1972 United States presidential election in California

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1972 United States presidential election in California
Turnout	82.13% (of registered voters) 3.62 pp ; 64.52% (of eligible voters) 2.18 pp
Nixon 40–50% 50–60% 60–70%	McGovern 40–50% 50–60%
President before election; Richard Nixon ; Republican	Elected President; Richard Nixon ; Republican

Last updated September 14, 2025

The 1972 United States presidential election in California took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. State voters chose 45 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

California voted for the Republican incumbent, Richard Nixon, over the Democratic challenger, South Dakota Senator George McGovern. Nixon took 55.00% of the vote to McGovern's 41.54%, a margin of 13.46%. Though Nixon won a commanding victory in his home state over McGovern, this result nevertheless meant California voted almost ten points to the left of the nation at large and was one of McGovern's strongest states in the 1972 election.

Nixon had previously won California against John F. Kennedy in 1960 and then against Hubert Humphrey in 1968. This was the first presidential election in which California had the most electoral college votes as a result of the 1970 census, a status it has maintained ever since.

Primaries

Democratic

1972 California Democratic Party presidential primary

← 1968

June 6, 1972

1976 →


Candidate	George McGovern	Hubert Humphrey	George Wallace
Home state	South Dakota	Minnesota	Alabama
Popular vote	1,550,652	1,375,064	268,551
Percentage	43.50%	38.58%	7.53%

County Results

McGovern

30-40%

40-50%

50-60%

60-70%

Humphrey

30-40%

40-50%

George McGovern would defeat previous Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, by just under 200,000 votes.^[2]

Democratic Primary – June 6, 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	George McGovern	1,550,652	43.50%
	Democratic	Hubert Humphrey	1,375,064	38.58%
	Democratic	George Wallace	268,551	7.53%
	Democratic	Shirley Chisholm	157,435	4.42%
	Democratic	Edmund Muskie	72,701	2.04%
	Democratic	Sam Yorty	50,745	1.42%
	Democratic	Eugene McCarthy	34,203	0.96%
	Democratic	Henry M. Jackson	28,901	0.81%
	Democratic	John Lindsay	26,246	0.74%
	Democratic	Others	20	0.00%
Total votes			3,564,518	100

Republican

Richard Nixon would easily win the California Republican Primary by a wide margin over his only state challenger.^[3]

Republican Primary – June 6, 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Richard Nixon (incumbent)	2,058,825	90.14%
	Republican	John M. Ashbrook	224,922	9.85%
	Republican	Others	175	0.01%
Total votes			2,283,922	100

Results

1972 United States presidential election in California^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Richard Nixon (incumbent)	4,602,096	55.00%	45
	Democratic	George McGovern	3,475,847	41.54%	0
	American Independent	John G. Schmitz	232,554	2.78%	0
	Peace and Freedom	Benjamin Spock	55,167	0.66%	0
	Libertarian	John Hospers (write-in)	980	0.01%	0
	Socialist Workers	Linda Jenness (write-in)	574	0.01%	0
	Communist	Gus Hall (write-in)	373	0.00%	0
	Socialist Labor	Louis Fisher (write-in)	197	0.00%	0
	Prohibition Party	E. Harold Munn (write-in)	53	0.00%	0
	Universal Party	Gabriel Green (write-in)	21	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			8,367,862	100.00%	45
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Richard Nixon Republican		George McGovern Democratic		John G. Schmitz American Independent		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Alameda	201,862	42.84%	259,254	55.02%	6,930	1.47%	3,149	0.67%	-57,392	-12.18%	471,195
Alpine	366	63.54%	195	33.85%	7	1.22%	8	1.39%	171	29.69%	576
Amador	3,533	53.40%	2,705	40.89%	340	5.14%	38	0.57%	828	12.51%	6,616
Butte	28,819	57.61%	18,401	36.78%	2,468	4.93%	340	0.68%	10,418	20.83%	50,028
Calaveras	4,119	60.76%	2,268	33.46%	304	4.48%	88	1.30%	1,851	27.30%	6,779
Colusa	2,715	57.56%	1,810	38.37%	167	3.54%	25	0.53%	905	19.19%	4,717
Contra Costa	139,044	54.13%	111,718	43.49%	4,701	1.83%	1,421	0.55%	27,326	10.64%	256,884
Del Norte	2,927	51.82%	2,156	38.17%	515	9.12%	50	0.89%	771	13.65%	5,648
El Dorado	11,330	54.20%	8,654	41.40%	794	3.80%	127	0.61%	2,676	12.80%	20,905
Fresno	79,051	50.44%	72,682	46.38%	3,927	2.51%	1,059	0.68%	6,369	4.06%	156,719
Glenn	4,569	59.01%	2,681	34.62%	458	5.92%	35	0.45%	1,888	24.39%	7,743
Humboldt	22,345	48.83%	21,132	46.18%	1,896	4.14%	390	0.85%	1,213	2.65%	45,763
Imperial	14,178	62.05%	7,982	34.93%	607	2.66%	82	0.36%	6,196	27.12%	22,849
Inyo	4,873	68.07%	2,006	28.02%	240	3.35%	40	0.56%	2,867	40.05%	7,159
Kern	71,686	60.14%	41,937	35.18%	5,112	4.29%	458	0.38%	29,479	24.96%	119,193
Kings	10,509	56.52%	7,274	39.12%	742	3.99%	70	0.38%	3,235	17.40%	18,595
Lake	6,477	55.12%	4,715	40.13%	509	4.33%	49	0.42%	1,762	14.99%	11,750
Lassen	3,618	50.80%	3,134	44.00%	320	4.49%	50	0.70%	484	6.80%	7,122
Los Angeles	1,549,717	54.75%	1,189,977	42.04%	71,978	2.54%	18,698	0.66%	359,740	12.71%	2,830,370
Madera	7,835	52.61%	6,580	44.18%	428	2.87%	49	0.33%	1,255	8.43%	14,892
Marin	54,123	52.10%	47,414	45.64%	1,326	1.28%	1,020	0.98%	6,709	6.46%	103,883
Mariposa	2,122	56.15%	1,487	39.35%	141	3.73%	29	0.77%	635	16.80%	3,779
Mendocino	11,128	51.01%	9,435	43.25%	1,050	4.81%	201	0.92%	1,693	7.76%	21,814
Merced	17,737	54.33%	13,914	42.62%	836	2.56%	161	0.49%	3,823	11.71%	32,648
Modoc	2,085	58.49%	1,271	35.65%	188	5.27%	21	0.59%	814	22.84%	3,565
Mono	1,872	66.88%	828	29.58%	78	2.79%	21	0.75%	1,044	37.30%	2,799
Monterey	47,004	57.04%	32,545	39.49%	2,274	2.76%	585	0.71%	14,459	17.55%	82,408
Napa	23,403	59.61%	14,529	37.01%	1,141	2.91%	188	0.48%	8,874	22.60%	39,261
Nevada	8,004	54.68%	5,693	38.89%	868	5.93%	73	0.50%	2,311	15.79%	14,638
Orange	448,291	68.27%	176,847	26.93%	28,634	4.36%	2,881	0.44%	271,444	41.34%	656,653
Placer	18,597	50.34%	16,911	45.77%	1,251	3.39%	186	0.50%	1,686	4.57%	36,945
Plumas	2,952	46.42%	3,057	48.07%	318	5.00%	33	0.52%	-105	-1.65%	6,360
Riverside	108,120	58.00%	71,591	38.41%	5,843	3.13%	850	0.46%	36,529	19.59%	186,404
Sacramento	141,218	49.00%	137,287	47.63%	7,841	2.72%	1,875	0.65%	3,931	1.37%	288,221
San Benito	3,961	57.56%	2,582	37.52%	308	4.48%	30	0.44%	1,379	20.04%	6,881
San Bernardino	144,689	59.73%	85,986	35.49%	10,342	4.27%	1,239	0.51%	58,703	24.24%	242,256
San Diego	371,627	61.82%	206,455	34.34%	20,188	3.36%	2,867	0.48%	165,172	27.48%	601,137
San Francisco	127,461	41.82%	170,882	56.07%	3,702	1.21%	2,725	0.89%	-43,421	-14.25%	304,770
San Joaquin	61,646	55.30%	44,062	39.53%	5,027	4.51%	734	0.66%	17,584	15.77%	111,469
San Luis Obispo	28,566	55.98%	20,779	40.72%	1,156	2.27%	532	1.04%	7,787	15.26%	51,033
San Mateo	135,377	52.82%	109,745	42.82%	4,079	1.59%	7,096	2.77%	25,632	10.00%	256,297
Santa Barbara	67,075	55.19%	50,609	41.64%	3,103	2.55%	754	0.62%	16,466	13.55%	121,541
Santa Clara	237,334	51.90%	208,506	45.60%	8,236	1.80%	3,217	0.70%	28,828	6.30%	457,293
Santa Cruz	34,799	49.88%	32,336	46.35%	1,931	2.77%	693	0.99%	2,463	3.53%	69,759
Shasta	16,618	46.68%	17,214	48.35%	1,595	4.48%	176	0.49%	-596	-1.67%	35,603
Sierra	629	47.51%	658	49.70%	27	2.04%	10	0.76%	-29	-2.19%	1,324
Siskiyou	7,563	51.46%	6,434	43.78%	621	4.23%	78	0.53%	1,129	7.68%	14,696
Solano	31,314	54.02%	24,766	42.73%	1,616	2.79%	269	0.46%	6,548	11.29%	57,965
Sonoma	57,697	54.72%	43,746	41.49%	3,192	3.03%	799	0.76%	13,951	13.23%	105,434
Stanislaus	39,521	51.41%	35,005	45.54%	1,943	2.53%	398	0.52%	4,516	5.87%	76,867
Sutter	10,224	62.45%	5,409	33.04%	647	3.95%	92	0.56%	4,815	29.41%	16,372
Tehama	6,054	48.73%	5,175	41.65%	1,161	9.34%	34	0.27%	879	7.08%	12,424
Trinity	1,868	50.75%	1,621	44.04%	169	4.59%	23	0.62%	247	6.71%	3,681
Tulare	36,048	59.93%	21,775	36.20%	2,076	3.45%	251	0.42%	14,273	23.73%	60,150
Tuolumne	5,894	54.29%	4,596	42.34%	299	2.75%	67	0.62%	1,298	11.95%	10,856
Ventura	95,310	63.20%	49,307	32.70%	5,586	3.70%	602	0.40%	46,003	30.50%	150,805
Yolo	17,969	42.04%	23,694	55.44%	800	1.87%	275	0.64%	-5,725	-13.40%	42,738
Yuba	6,623	56.95%	4,435	38.13%	518	4.45%	54	0.46%	2,188	18.82%	11,630
Total	4,602,096	55.00%	3,475,847	41.54%	232,554	2.78%	57,365	0.69%	1,126,249	13.46%	8,367,862

References

↑ "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
↑ "Our Campaigns - CA US President - D Primary Race - Jun 06, 1972". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
↑ "Our Campaigns - CA US President - R Primary Race - Jun 06, 1972". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
↑ "1972 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved August 25, 2008.

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[1] "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

[2] "Our Campaigns - CA US President - D Primary Race - Jun 06, 1972". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved August 18, 2024.

[3] "Our Campaigns - CA US President - R Primary Race - Jun 06, 1972". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved August 18, 2024.

[4] "1972 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved August 25, 2008.

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