]] 92.90%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:red;">[[Holmes County, Florida]] 92.51%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:red;">[[Smith County, Mississippi]] 92.35%</span>'''

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Democratic)
# '''<span style="color:blue;">[[Duval County, Texas]] 85.68%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:blue;">[[Washington, D.C.|Washington, D. C.]] 78.10%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:blue;">[[Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota|Shannon County, South Dakota]] 77.34%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:blue;">[[Greene County, Alabama]] 68.32%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:blue;">[[Charles City County, Virginia]] 67.84%</span>'''

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Other)
# '''<span style="color:green;">[[Jefferson County, Idaho]] 27.51%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:green;">[[Lemhi County, Idaho]] 19.77%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:green;">[[Fremont County, Idaho]] 19.32%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:green;">[[Bonneville County, Idaho]] 18.97%</span>'''
# '''<span style="color:green;">[[Madison County, Idaho]] 17.04%</span>'''

== Voter demographics ==
Nixon won 36 percent of the Democratic vote, according to an [[exit poll]] conducted for [[CBS News]] by George Fine Research, Inc.<ref name="desertion"/> 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), though 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. 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 did win comfortably among both [[African-American]] and [[American Jews|Jewish voters]], but by somewhat smaller margins than usual for a Democratic candidate.<ref name="desertion">{{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 }}</ref> McGovern won the African American vote by 87% to Nixon's 13%.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
{{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]] 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 [[Federal impeachment in the United States|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.<ref name="'70s">{{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}}</ref> Many companies complied, including [[Northrop Grumman]], [[3M]], [[American Airlines]], and [[Braniff Airlines]].<ref name="'70s"/> By 1976, prosecutors had convicted 18 American corporations of contributing illegally to Nixon's campaign.<ref name="'70s"/>

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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/11/my-morris-moment/|title=My Morris Moment »|first=David|last=Emig|date=November 7, 2009|access-date=March 29, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145324/https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/11/my-morris-moment/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[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.

== Explanatory notes==
{{notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography and further reading==

* 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. |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 }}

===Primary sources===
* 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)

==External links==
* [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}}
{{USPresidentialElections}}
{{Richard Nixon}}
{{George McGovern}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1972 United States presidential election| ]]
[[Category:Presidency of Richard Nixon]]
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[[Category:George McGovern]]
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