1972 United States presidential election

Template:Short description Template:Refimprove Template:For Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox election Template:Watergate Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern and former Ambassador Sargent Shriver in a landslide victory. With 60.7% of the popular vote, Richard Nixon won the largest share of the popular vote for the Republican Party in any presidential election.

Nixon swept aside challenges from two Republican representatives in the Republican primaries to win renomination. McGovern, who had played a significant role in changing the Democratic nomination system after the 1968 U.S. presidential election, mobilized the anti-Vietnam War movement and other liberal supporters to win the Democratic 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. McGovern's general election campaign was damaged by the perception that his platform was radical, and by revelations that his initial running mate, Thomas Eagleton, had undergone electroconvulsive therapy as a treatment for depression; Eagleton was replaced by Sargent Shriver after only nineteen days on the ticket. In June, Nixon's reelection committee broke into the Watergate complex to wiretap the Democratic National Committee's headquarters; early news of the incident had little impact on the success of Nixon's campaign, but further damaging revelations in the ensuing Watergate scandal soon engulfed his second term.

Nixon won the election in a landslide victory, taking 60.7% of the popular vote, carrying 49 states and becoming the first Republican to sweep the South, whereas McGovern took just 37.5% of the popular vote. This marked the most recent time that the Republican nominee carried Minnesota in a presidential election; it also made Nixon the only two-term vice president to be elected president twice. The 1972 election was the first since the ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, further expanding the electorate.

Nixon and his vice president Spiro Agnew both resigned from office within two years of the election: Agnew in October 1973 due to a bribery scandal, and Nixon in August 1974 in the face of likely impeachment and conviction as a result of the Watergate scandal. Republican House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, who replaced Agnew as vice president in December 1973 and Nixon as president in August 1974, thus became the only person in American history to attain the presidency without winning an election for president or vice president.

Republican nomination

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Republican candidates:

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

Republican Party (United States) 1972 Republican Party ticket
[[Richard Nixon|Template:Ifsubst style="color:white">Richard Nixon]]	[[Spiro Agnew|Template:Ifsubst style="color:white">Spiro Agnew]]
for President	for Vice President
File:Richard Nixon presidential portrait (1).jpg	File:Spiro Agnew.jpg
37th President of the United States (1969–1974)	39th Vice President of the United States (1969–1973)
Campaign
File:Nixon Agnew 1972 campaign logo.svg

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 his visit that year, and achieving détente with the Soviet Union. Polls showed that Nixon held a strong lead in the Republican primaries. He was challenged by two candidates: liberal Pete McCloskey from California, and conservative John Ashbrook from Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards China and the Soviet Union. In the New Hampshire primary, McCloskey garnered 19.8% of the vote to Nixon's 67.6%, with Ashbrook receiving 9.7%.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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

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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">Template:Cite book</ref> They were acquitted by a federal jury in Gainesville, Florida.<ref name="'70s 52"/>

Democratic nomination

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Democratic Party (United States) 1972 Democratic Party ticket
[[George McGovern|Template:Ifsubst style="color:white">George McGovern]]	[[Sargent Shriver|Template:Ifsubst style="color:white">Sargent Shriver]]
for President	for Vice President
File:George McGovern (D-SD) (3x4-1).jpg	File:Sargent Shriver 1961 (cropped 3x4).jpg
U.S. Senator from South Dakota (1963–1981)	21st U.S. Ambassador to France (1968–1970)
Campaign
File:McGovern Shriver 1972 campaign logo.svg

colspan="9" style="text-align:center; width:700px; font-size:120%; color:white; background:Template:Party color;"|Candidates in this section are sorted by performance in the delegate contests
Hubert Humphrey	George Wallace	Edmund Muskie	Henry M. Jackson	Wilbur Mills	Shirley Chisholm	Terry Sanford
File:Hubert Humphrey in New York, 1968 (3x4 crop).jpg	File:George Wallace (D-AL) (3x4).jpg	File:Edmund Muskie.jpg	File:HenryJackson.jpg	File:WilburMills.jpg	File:Shirley Chisholm.jpg	File:Terry Sanford, 1961-1965 (8408755490).jpg
U.S. Vice President from Minnesota (1965–1969)	Governor of Alabama (1961–1967; 1971–1979)	U.S. Senator from Maine (1959–1980)	U.S. Senator from Washington (1953–1983)	U.S. Representative from Arkansas (1939–1977)	U.S. Representative from New York (1969–1983)	Governor of North Carolina (1961–1965)
File:Humphrey1972.gif	File:Wallace 1972 campaign logo.svg	File:Edmuskie1972.gif	File:Scoop Jackson 1972 bumper sticker 02.jpg	File:Wilburmills1972.gif	File:Chisholm 20170804 065501.png	File:Terry Sanford presidential campaign, 1972 2014BSRockefellerClick-1x5.jpg
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
Template:Abbr: January 10, 1972 4,119,230 votes 386.30 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: January 13, 1972 3,755,424 votes 377.00 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: January 4, 1972 Template:Abbr: April 27, 1972 1,838,314 votes 209.10 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: November 19, 1971 Template:Abbr: May 2, 1972 504,596 votes 53.75 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: February 11, 1972 37,401 votes 30.55 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: January 25, 1972 430,733 votes 28.65 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: March 8, 1972 331,415 votes 27 Template:Abbr
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John Lindsay	Eugene McCarthy	Sam Yorty	Vance Hartke	Patsy Mink	Fred R. Harris
File:John Lindsay NYWTS 1 (cropped).jpg	File:EugeneMcCarthy.jpg	File:Sam Yorty, 1973.jpg	File:Vance Hartke.jpg	File:Patsy Mink 1970s.jpg	File:FredRoyHarris.jpg
Mayor of New York from New York (1966–1973)	U.S. Senator from Minnesota (1959–1971)	Mayor of Los Angeles from California (1961–1973)	U.S. Senator from Indiana (1959–1977)	U.S. Representative from Hawaii (1965–1977)	U.S. Senator from Oklahoma (1964–1973)
File:Lindsay 72.png	File:Eugene McCarthy bumper sticker 1.jpg	File:Samyorty1972.gif	File:Hartke logo.png		File:Fredharris1972.gif
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
Template:Abbr: December 28, 1971 Template:Abbr: April 4, 1972 196,406 votes 6 Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr: December 17, 1971 553,352 votes	Template:Abbr: November 16, 1971 Template:Abbr: June 5, 1972 Template:Abbr: June 5, 1972 79,446 votes	Template:Abbr: January 3, 1972 Template:Abbr: March 26, 1972 Template:Abbr: March 26, 1972 11,798 votes	Template:Abbr: May 24, 1972 8,286 votes	Template:Abbr: September 24, 1971 Template:Abbr: November 10, 1971
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Primaries

Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of former president John F. Kennedy and former senator Robert F. Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated in the 1960s, was the favorite to win the 1972 nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.<ref name="Kennedy">Template:Cite news</ref> The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Maine Senator Ed Muskie,<ref name="'70s 298">Template:Cite book</ref> the 1968 vice-presidential nominee.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Muskie's momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the "Canuck letter" was published in the Manchester Union-Leader. The letter, actually a forgery from Nixon's "dirty tricks" unit, claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians – a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern New England.<ref name="WP 2020">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="WP 2020"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.<ref name="nyt011971">Template:Cite news</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">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Alabama Governor George Wallace, an infamous segregationist who ran on a third-party ticket in 1968, did well in the Southern United States (winning nearly every county in the Florida primary) and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the North.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was struck by five bullets and left paralyzed from the waist down. The day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign, and he pulled out in July. In the end, McGovern won the nomination by winning primaries through grassroots support, in spite of establishment opposition. McGovern had led a commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of 1968. However, the new rules angered many prominent Democrats whose influence was marginalized, and those politicians refused to support McGovern's campaign (some even supporting Nixon instead), leaving the McGovern campaign at a significant disadvantage in funding, compared to Nixon. Some of the principles of the McGovern Commission have lasted throughout every subsequent nomination contest, but the Hunt Commission instituted the selection of superdelegates a decade later, in order to reduce the nomination chances of outsiders such as McGovern and Jimmy Carter.

Primary results

File:1972DemocraticPresidentialPrimaries.svg

Statewide contest by winner
Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend

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1972 Democratic National Convention

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

Video from the Florida conventions

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Results: Template:Div col

• 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

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 from Arkansas and Boston mayor Kevin White.<ref name="time">Template:Cite news</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 from Missouri, who accepted the offer.<ref name="time" /> With hundreds of delegates displeased with McGovern, the vote to ratify Eagleton's candidacy was chaotic, with at least three other candidates having their names put into nomination and votes scattered over 70 candidates.<ref>Template:Cite news</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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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 Ambassador to France, and former Director of the Peace Corps, later accepted.<ref>Template:Cite book</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

1972 American Independent Party ticket
style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:Template:Party color; width:200px;"| [[John G. Schmitz|Template:Ifsubst style="color:white">John G. Schmitz]]	style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:Template:Party color; width:200px;"| [[Thomas J. Anderson (author)|Template:Ifsubst style="color:white">Thomas J. Anderson]]
for President	for Vice President
File:John G. Schmitz.jpg	File:Thomas J. Anderson.jpg
U.S. Representative from California's 35th district (1970–1973)	Magazine publisher; conservative speaker
Campaign
File:John G. Schmitz 1972 bumper sticker.jpg

colspan="9" style="text-align:center; width:600px; font-size:120%; color:white; background: Template:Party color;"|Other Candidates
Lester Maddox	Thomas J. Anderson	George Wallace
File:Lester Maddox.jpg	File:Thomas J. Anderson.jpg	File:George Wallace (D-AL) (3x4).jpg
Lieutenant Governor of Georgia (1971–1975) Governor of Georgia (1967–1971)	Magazine publisher; conservative speaker	Governor of Alabama (1963–1967, 1971–1979) 1968 AIP Presidential Nominee
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
56 votes	24 votes	8 votes

The only major third party candidate in the 1972 election was conservative Republican Representative John G. Schmitz, who ran on the American Independent Party ticket (the party on whose ballot George Wallace ran in 1968). He was on the ballot in 32 states and received 1,099,482 votes. Unlike Wallace, however, he did not win a majority of votes cast in any state, and received no electoral votes, although he did finish ahead of McGovern in four of the most conservative Idaho counties.<ref>Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, p. 100 Template:ISBN</ref> Schmitz's performance in archconservative Jefferson County was the best by a third-party Presidential candidate in any free or postbellum state county since 1936 when William Lemke reached over twenty-eight percent of the vote in the North Dakota counties of Burke, Sheridan and Hettinger.<ref>Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920–1964; pp. 339, 343 Template:ISBN</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 Theodora "Tonie" Nathan of the newly formed Libertarian Party were on the ballot only in Colorado and Washington, but were official write-in candidates in four others, and received 3,674 votes, winning no states. However, they did receive one Electoral College vote from Virginia from a Republican faithless elector (see below). The Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Tonie Nathan became the first Jew and the first woman in U.S. history to receive an Electoral College vote.<ref name="lp">Template:Cite news</ref> Linda Jenness was nominated by the Socialist Workers Party, with Andrew Pulley as her running-mate. Benjamin Spock and Julius Hobson were nominated for president and vice-president, respectively, by the People's Party.

General election

Polling aggregation

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

File:OpinionPolling1972UnitedStatesPresidentialElection.svg

Template:Columns-list

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Richard Nixon (R)	George McGovern (D)	George Wallace (AI)Template:Efn	Other	Undecided	Margin
Election Results	November 7, 1972	align="center" Template:Party shading/Republican|60.67%	37.52%	-	1.81%	-	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 23.15
Harris<ref name="McGovern Is Gaining - A Little">Template:Cite news</ref>	November 2–4, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 59%	35%	-	-	6%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 24
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	November 2-4, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 61%	35%	-	1%	3%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 26
Harris<ref name="Nixon Gets Bigger Lead" />	October 24–26, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 60%	32%	-	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 28
Harris<ref name="Nixon Gets Bigger Lead">Template:Cite news</ref>	October 17–19, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 59%	34%	-	-	7%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 25
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	October 13-16, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 59%	36%	-	-	5%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 23
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	Sep. 29-Oct. 9, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 60%	34%	-	1%	5%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 26
Harris<ref name="McGovern Failing To Tighten Margin">Template:Cite news</ref>	October 3–5, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 60%	33%	-	-	7%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 27
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	September 22-25, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 61%	33%	-	1%	5%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 28
Harris<ref name="McGovern Gaining, Poll Shows">Template:Cite news</ref>	September 19–21, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 59%	31%	-	-	10%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 28
Harris<ref name="President Widens His Lead">Template:Cite news</ref>	Aug. 30–Sep. 1, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 63%	29%	-	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 34
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	August 25-28, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 61%	36%	-	-	3%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 25
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	August 26-27, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 64%	30%	-	-	6%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 34
August 21–23: Republican National Convention
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	August 4-7, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 57%	31%	-	-	12%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 26
Harris<ref name="McGovern Falls Even Further"/>	August 2–3, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 57%	34%	-	-	9%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 23
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	July 14-17, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 56%	37%	-	-	7%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 19
July 10–13: Democratic National Convention
Harris<ref name="McGovern Falls Even Further">Template:Cite news</ref>	July 1–6, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 55%	35%	-	-	10%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 20
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	June 16-19, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 45%	32%	18%	-	5%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 13
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 53%	37%	-	-	10%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 16
Harris<ref name="Survey Shows Kennedy Rates Best Chance Against Nixon">Template:Cite news</ref>	June 7–10, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 45%	33%	17%	-	5%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 12
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 54%	38%	-	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 16
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	May 26-29, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 43%	30%	19%	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 13
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 53%	34%	-	-	13%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 19
Harris<ref name="McGovern Appears To Have Chance Against President">Template:Cite news</ref>	May 9–10, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 40%	35%	17%	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 5
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 48%	41%	-	-	11%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 7
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	Apr. 28-May 1, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 43%	35%	15%	-	7%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 8
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 49%	39%	-	-	12%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 10
Gallup<ref name="McGovern Strong As HHH Against Nixon">Template:Cite news</ref>	April 21-24, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 45%	32%	16%	-	7%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 13
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	April 14-17, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 46%	31%	15%	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 15
Harris<ref name="Poll Gives Nixon Handy Margin In April" /><ref name="McGovern Appears To Have Chance Against President" />	April 1–7, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 47%	29%	16%	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 18
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 54%	34%	-	-	12%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 20
Harris<ref name="Poll Gives Nixon Handy Margin In April">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="McGovern Appears To Have Chance Against President" />	Feb. 28 – Mar. 7, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 53%	28%	13%	-	6%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 25
		Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 59%	32%	-	-	9%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 27
Gallup<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	February 4-7, 1972	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 49%	34%	11%	-	6%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 15
Harris<ref name="Sen. McGovern Steadily Losing Ground" />	November, 1971	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 49%	31%	12%	-	8%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 18
Harris<ref name="Nixon Regains 'Lead' Over Muskie">Template:Cite news</ref>	August 24-27, 1971	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 48%	33%	13%	-	6%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 15
Harris<ref name="Sen. McGovern Steadily Losing Ground">Template:Cite news</ref>	May, 1971	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 47%	33%	11%	-	9%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 14
Harris<ref name="Muskie Widens Margin" />	April, 1971	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 46%	36%	13%	-	5%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 10
Harris<ref name="Muskie Widens Margin">Template:Cite news</ref>	February, 1971	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 45%	34%	12%	-	9%	Template:Party shading/Republican align="center" | 11

Campaign

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

Nixon during an August 1972 campaign stop

File:George McGovern UH.jpeg

McGovern speaking at an October 1972 campaign rally

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

Results

File:1972prescountymap2.PNG

Election results by countyTemplate:Legend Template:Legend

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

Results by congressional district

Nixon's percentage of the popular vote was only marginally less than Lyndon B. Johnson's record in 1964, and his margin of victory was slightly larger. Nixon won a majority vote in 49 states, including McGovern's home state of South Dakota. Only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia voted for the challenger, resulting in an even more lopsided Electoral College tally. McGovern garnered only 37.5 percent of the national popular vote, the lowest share received by a Democratic Party nominee since John W. Davis won only 28.8 percent of the vote in 1924. The only major party candidate since 1972 to receive less than 40 percent of the vote was Republican incumbent President George H. W. Bush who won 37.4 percent of the vote in 1992, an election that, as in 1924, was impacted by a strong third-party vote.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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">Template:Cite news</ref> This was the first election in American history in which a Republican candidate carried every single Southern state, continuing the region's transformation from a Democratic bastion (Solid South) into a Republican stronghold as Arkansas was carried by a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in a century. By this time, all the Southern states, except Arkansas and Texas, had been carried by a Republican in either the previous election or that of 1964, although Republican candidates carried Texas in 1928, 1952, and 1956. As a result of this election, Massachusetts became the only state that Nixon did not carry in any of the three presidential elections in which he was a candidate. Notably, Nixon became the first Republican to ever win two terms in the White House without carrying Massachusetts at least once, and the same feat would later be duplicated by George W. Bush and Donald Trump, as they won both their first and second elections without winning Massachusetts. This presidential election was the first since 1808 in which New York did not have the largest number of electors in the Electoral College, having fallen to 41 electors vs. California's 45. Additionally, this remains the last one in which Minnesota was carried by the Republican candidate.<ref name="how">Sullivan, Robert David; 'How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century' Template:Webarchive; 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,Template:Efn easily the fewest counties won by any major-party presidential nominee since the advent of popular presidential elections, and only about a third of the previous lowest number, which had been recorded by Herbert Hoover in 1932.<ref>Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, p. 98 Template:ISBN</ref> In nineteen states, McGovern failed to carry a single county;Template:Efn he carried a mere one county-equivalent in a further nine states,Template:Efn and just two counties in a further seven.Template:Efn In contrast to Walter Mondale's narrow 1984 win in Minnesota, McGovern comfortably won Massachusetts but lost every other state by no less than five percentage points, as well as 45 states by more than ten percentage points, the exceptions being Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and his home state of South Dakota. This election also made Nixon the second former vice president in American history to serve two terms back-to-back, after Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804, as well as the only two-term Vice President to be elected President twice. Since McGovern carried only one state, bumper stickers reading "Nixon 49 America 1",<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts", and "Massachusetts: The One And Only" were popular for a short time in Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Nixon managed to win 18% of the African American vote (Gerald Ford would get 16% in 1976).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Until 2024, he was the only Republican in modern times to threaten the oldest extant Democratic stronghold of South Texas; this is also the most recent election in which the Republicans have won Dimmit County, Texas, the only time Republicans carried La Salle County between William McKinley in 1900 and Donald Trump in 2020, and one of only two occasions since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 (Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 also obtained a plurality) that Republicans have gained a majority in Presidio County.<ref name="how" /> The 1972 election was also the most recent time several highly populous urban counties, including Cook in Illinois, Orleans in Louisiana, Hennepin in Minnesota, Cuyahoga in Ohio, Durham in North Carolina, Queens in New York, and Prince George's in Maryland, have voted Republican.<ref name="how" />

The Wallace vote had been crucial to Nixon being able to sweep the states that had narrowly held out against him in 1968 (Maryland, Texas, and West Virginia), as well as the states Wallace won himself (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi). The pro-Wallace group of voters had only given AIP nominee John Schmitz a depressing 2.4% of its support, while 19.1% backed McGovern, and the majority 78.5% broke for Nixon. Nixon, who became term-limited under the provisions of the Twenty-second Amendment as a result of his victory, became the first presidential candidate to win a significant number of electoral votes in three presidential elections since the ratification of that Amendment, only Trump has done the same. As of 2024, Nixon was the seventh of eight presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, the others being Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Trump. The 520 electoral votes received by Nixon, added to the 301 electoral votes he received in 1968, and the 219 electoral votes he received in 1960, gave him the second largest number of electoral votes received by any presidential candidate (after Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1,876 total electoral votes).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote<ref>Template:Leip PV source 2</ref>		Electoral vote<ref>Template:National Archives EV source</ref>	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote<ref>Template:National Archives EV source</ref>
Richard Nixon (incumbent)	Republican	California	47,168,710	60.67%	520	Spiro T. Agnew (incumbent)	Maryland	520
George McGovern	Democratic	South Dakota	29,173,222	37.52%	17	Sargent Shriver	Maryland	17
John G. Schmitz	American Independent	California	1,100,896	1.42%	0	Thomas J. Anderson	Tennessee	0
Linda Jenness	Socialist Workers	Georgia	83,380Template:Efn	0.11%	0	Andrew Pulley	Illinois	0
Benjamin Spock	People's	California	78,759	0.10%	0	Julius Hobson	District of Columbia	0
Louis Fisher	Socialist Labor	Illinois	53,814	0.07%	0	Genevieve Gunderson	Minnesota	0
John G. Hospers	Libertarian	California	3,674	0.00%	1Template:Efn<ref name="lp"/>	Theodora Nathan	Oregon	1Template:Efn<ref name="lp"/>
Other			81,575	0.10%	—	Other		—
Total			77,744,030	100%	538			538
Needed to win					270			270

File:John Hospers Presidential.jpg

John Hospers received one faithless electoral vote from Virginia.

File:1972 Electoral Map.png

• 1972 United States presidential election results map by county.svg

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

Results by state

Legend

Legend

States/districts won by Nixon/Agnew
States/districts won by McGovern/Shriver
†	At-large results (Maine used the Congressional District Method)

citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>
		Richard Nixon Republican			George McGovern Democratic			John Schmitz American Independent			John Hospers Libertarian			Margin		State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	#
Alabama	9	728,701	72.43	9	256,923	25.54		11,918	1.18					471,778	46.89	1,006,093	AL
Alaska	3	55,349	58.13	3	32,967	34.62		6,903	7.25					22,382	23.51	95,219	AK
Arizona	6	402,812	61.64	6	198,540	30.38		21,208	3.25					204,272	31.26	653,505	AZ
Arkansas	6	445,751	68.82	6	198,899	30.71		3,016	0.47					246,852	38.11	647,666	AR
California	45	4,602,096	55.00	45	3,475,847	41.54		232,554	2.78		980	0.01		1,126,249	13.46	8,367,862	CA
Colorado	7	597,189	62.61	7	329,980	34.59		17,269	1.81		1,111	0.12		267,209	28.01	953,884	CO
Connecticut	8	810,763	58.57	8	555,498	40.13		17,239	1.25					255,265	18.44	1,384,277	CT
Delaware	3	140,357	59.60	3	92,283	39.18		2,638	1.12					48,074	20.41	235,516	DE
D.C.	3	35,226	21.56		127,627	78.10	3							−92,401	−56.54	163,421	DC
Florida	17	1,857,759	71.91	17	718,117	27.80								1,139,642	44.12	2,583,283	FL
Georgia	12	881,496	75.04	12	289,529	24.65		812	0.07					591,967	50.39	1,174,772	GA
Hawaii	4	168,865	62.48	4	101,409	37.52								67,456	24.96	270,274	HI
Idaho	4	199,384	64.24	4	80,826	26.04		28,869	9.30					118,558	38.20	310,379	ID
Illinois	26	2,788,179	59.03	26	1,913,472	40.51		2,471	0.05					874,707	18.52	4,723,236	IL
Indiana	13	1,405,154	66.11	13	708,568	33.34								696,586	32.77	2,125,529	IN
Iowa	8	706,207	57.61	8	496,206	40.48		22,056	1.80					210,001	17.13	1,225,944	IA
Kansas	7	619,812	67.66	7	270,287	29.50		21,808	2.38					349,525	38.15	916,095	KS
Kentucky	9	676,446	63.37	9	371,159	34.77		17,627	1.65					305,287	28.60	1,067,499	KY
Louisiana	10	686,852	65.32	10	298,142	28.35		52,099	4.95					388,710	36.97	1,051,491	LA
Maine †	2	256,458	61.46	2	160,584	38.48		117	0.03		1	0.00		95,874	22.98	417,271	ME
Maine-1	1	135,388	61.42	1	85,028	38.58		Unknown	Unknown		Unknown	Unknown		50,360	22.85	220,416	ME1
Maine-2	1	121,120	61.58	1	75,556	38.42		Unknown	Unknown		Unknown	Unknown		45,564	23.17	196,676	ME2
Maryland	10	829,305	61.26	10	505,781	37.36		18,726	1.38					323,524	23.90	1,353,812	MD
Massachusetts	14	1,112,078	45.23		1,332,540	54.20	14	2,877	0.12		43	0.00		−220,462	−8.97	2,458,756	MA
Michigan	21	1,961,721	56.20	21	1,459,435	41.81		63,321	1.81					502,286	14.39	3,490,325	MI
Minnesota	10	898,269	51.58	10	802,346	46.07		31,407	1.80					95,923	5.51	1,741,652	MN
Mississippi	7	505,125	78.20	7	126,782	19.63		11,598	1.80					378,343	58.57	645,963	MS
Missouri	12	1,154,058	62.29	12	698,531	37.71								455,527	24.59	1,852,589	MO
Montana	4	183,976	57.93	4	120,197	37.85		13,430	4.23					63,779	20.08	317,603	MT
Nebraska	5	406,298	70.50	5	169,991	29.50								236,307	41.00	576,289	NE
Nevada	3	115,750	63.68	3	66,016	36.32								49,734	27.36	181,766	NV
New Hampshire	4	213,724	63.98	4	116,435	34.86		3,386	1.01					97,289	29.12	334,055	NH
New Jersey	17	1,845,502	61.57	17	1,102,211	36.77		34,378	1.15					743,291	24.80	2,997,229	NJ
New Mexico	4	235,606	61.05	4	141,084	36.56		8,767	2.27					94,522	24.49	385,931	NM
New York	41	4,192,778	58.54	41	2,951,084	41.21								1,241,694	17.34	7,161,830	NY
North Carolina	13	1,054,889	69.46	13	438,705	28.89		25,018	1.65					616,184	40.58	1,518,612	NC
North Dakota	3	174,109	62.07	3	100,384	35.79		5,646	2.01					73,725	26.28	280,514	ND
Ohio	25	2,441,827	59.63	25	1,558,889	38.07		80,067	1.96					882,938	21.56	4,094,787	OH
Oklahoma	8	759,025	73.70	8	247,147	24.00		23,728	2.30					511,878	49.70	1,029,900	OK
Oregon	6	486,686	52.45	6	392,760	42.33		46,211	4.98					93,926	10.12	927,946	OR
Pennsylvania	27	2,714,521	59.11	27	1,796,951	39.13		70,593	1.54					917,570	19.98	4,592,105	PA
Rhode Island	4	220,383	53.00	4	194,645	46.81		25	0.01		2	0.00		25,738	6.19	415,808	RI
South Carolina	8	478,427	70.58	8	189,270	27.92		10,166	1.50					289,157	42.66	677,880	SC
South Dakota	4	166,476	54.15	4	139,945	45.52								26,531	8.63	307,415	SD
Tennessee	10	813,147	67.70	10	357,293	29.75		30,373	2.53					455,854	37.95	1,201,182	TN
Texas	26	2,298,896	66.20	26	1,154,291	33.24		7,098	0.20					1,144,605	32.96	3,472,714	TX
Utah	4	323,643	67.64	4	126,284	26.39		28,549	5.97					197,359	41.25	478,476	UT
Vermont	3	117,149	62.66	3	68,174	36.47								48,975	26.20	186,947	VT
Virginia	12	988,493	67.84	11	438,887	30.12		19,721	1.35				1	549,606	37.72	1,457,019	VA
Washington	9	837,135	56.92	9	568,334	38.64		58,906	4.00		1,537	0.10		268,801	18.28	1,470,847	WA
West Virginia	6	484,964	63.61	6	277,435	36.39								207,529	27.22	762,399	WV
Wisconsin	11	989,430	53.40	11	810,174	43.72		47,525	2.56					179,256	9.67	1,852,890	WI
Wyoming	3	100,464	69.01	3	44,358	30.47		748	0.51					56,106	38.54	145,570	WY
TOTALS:	538	47,168,710	60.67	520	29,173,222	37.52	17	1,100,868	1.42	0	3,674	0.00	1	17,995,488	23.15	77,744,027	US

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">Template:Cite book</ref>

States that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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

States that flipped from American Independent to Republican

• Georgia
• Louisiana
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Arkansas

Close states

States where margin of victory was more than 5 percentage points, but less than 15 percentage points (115 electoral votes): Template:Col-begin Template:Col-break

1. Minnesota, 5.51% (95,923 votes)
2. Rhode Island, 6.19% (25,738 votes)
3. South Dakota, 8.63% (26,531 votes)
4. Massachusetts, 8.97% (220,462 votes)
5. Wisconsin, 9.67% (179,256 votes)
6. Oregon, 10.12% (93,926 votes)
7. California, 13.46% (1,126,249 votes)
8. Michigan, 14.39% (502,286 votes)Template:Col-end

Tipping point states:

1. Ohio, 21.56% (882,938 votes) (tipping point for a Nixon victory)
2. Maine-1, 22.85% (50,360 votes) (tipping point for a McGovern victory)<ref>Leip, David "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)

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

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Democratic)

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

Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Other)

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

Voter demographics

<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The 1972 presidential vote by demographic subgroup
	McGovern	Nixon
Gender
Men	37	Template:Party shading/Republican |63
Women	38	Template:Party shading/Republican |62
Age
Under 30	48	Template:Party shading/Republican |52
30-49	33	Template:Party shading/Republican |67
50 or Older	36	Template:Party shading/Republican |64
Race
White	32	Template:Party shading/Republican |68
Non-White	Template:Party shading/Democratic |87	13
Religion
Protestant	30	Template:Party shading/Republican |70
Catholic	48	Template:Party shading/Republican |52
Education
College	37	Template:Party shading/Republican |63
High School	34	Template:Party shading/Republican |66
Grade School	49	Template:Party shading/Republican |51
Occupation
Business	31	Template:Party shading/Republican |69
White Collar	36	Template:Party shading/Republican |64
Manual	43	Template:Party shading/Republican |57
Party ID
Republican	5	Template:Party shading/Republican |95
Democrat	Template:Party shading/Democratic |67	33
Independent	31	Template:Party shading/Republican |69
Region
East	42	Template:Party shading/Republican |58
Midwest	40	Template:Party shading/Republican |60
South	29	Template:Party shading/Republican |71
West	41	Template:Party shading/Republican |59
Union Status
Union Family	46	Template:Party shading/Republican |54

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), although this difference was within the survey's margin of error of 2 percentage points. McGovern also narrowly won the youth vote (i. e. those aged 18 to 24) 52–46, a narrower margin than many of his strategists had predicted. This was the first presidential election held after the ratification of the 26th Amendment, lowering the minimum voting age to 18. Early on, the McGovern campaign also significantly over-estimated the number of young people who would vote in the election; they predicted that 18 million would have voted in total but exit polls indicate that the actual number was about 12 million. McGovern comfortably won among both African-American and Jewish voters but by somewhat smaller margins than usual for a Democratic candidate.<ref name="desertion">Template:Cite news</ref> McGovern won the African American vote by 87% to Nixon's 13%.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Aftermath

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} On June 17, 1972, five months before election day, five men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.. The resulting investigation led to the revelation of attempted cover-ups of the break-in within the Nixon administration. What became known as the Watergate scandal eroded President Nixon's public and political support in his second term, and he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of probable impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal from office by the Senate. As part of the continuing Watergate investigation in 1974–1975, federal prosecutors offered companies that had given illegal campaign contributions to President Nixon's re-election campaign lenient sentences if they came forward.<ref name="'70s">Template:Cite book</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 name="Emig">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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.

Bibliography and further reading

• Alexander, Herbert E. Financing the 1972 Election (1976) online
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal
  • Hofstetter, C. Richard. Bias in the news: Network television coverage of the 1972 election campaign (Ohio State University Press, 1976) 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. 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; online
• Template:Cite journal
• Perry, James M. Us & them: how the press covered the 1972 election (1973) 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. online Template:Webarchive
• Trent, Judith S., and Jimmie D. Trent. "The rhetoric of the challenger: George Stanley McGovern." Communication Studies 25.1 (1974): 11–18.
• Template:Cite book

Primary sources

• Chester, Edward W. (1977). A guide to political platforms.
• Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840–1972 (1973)

External links

• The Election Wall's 1972 Election Video Page
• 1972 popular vote by counties
• 1972 popular vote by states
• 1972 popular vote by states (with bar graphs)
• Campaign commercials from the 1972 election
• C-SPAN segment on 1972 campaign commercials
• C-SPAN segment on the "Eagleton Affair"
• Election of 1972 in Counting the Votes