1972 U.S. presidential election

1972

Richard Nixon won a 49-state landslide over antiwar Democrat George McGovern, months after the Watergate break-in that would end his presidency.

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The story

On November 7, 1972, President Richard Nixon won re-election in a landslide over Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. Nixon took 520 electoral votes and 60.7 percent of the popular vote, carrying every state except Massachusetts. McGovern won 17 electoral votes from Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., and 37.5 percent. It was the first presidential election in which 18-year-olds could vote, under the Twenty-sixth Amendment.

McGovern won the nomination under the party's new, more open primary rules, running on immediate withdrawal from Vietnam. His campaign stumbled when his running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was revealed to have had electroshock treatment and was replaced by Sargent Shriver. Nixon could point to troop withdrawals, his February trip to China and arms control with the Soviet Union. In June, burglars tied to Nixon's re-election committee were arrested inside the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex, but the scandal had little effect on the vote.

Why it mattered

The Watergate investigation that followed the campaign forced Nixon to resign in August 1974.
Gerald Ford's unelected presidency and pardon of Nixon set the stage for the 1976 election.
Congress passed new campaign finance limits in 1974 in response to abuses uncovered from the 1972 race.

Sources

1972 Electoral College Results National Archives
Who Was the First Woman to Receive an Electoral Vote? Cato Institute
That's The Ticket: 1972 Wisconsin Historical Society

Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made

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1972 Electoral College Results

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At a glance

When: November 7, 1972
Where: United States (50 states and Washington, D.C.)
Key people: Richard Nixon (Republican, winner)
George McGovern (Democratic nominee)
Spiro Agnew (vice president)
Sargent Shriver (Democratic vice-presidential nominee)

520 to 17electoral votes, Nixon over McGovern

60.7%Nixon's share of the popular vote

49states carried by Nixon

588earlier events it rests on

8later events that depend on it

Couldn't have happened without

1968 U.S. presidential election1968

EssentialNixon ran for re-election as the incumbent his 1968 victory had made.

Vietnam War escalates1965

EssentialThe war defined the race: McGovern ran to end it at once, Nixon on winding it down.

Ping-pong diplomacy1971

HelpedThe thaw with China led to Nixon's 1972 Beijing trip, a foreign policy triumph he ran on.

Led to

1976 U.S. presidential election1976

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