United States presidential election, 1972

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United States presidential election of 1972 was the 47th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. The Democratic Party's nomination was eventually won by Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, who ran an anti-war campaign against incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, but was handicapped by his outsider status, limited support from his own party, the perception of many voters that he was a left-wing extremist, and the scandal that resulted from the firing of vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton. Emphasizing a good economy and his successes in foreign affairs, such as coming near to ending American involvement in Vietnam and establishing relations with China, Nixon won the election in a landslide. Overall, Nixon won 60.7% of the popular vote, a percentage only slightly lower than Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, but with a larger margin of victory in the popular vote (23.2%), the fourth largest in presidential election history. He received almost 18 million more popular votes than McGovern, the widest margin of any United States presidential election. McGovern only won the electoral votes of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. No candidate since had managed to equal or surpass Nixon's total percentage or margin of the popular vote, and his electoral vote total and percentage has been surpassed only once by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Also in this election, Shirley Chisholm became the first African American to run for a major party nomination, and Patsy Mink was the first Asian American candidate to run for the Democratic Party nomination. It also was the first time that Hawaii was carried by a Republican, becoming the last of the 50 states to do so. Together with the House and Senate elections of 1972, it was the first electoral event in which people aged 18 to 20 could vote in any state, according to the provisions of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This is also the most recent presidential election where at least one electoral vote was won by a candidate who, at the time of the election, was neither a Republican or Democrat.

United States presidential election, 1972

1968

November 7, 1972

1976

All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win

Turnout

55.2%[1]

Nominee Party Home state Running mate

Richard Nixon Republican California Spiro Agnew

George McGovern Democratic South Dakota Sargent Shriver (replacing Thomas Eagleton) 17 1 + DC 29,173,222 37.5%

Electoral vote States carried Popular vote

520 49 47,168,710 60.7%

Contents
1 Democratic nomination 1.1 Candidates gallery 1.2 Primaries 1.3 Primary results 1.4 Notable endorsements 1.5 1972 Democratic National Convention 1.6 The vice presidential vote 2 Republican nomination 2.1 Candidates gallery 2.2 Primaries 2.3 Primary results 2.4 Convention 3 Third parties 4 General election 4.1 Campaign 4.2 Results 4.2.1 Results by state 4.3 Close States 5 Scandals 5.1 Watergate 5.2 Corporate campaign contributions 6 See also 7 References 8 Bibliography and further reading 9 External links

Percentage

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew, Blue denotes those won by McGovern/Shriver. Gray is the electoral vote for John Hospers by a Virginia faithless elector. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election Richard Nixon Republican

Elected President Richard Nixon Republican

Democratic nomination
Main article: Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1972

Overall, 15 people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were:[2] George McGovern, Senator from South Dakota Hubert Humphrey, Senator from Minnesota and former Vice President George Wallace, Governor of Alabama Edmund Muskie, Senator from Maine Eugene J. McCarthy, former Senator from Minnesota Henry M. Jackson, Senator from 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, New York Wilbur Mills, Representative of Arkansas's 2nd congressional district Vance Hartke, Senator from Indiana Fred Harris, Senator from Oklahoma Sam Yorty, Mayor of Los Angeles, California Patsy Mink, Representative of Hawaii's 2nd congressional district Walter Fauntroy, Delegate from Washington, D.C.

Candidates gallery

Senator George McGovern of South Dakota

Senator and former Vice Governor George President Hubert Wallace of Alabama Humphrey of Minnesota

Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine

Former Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota

Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington

Representative Shirley Former Governor Terry Chisholm of New York Sanford of North Carolina

Mayor John Lindsay of Representative Wilbur New York Mills of Arkansas

Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana

Senator Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma

Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii

U.S. Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy of Washington, D.C.

Primaries
See also: George McGovern presidential campaign, 1972 Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of former President John F. Kennedy and former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was the favorite to win the 1972 nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.[3] The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Ed Muskie,[4] the 1968 vice-presidential nominee.[5] Muskie's momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the so-called "Canuck letter" was published in the Manchester Union-Leader. The letter, actually a forgery from Nixon's "dirty tricks" unit, claimed that Muskie had made

disparaging remarks about French-Canadians a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern New England. Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife Jane, reporting that she drank and used off-color language during the campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper's offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie later stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes, the press reported that Muskie broke down and cried, shattering the candidate's image as calm and reasoned.[6] Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.[7] McGovern was able to pull together support from the anti-war movement and other grassroots support to win the nomination in a primary system he had played a significant part in designing. On January 25, 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm announced she would run, and became the first African American woman to run for the Democratic or Republican presidential nomination. Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink also announced she would run and became the first Asian American to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.[8] On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary. Two days later, journalist Robert Novak claimed in a column that a Democratic senator whom he did not name said of McGovern: "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.[9][10] Alabama Governor George Wallace, an anti-integrationist, did well in the South (he won every county in the Florida primary) and in the North among alienated and dissatisfied voters. What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was struck by four bullets and left paralyzed. The day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign. In the end, McGovern won the nomination by winning primaries through grassroots support in spite of establishment opposition. McGovern had led a commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of 1968. The fundamental principle of the McGovern Commissionthat the Democratic primaries should determine the winner of the Democratic nominationhave lasted throughout every subsequent nomination contest. However, the new rules angered many prominent Democrats whose influence was marginalized, and those politicians refused to support McGovern's campaign (some even supporting Nixon instead), leaving the McGovern campaign at a significant disadvantage in funding compared to Nixon.

Primary results
Primaries popular vote results:[11] Hubert Humphrey 4,121,372 (25.77%) George McGovern 4,053,451 (25.34%) George Wallace 3,755,424 (23.48%) Edmund Muskie 1,840,217 (11.51%) Eugene McCarthy 553,990 (3.46%) Henry M. Jackson 505,198 (3.16%) Shirley Chisholm 430,703 (2.69%) Terry Sanford 331,415 (2.07%) John Lindsay 196,406 (1.23%) Samuel Yorty 79,446 (0.50%) Wilbur Mills 37,401 (0.23%) Walter E. Fauntroy 21,217 (0.13%) Unpledged 19,533 (0.12%) Ted Kennedy 16,693 (0.10%) Vance Hartke 11,798 (0.07%) Patsy Mink 8,286 (0.05%) None 6,269 (0.04%)

Statewide contest by winner

Notable endorsements
Edmund Muskie Former Governor and Secretary of Commerce W. Averell Harriman of New York[11] Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa[11] Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana[11] Senator Adlai Stevenson III of Illinois[12] Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska[13] Former Senator Stephen M. Young of Ohio[14] Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania[11] Former Governor Michael DiSalle of Ohio[14] Ohio State Treasurer Gertrude W. Donahey[15]

Astronaut John Glenn of Ohio[15] Hubert Humphrey Mayor Jack Sensenbrenner of Columbus, Ohio[16] George McGovern Senator Frank Church of Idaho[11] Senator John V. Tunney of California[11] George Wallace Former Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia[11] Shirley Chisholm Representative Ron Dellums of California[11] Feminist leader and author Betty Friedan[17] Reverend Jesse Jackson of Illinois[11] Feminist leader, journalist, and DNC official Gloria Steinem[18] Terry Sanford Former President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas[19] Henry M. Jackson Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia[20]

1972 Democratic National Convention

Main article: 1972 Democratic National Convention Results: George McGovern 1864.95 Henry M. Jackson 525 George Wallace 381.7 Shirley Chisholm 151.95 Terry Sanford 77.5 Hubert Humphrey 66.7 Wilbur Mills 33.8 Edmund Muskie 24.3 Ted Kennedy 12.7 Sam Yorty 10 Wayne Hays 5 John Lindsay 5 Fred Harris 2 Eugene McCarthy 2 Walter Mondale 2 Ramsey Clark 1 Walter Fauntroy 1 Vance Hartke 1 Harold Hughes 1 Patsy Mink 1

Video from the Florida conventions

The vice presidential vote

With hundreds of delegates angry at McGovern for one reason or another, the vote was chaotic, with at least three other candidates having their names put into nomination and votes scattered over 70 candidates.[21] The eventual winner was Senator Thomas Eagleton. The vice-presidential balloting went on so long that McGovern and Eagleton were forced to make their acceptance speeches at around two in the morning, local time. After the convention ended, it was discovered that Eagleton had undergone psychiatric electroshock therapy for depression and had concealed this information from McGovern. A Time magazine poll taken at the time found that 77 percent of the respondents said "Eagleton's medical record would not affect their vote." Nonetheless, the press made frequent references to his "shock therapy," and McGovern feared that this would detract from his campaign

platform.[22] McGovern subsequently consulted confidentially with preeminent psychiatrists, including Eagleton's own doctors, who advised him that a recurrence of Eagleton's depression was possible and could endanger the country should Eagleton become president.[23][24][25][26][27] McGovern had initially claimed that he would back Eagleton "1000 percent," only to ask Eagleton to withdraw three days later. This perceived lack of conviction in sticking with his running mate was disastrous for the McGovern campaign. After a week in which six prominent Democrats refused the vice-presidential nomination, Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law to John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, former Ambassador to France and former Director of the Peace Corps, accepted. He was officially nominated by a special session of the Democratic National Committee. By this time, McGovern's poll ratings had plunged from 41 to 24 percent.

Republican nomination
Republican candidates: Richard Nixon, President of the United States Pete McCloskey, Representative from California John M. Ashbrook, Representative from Ohio

Candidates gallery

President Richard Nixon

Representative John Ashbrook of Ohio

Representative Pete McCloskey of California

Primaries
Richard Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he was credited with achieving dtente with the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. Polls showed that Nixon held a strong lead in the Republican primaries. He was challenged by two candidates, liberal Pete McCloskey of California and conservative John Ashbrook of Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's dtente policies towards China and the Soviet Union. In the New Hampshire primary McCloskey garnered 19.8% of the vote to Nixon's 67.6%, with Ashbrook receiving 9.7%.[28] Nixon won 1323 of the 1324 delegates to the Republican convention, with McCloskey receiving the vote of one delegate from New Mexico.

Primary results
Primaries popular vote result:[29] Richard Nixon 5,378,704 (86.92%) Unpledged 317,048 (5.12%) John Ashbrook 311,543 (5.03%) Pete McCloskey 132,731 (2.15%)

Convention
Seven members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War were brought on federal charges for conspiring to disrupt the Republican convention.[30] They were acquitted by a federal jury in Gainesville, Florida.[30]

Third parties
The only major third party candidate in the 1972 election was conservative Republican Representative John G. Schmitz, who ran on the American Party ticket (the party on whose ballot George Wallace ran in 1968). He was on the ballot in 32 states and received 1,099,482 votes. Unlike Wallace, however, he did not win a majority of votes cast in any state, and received no electoral votes. John Hospers of the newly formed Libertarian Party was on the ballot only in Colorado and Washington and received 3,573 votes, winning no states. However, he did receive one electoral vote from Virginia from a Republican faithless elector (see below). The Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Theodora "Tonie" Nathan became the first woman in U.S. history to receive an electoral vote.[31] Linda Jenness was nominated by the Socialist Workers Party, with Andrew Pulley as her running-mate. Benjamin Spock and Julius Hobson were nominated for president and vice-president, respectively by, the People's Party.

Libertarian nominee John Hospers

General election
Campaign
McGovern ran on a platform of immediately ending the Vietnam War and instituting guaranteed minimum incomes for the nation's poor. His campaign was harmed by his views during the primaries (which alienated many powerful Democrats), the perception that his foreign policy was too extreme, and the Eagleton debacle. With McGovern's campaign weakened by these factors, the Republicans successfully portrayed him as a radical leftwing extremist incompetent to serve as president. Nixon led in the polls by large margins throughout the entire campaign. He ran a campaign with an aggressive policy of keeping tabs on perceived enemies, and his aides committed the Watergate burglary to steal Democratic Party information during the campaign.
Richard Nixon during an August 1972 campaign stop

Results

George McGovern speaking at an October 1972 campaign rally Election results by county. Richard Nixon George McGovern

1972 Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District

Nixon's percentage of the popular vote was only slightly less than Lyndon Johnson's record in the 1964 election, and his margin of victory was slightly larger. Nixon won a majority vote in 49 states, including McGovern's home state of South Dakota. Only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia voted for the challenger, resulting in an even more lopsided Electoral College tally. The election saw the lowest voter turnout for a presidential election since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting, perhaps because of voter apathy caused by the foregone conclusion of a Nixon landslide. It was also the first election since 1808 in which New York did not have the largest number of electors in the Electoral College, having fallen to 41 electors versus California's 45. Although the McGovern campaign believed that its candidate would win because of the new Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution that lowered the national voting age to 18 from 21, a majority of those under 21 voted for Nixon.[32] The 1972 election was the first in American history in which a Republican candidate carried every single Southern state, continuing the region's transformation from a Democratic bastion into a Republican one. By this time, all the Southern states except Arkansas and Texas had been carried by a Republican in either the previous election or the 1964 election. As a result of this election, Massachusetts was the only state not to be carried by Nixon in any of his three presidential campaigns. As of 2012, this is also the last election where Minnesota was carried by the Republican candidate (Minnesota later being the only state not won by Ronald Reagan in either 1980 or 1984). This election also made Nixon the second former Vice President in American history to be elected and reelected, after Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804. Home state California South Dakota California Georgia California Illinois New York New York Michigan California Popular vote Count Pct Electoral vote Running mate Vice-presidential candidate Home state Elect. vote 520 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1(a) 538 270

Presidential candidate

Party

Richard Milhous Nixon Republican George Stanley McGovern John G. Schmitz Linda Jenness Benjamin Spock Louis Fisher Gus Hall Evelyn Reed E. Harold Munn John G. Hospers Other Total Democratic American Independent Socialist Workers People's Socialist Labor Communist Socialist Workers Prohibition Libertarian

47,168,710 60.67% 29,173,222 37.52% 1,100,868 1.42% 83,380(b) 0.11% 78,759 0.10% 53,814 0.07% 25,597 0.03% 13,878 0.02% 13,497 0.02% 3,674 0.00% 28,628 0.04% 77,744,027 100%

520 Spiro Theodore Agnew Maryland 17 Robert Sargent Shriver Maryland 0 Thomas J. Anderson 0 Andrew Pulley 0 Julius Hobson Tennessee Illinois District of Columbia Pennsylvania Illinois Kansas Oregon

0 Genevieve Gunderson Minnesota 0 Jarvis Tyner 0 Clifton DeBerry 0 Marshall Uncapher 1(a) 538 270 Theodora Nathan Other

Needed to win

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1972 Presidential Election Results (http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php? year=1972&f=0&off=0&elect=0). Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (http://uselectionatlas.org) (August 7, 2005). Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 17891996 (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/scores.html#1972). Official website of the National Archives (http://www.archives.gov). (August 7, 2005). Source (Close States): http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/stats.php? year=1972&f=0&off=0&elect=0 (Retrieved: January 24, 2013).
(a)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.[31] (b)In Arizona, Pima and Yavapai counties had a ballot malfunction that counted many votes for both a major party candidate and Linda Jenness of the Socialist Workers Party. A court ordered that the ballots be counted for both. As a consequence, Jenness received 16% and 8% of the vote in Pima and Yavapai, respectively. 30,579 of her 30,945 Arizona votes are from those two counties. Some sources do not count these votes for Jenness.
Popular vote Nixon McGovern Schmitz Others Electoral vote Nixon McGovern Hospers 96.65% 3.16% 0.19% 60.67% 37.52% 1.42% 0.4%

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Results by state
[33]

States/districts won by Nixon/Agnew States/districts won by McGovern/Shriver Richard Nixon Republican State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri
electoral votes

George McGovern Democratic # 9 3 6 6 7 8 3 17 12 4 4 13 8 7 9 10 4 10 %

electoral votes

John Schmitz American Independent # 3 14 11,918 6,903 21,208 3,016 232,554 17,269 17,239 2,638 812 28,869 2,471 22,056 21,808 17,627 52,099 117 18,726 2,877 63,321 31,407 11,598 % 1.18 7.25 3.25 0.47 2.78 1.81 1.25 1.12 0.07 9.30 0.05 1.80 2.38 1.65 4.95 0.03 1.38 0.12 1.81 1.80 1.80 electoral votes

Margin # %

State Total
#

electoral votes

9 3 6 6 45 7 8 3 3 17 12 4 4 26 13 8 7 9 10 4 10 14 21 10 7 12

728,701 72.43 55,349 58.13 402,812 61.64 445,751 68.82 4,602,096 55.00 597,189 62.61 810,763 58.57 140,357 59.60 35,226 21.56 1,857,759 71.91 881,496 75.04 168,865 62.48 199,384 64.24 2,788,179 59.03 1,405,154 66.11 706,207 57.61 619,812 67.66 676,446 63.37 686,852 65.32 256,458 61.46 829,305 61.26 1,112,078 45.23 1,961,721 56.20 898,269 51.58 505,125 78.20 1,154,058 62.29

256,923 25.54 32,967 34.62 198,540 30.38 198,899 30.71 329,980 34.59 555,498 40.13 92,283 39.18 127,627 78.10 718,117 27.80 289,529 24.65 101,409 37.52 80,826 26.04 708,568 33.34 496,206 40.48 270,287 29.50 371,159 34.77 298,142 28.35 160,584 38.48 505,781 37.36

471,778 46.89 1,006,093 AL 22,382 23.51 204,272 31.26 246,852 38.11 267,209 28.01 48,074 20.41 -92,401 -56.54 95,219 AK 653,505 AZ 647,666 AR 953,884 CO 235,516 DE 163,421 DC

45 3,475,847 41.54

- 1,126,249 13.46 8,367,862 CA 255,265 18.44 1,384,277 CT

- 1,139,642 44.12 2,583,283 FL 591,967 50.39 1,174,772 GA 67,456 24.96 118,558 38.20 270,274 HI 310,379 ID

26 1,913,472 40.51

874,707 18.52 4,723,236 IL 696,586 32.77 2,125,529 IN 210,001 17.13 1,225,944 IA 349,525 38.15 916,095 KS 305,287 28.60 1,067,499 KY 388,710 36.97 1,051,491 LA 95,874 22.98 417,271 ME 323,524 23.90 1,353,812 MD -220,462 -8.97 2,458,756 MA 502,286 14.39 3,490,325 MI 95,923 5.51 1,741,652 MN 645,963 MS 378,343 58.57

- 1,332,540 54.20 21 1,459,435 41.81 10 7 12 802,346 46.07 126,782 19.63 698,531 37.71

455,527 24.59 1,852,589 MO

Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming TOTALS:

4 5 3 4 17 4 41 13 3 25 8 6 27 4 8 4 10 26 4 3 12 9 6 11 3 538

183,976 57.93 406,298 70.50 115,750 63.68 213,724 63.98 1,845,502 61.57 235,606 61.05 4,192,778 58.54 1,054,889 69.46 174,109 62.07 2,441,827 59.63 759,025 73.70 486,686 52.45 2,714,521 59.11 220,383 53.00 478,427 70.58 166,476 54.15 813,147 67.70 2,298,896 66.20 323,643 67.64 117,149 62.66 988,493 67.84 837,135 56.92 484,964 63.61 989,430 53.40 100,464 69.01 47,168,710 60.67 520

4 5 3 4

120,197 37.85 169,991 29.50 66,016 36.32 116,435 34.86

17

13,430 3,386 34,378 8,767 25,018 5,646 80,067 23,728 46,211 70,593 25 10,166 30,373 7,098 28,549 19,721 58,906 47,525 748

4.23 1.01 1.15 2.27 1.65 2.01 1.96 2.30 4.98 1.54 0.01 1.50 2.53 0.20 5.97 1.35 4.00 2.56 0.51 -

63,779 20.08 236,307 41.00 49,734 27.36 97,289 29.12

317,603 MT 576,289 NE 181,766 NV 334,055 NH

17 1,102,211 36.77 4 141,084 36.56 41 2,951,084 41.21 13 3 438,705 28.89 100,384 35.79

743,291 24.80 2,997,229 NJ 94,522 24.49 385,931 NM

- 1,241,694 17.34 7,161,830 NY 616,184 40.58 1,518,612 NC 73,725 26.28 280,514 ND

25 1,558,889 38.07 8 6 4 8 4 10 4 3 11 9 6 11 3 247,147 24.00 392,760 42.33 194,645 46.81 189,270 27.92 139,945 45.52 357,293 29.75 126,284 26.39 68,174 36.47 438,887 30.12 568,334 38.64 277,435 36.39 810,174 43.72 44,358 30.47 29,173,222 37.52

882,938 21.56 4,094,787 OH 511,878 49.70 1,029,900 OK 93,926 10.12 25,738 6.19 927,946 OR 415,808 RI 677,880 SC 307,415 SD 917,570 19.98 4,592,105 PA

27 1,796,951 39.13

289,157 42.66 26,531 8.63

455,854 37.95 1,201,182 TN 197,359 41.25 48,975 26.20 478,476 UT 186,947 VT

26 1,154,291 33.24

- 1,144,605 32.96 3,472,714 TX

549,606 37.72 1,457,019 VA 268,801 18.28 1,470,847 WA 207,529 27.22 179,256 56,106 38.54 762,399 WV 145,570 WY 9.67 1,852,890 WI

1,100,868 1.42

17,995,488 23.15 77,744,027 US

Close States
States where margin of victory was more than 5 percentage points, but less than 10 percentage points (43 electoral votes): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Minnesota, 5.51% Rhode Island, 6.19% South Dakota, 8.63% Massachusetts , 8.97% Wisconsin, 9.67%

Scandals
Watergate
On June 17, five months before election day, five men broke into the Democratic National Convention headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C.; the resulting investigation led to the revelation of attempted cover-ups within the Nixon administration. Known as the Watergate scandal, the exposed corruption cost Nixon public and political support, and he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of probable impeachment charges by Congress.

Corporate campaign contributions

As part of the continuing investigation in 197475, Watergate scandal prosecutors offered companies that had given illegal campaign contributions to Nixon's re-election campaign lenient sentences if they came forward.[34] Many companies complied, including Northrop Grumman, 3M, American Airlines and Braniff Airlines.[34] By 1976, prosecutors had convicted 18 American corporations of contributing illegally to Nixon's campaign.[34]

See also
George McGovern presidential campaign, 1972 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.

References
1. ^ "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections" (http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/index.html). uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2012-10-21. 2. ^ "US President - D Primaries" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=46950). Our Campaigns. Retrieved 2012-03-16. 3. ^ Jack Anderson (1971-06-04). "Don't count out Ted Kennedy" (http://news.google.com/newspapers? id=ON9LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=q4oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5489,4273487&dq=ted+kennedy+presidential+campaign&hl=en). The Free LanceStar. Retrieved 201203-16. 4. ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 298. ISBN 0-465-04195-7. 5. ^ "Muskie, Edmund Sixtus, (1914 - 1996)" (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M001121). United States Congress. 6. ^ "Remembering Ed Muskie (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html)", Online NewsHour, PBS, March 26, 1996. 7. ^ R. W. Apple, Jr. (1971-01-18). "McGovern Enters '72 Race, Pledging Troop Withdrawal" (http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf? res=F30C11F7345C107B93CBA8178AD85F458785F9) (fee required). The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 2012-03-16. 8. ^ Jo Freeman (February 2005). "Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign" (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm). University of Illinois at Chicago Women's History Project. 9. ^ Robert D. Novak (2008). The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington (http://books.google.com/books?id=7Cq-v7M6N74C&pg=PA225). Random House Digital, Inc. p. 225. 10. ^ Nancy L. Cohen (2012). Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America (http://books.google.com/books?id=oSUe4nZO1_YC&pg=PA37). Counterpoint Press. pp. 3738. 11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "D Primaries Race Mar 07, 1972" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=46950). US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 12. ^ "D Primary Race Mar 21, 1972" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=36023). IL US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 200809-21. 13. ^ "More Muskie Support" (http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00D16F83C591A7493C7A8178AD85F468785F9). New York Times. 1972-0115. Retrieved 2008-09-27. 14. ^ a b "Stephen M. Young" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=11755). Candidate. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 15. ^ a b "Gertrude W. Donahey" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=10820). Candidate. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 2008-0921. 16. ^ "D Primary Race May 2, 1972" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=36076). OH US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 200809-21. 17. ^ Life So Far: A Memoir Google Books (http://books.google.com/?id=Bb1kkyv9e5wC&pg=PA250&lpg=PA250&dq=Friedan+chisholm). Books.google.com. 2006-08-01. ISBN 978-0-7432-9986-2. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 18. ^ "POV Chisholm '72 . Video: Gloria Steinem reflects on Chisholm's legacy" (http://www.pbs.org/pov/chisholm/special_ticket_02.php). PBS. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 19. ^ Terry Sanford: politics, progress ... Google Books (http://books.google.com/? id=QN93ENX3_3sC&pg=PP4&lpg=PP4&dq=Terry+Sanford+%2B+Johnson+%2B+1972#v=snippet&q=ranch&f=false). Books.google.com. 1999. ISBN 978-0-8223-2356-3. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 20. ^ "D Convention Race Jul 10, 1972" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=58482). US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 2008-0921. 21. ^ "All Politics: CNN Time. "All The Votes...Really"" (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/weird.facts/votes.shtml). Cnn.com. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 22. ^ Garofoli, Joe (2008-03-26). "Obama bounces back speech seemed to help" (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? f=/c/a/2008/03/26/MN9NVQGO2.DTL). Sfgate.com. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 23. ^ McGovern, George S., Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern, New York: Random House, 1977, pp. 214-215 24. ^ McGovern, George S., Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism, New York: Random House, 1996, pp. 97 25. ^ Marano, Richard Michael, Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign of George McGovern, Praeger Publishers, 2003, pp. 7 26. ^ The Washington Post, "George McGovern & the Coldest Plunge", Paul Hendrickson, September 28, 1983 27. ^ The New York Times, "'Trashing' Candidates" (op-ed), George McGovern, May 11, 1983 28. ^ http://www.primarynewhampshire.com/new-hampshire-primary-past-results.php 29. ^ "R Primaries Race Mar 07, 1972" (http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=46959). US President. Our Campaigns. Retrieved 2008-0921. 30. ^ a b Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 52. ISBN 0-465-04195-7. 31. ^ a b "Libertarians trying to escape obscurity" (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=q6tVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3741,7501174&dq=john-hospers+electoral+vote+1972&hl=en). Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. December 30, 1973. Retrieved July 30, 2012. 32. ^ Walker, Jesse (2008-07). "The Age of Nixon: Rick Perlstein on the left, the right, the '60s, and the illusion of consensus" (http://reason.com/archives/2008/06/10/the-age-of-nixon). Reason. Retrieved 27 July 2013. 33. ^ "1972 Presidential General Election Data - National" (http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php? year=1972&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0). Retrieved March 18, 2013. 34. ^ a b c Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 31. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.

Bibliography and further reading

Giglio, James N. "The Eagleton Affair: Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern, and the 1972 Vice Presidential Nomination," Presidential Studies Quarterly, Dec 2009, Vol. 39 Issue 4, pp 647676 Graebner, Norman A. "Presidential Politics in a Divided America: 1972," Australian Journal of Politics & History, March 1973, Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp 2847

Australian Journal of Politics & History, Mar1973, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p28-47 Hofstetter, C. Richard; Zukin, Cliff. "TV Network News and Advertising in the Nixon and McGovern Campaigns," Journalism Quarterly, Spring 1979, Vol. 56 Issue 1, pp 106152 Nicholas, H. G. "The 1972 Elections," Journal of American Studies, April 1973, Vol. 7 Issue 1, pp 115 White, Theodore S. The Making of the President, 1972 (1973)

External links
The Election Wall's 1972 Election Video Page (http://electionwall.org/1972.php) 1972 popular vote by counties (http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1972.htm) 1972 popular vote by states (http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/u/usa/pres/1972.txt) 1972 popular vote by states (with bar graphs) (http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/datagraph.php?year=1972&fips=0&f=1&off=0&elect=0) How close was the 1972 election? (http://web.archive.org/web/20120825102042/http://www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html#1972) Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Campaign commercials from the 1972 election (http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1972) C-SPAN segment on 1972 campaign commercials (http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/153283-1) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_presidential_election,_1972&oldid=570770688" Categories: United States presidential election, 1972 History of the United States (196480) This page was last modified on 30 August 2013 at 06:00. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.