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1972 United States presidential election
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|
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Turnout
| 55.2%
[1]
5.7
pp
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|
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/ElectoralCollege1972.svg/350px-ElectoralCollege1972.svg.png) Presidential election results map.
Red
denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew.
Blue
denotes states won by McGovern/Shriver.
Gold
denotes won by Hospers by a
Virginia
faithless elector. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
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The
1972 United States presidential election
happened on November 7, 1972. President
Richard Nixon
was reelected to a second term. He defeated the
Democratic
candidate, Senator
George McGovern
of
South Dakota
. Nixon won the election by a
landslide
(winning 49 of 50 states) and got 520 electoral votes. McGovern got 17 electoral votes.
John Hospers
got one electoral vote by a
Virginia
faithless elector.
This was the highest of any
Republican
nominee as a vote, as well as a highest electoral vote in a
United States
election until
Ronald Reagan
was
re-elected in 1984
by a huge landslide.
George Wallace
, governor of Alabama was shot by a would-be assassin during the election.
George McGovern's running mate changed from
Thomas Eagleton
to
Sargent Shriver
because of revelations about Eagleton's previous
psychiatric
problems.
[2]
This election occurred during the
Watergate scandal
, which ultimately caused Nixon to resign in 1974.
Election results by county.
15 people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were:
[3]
- 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 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
- Wilbur Mills
, Representative of
Arkansas's 2nd congressional district
- Vance Hartke
, Senator from
Indiana
- Fred Harris
, Senator from
Oklahoma
- Sam Yorty
, former Representative of
California's 26th congressional district
- Patsy Mink
, Representative of
Hawaii's 2nd congressional district
- Walter Fauntroy
, Delegate from
Washington, D.C.
- Presidential Candidates:
- Vice Presidential Candidates: