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United States presidential election, 1972 facts for kids

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United States presidential election, 1972

← 1968 November 7, 1972 1976 →
  Richard M. Nixon, ca. 1935 - 1982 - NARA - 530679.jpg GeorgeStanleyMcGovern.png
Nominee Richard Nixon George McGovern
Party Republican Democrat
Home state California South Dakota
Running mate Spiro Agnew Sargent Shriver
(changing Thomas Eagleton)
Electoral vote 520 17
States carried 49 1 + D.C.
Popular vote 47,168,710 29,173,222
Percentage 60.7% 37.5%

ElectoralCollege1972.svg
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew. Blue denotes states won by McGovern/Shriver. Gray denotes won by 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

This election was between United States President Richard Nixon and Senator of South Dakota George McGovern. Richard Nixon won the election by a landslide (winning 49 of 50 states). George 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 what would be assassin during the election.

George McGovern's running mate changed from Thomas Eagleton to Sargent Shriver because Eagleton had problems about his psychiatric before.

This election occurred during the Watergate scandal.

1972prescountymap2
Election results by county.     Richard Nixon      George McGovern

Candidates

Democratic Party

15 people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were:

Candidates gallery

Republican Party

Candidates gallery

Related pages

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Elecciones presidenciales de Estados Unidos de 1972 para niños

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