Who won the 1972 presidential election?

Richard M. Nixon (Republican) won the 1972 presidential election with 520 electoral votes and 60.3% of the popular vote.

What was the Electoral College result in 1972?

The 1972 Electoral College result was 17 Democratic to 520 Republican with 1 electoral votes won by other candidates (538 total electoral votes, 269 needed to win).

1972 President

Place-first context

Turn 1972 President results into place analysis.

Use the president results table as the launch point for place dossiers, benchmark comparison, and layered explorer analysis.

Open 1972 states in Explore

Switch from the results table into synchronized map, rankings, compare, and Historian surfaces.

Compare against benchmarks

Drop directly into the compare drawer from the same state-level election layer.

Ask the Historian

Carry the current election overview into a pre-seeded historian prompt.

1972

Presidential Election · 1972

Elected President

Richard M. Nixon

Republicandefeating George McGovern

McGovern

Electoral

Votes

269 to win

520

Nixon

Hospers

17 EV1 EV269 needed to win520 EV

Popular Vote

Nixon(REP)60.3%

McGovern(DEM)37.3%

candidates(OTH)2.3%

Nixon(REP)0.1%

National margin:R+23.0%

78,152,011 total votes cast

View state-by-state results →

Loading election map...

McGovern: 2 states · 17 EV|Nixon: 49 states · 520 EV|LIB: 0 states · 1 EV

	State	EV	Cum. EV ▲	McGovern %	Votes	Nixon %	Votes	Other %	Margin	Swing
▶	Mississippi	7	7	19.6%	126,782	78.2%	505,125	—	R+58.6	↓ R+68.1
▶	Georgia	12	19	24.7%	289,529	75.3%	881,496	—	R+50.5	↓ R+46.9
▶	Oklahoma	8	27	24.0%	247,147	73.7%	759,025	—	R+49.7	↓ R+34.0
▶	Alabama	9	36	25.5%	256,923	72.4%	728,701	—	R+46.9	↓ R+98.7
▶	Florida	17	53	27.8%	718,117	71.9%	1,857,759	—	R+44.1	↓ R+34.5
▶	South Carolina	8	61	27.9%	189,270	70.6%	478,427	—	R+42.7	↓ R+34.2
▶	Utah	4	65	26.4%	126,284	67.6%	323,643	6.0%	R+41.3	↓ R+21.8
▶	Nebraska	5	70	29.5%	169,991	70.5%	406,298	—	R+41.0	↓ R+13.0
▶	North Carolina	13	83	28.9%	438,705	69.5%	1,054,889	—	R+40.6	↓ R+30.3
▶	Wyoming	3	86	30.5%	44,358	69.0%	100,464	—	R+38.5	↓ R+18.3
▶	Idaho	4	90	26.0%	80,826	64.2%	199,384	9.7%	R+38.2	↓ R+12.1
▶	Kansas	7	97	29.5%	270,287	67.7%	619,812	—	R+38.1	↓ R+18.0
▶	Arkansas	6	103	30.7%	198,899	68.8%	445,751	—	R+38.1	↓ R+37.4
▶	Tennessee	10	113	29.8%	357,293	67.7%	813,147	—	R+38.0	↓ R+28.2
▶	Virginia	12*	124*	30.1%	434,958	67.9%	982,726	—	R+37.9	↓ R+27.0
▶	Louisiana	10	134	28.4%	298,142	65.3%	686,852	6.3%	R+37.0	↓ R+41.7
▶	Texas	26	160	33.2%	1,154,291	66.2%	2,298,896	—	R+33.0	↓ R+34.2
▶	Indiana	13	173	33.3%	708,568	66.1%	1,405,154	—	R+32.8	↓ R+20.5
▶	Arizona	6	179	30.4%	198,540	61.6%	402,812	8.0%	R+31.3	↓ R+11.5
▶	New Hampshire	4	183	34.9%	116,435	64.0%	213,724	—	R+29.1	↓ R+20.9
▶	Kentucky	9	192	34.8%	371,159	63.4%	676,446	—	R+28.6	↓ R+22.5
▶	Colorado	7	199	34.6%	329,980	62.6%	597,189	—	R+28.0	↓ R+18.9
▶	Nevada	3	202	36.3%	66,016	63.7%	115,750	—	R+27.4	↓ R+19.2
▶	West Virginia	6	208	36.4%	277,435	63.6%	484,964	—	R+27.2	↓ R+36.0
▶	North Dakota	3	211	35.8%	100,384	62.1%	174,109	—	R+26.3	↓ R+8.6
▶	Vermont	3	214	36.5%	68,174	62.7%	117,149	—	R+26.2	↓ R+17.0
▶	Hawaii	4	218	37.5%	101,409	62.5%	168,865	—	R+25.0	↓ R+46.1
▶	New Jersey	17	235	36.8%	1,102,211	61.6%	1,845,502	—	R+24.8	↓ R+22.7
▶	New Mexico	4	239	36.6%	141,084	61.0%	235,606	—	R+24.5	↓ R+12.4
▶	Maryland	10	249	37.4%	505,781	61.3%	829,305	—	R+23.9	↓ R+25.5
▶	Maine	4	253	38.5%	160,584	61.5%	256,458	—	R+23.0	↓ R+35.7
▶	Ohio	25	278	38.1%	1,558,889	59.6%	2,441,827	—	R+21.6	↓ R+19.3
▶	Delaware	3	281	39.2%	92,283	59.6%	140,357	—	R+20.4	↓ R+16.9
▶	Montana	4	285	37.9%	120,197	57.9%	183,976	—	R+20.1	↓ R+11.1
▶	Missouri	12	297	30.6%	697,147	50.7%	1,153,852	18.7%	R+20.1	↓ R+19.1
▶	Pennsylvania	27	324	39.1%	1,796,951	59.1%	2,714,521	—	R+20.0	↓ R+23.6
▶	Illinois	26	350	40.5%	1,913,472	59.0%	2,788,179	—	R+18.5	↓ R+15.6
▶	Connecticut	8	358	40.1%	555,498	58.6%	810,763	—	R+18.4	↓ R+23.6
▶	Washington	9	367	38.6%	568,334	56.9%	837,135	—	R+18.3	↓ R+20.1
▶	New York	41	408	41.2%	2,951,084	58.5%	4,192,778	—	R+17.3	↓ R+18.2
▶	Iowa	8	416	40.5%	496,206	57.6%	706,207	—	R+17.1	↓ R+4.9
▶	Michigan	21	437	41.8%	1,459,435	56.2%	1,961,721	—	R+14.4	↓ R+21.1
▶	California	45	482	41.5%	3,475,847	55.0%	4,602,096	—	R+13.5	↓ R+10.4
▶	Oregon	6	488	42.3%	392,760	52.5%	486,686	5.2%	R+10.1	↓ R+4.1
▶	Wisconsin	11	499	43.8%	810,174	53.4%	989,430	—	R+9.7	↓ R+6.1
▶	South Dakota	4	503	45.5%	139,945	54.1%	166,476	—	R+8.6	↑ D+2.7
▶	Rhode Island	4	507	46.8%	194,645	53.0%	220,383	—	R+6.2	↓ R+38.4
▶	Minnesota	10	517	46.1%	802,346	51.6%	898,269	—	R+5.5	↓ R+18.0
▶	District of Columbia	3	3	78.1%	127,627	21.6%	35,226	—	D+56.5	↓ R+7.1
▶	Massachusetts	14	17	54.2%	1,332,540	45.2%	1,112,078	—	D+9.0	↓ R+21.1
▶	Alaska	3	3	34.6%	32,967	58.1%	55,349	7.2%	R+23.5	↓ R+20.9

Margin = (Dem votes − Rep votes) ÷ total votes × 100. Swing = current margin − 1968 margin. Cum. EV orders each winning ticket's states from largest win to closest win and accumulates the official EV awarded in each state, so the closest state is that candidate's final cumulative total.Other % shown when > 5% of total votes.

Default sort follows each winning ticket's cumulative EV path; click any header to switch views.

`*` indicates special Electoral College handling such as split electors, faithless electors, or blank ballots. Expand a row for details.

← 1972 overview All elections