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Turnout | 72% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nixon 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90% 90-100% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Florida |
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Government |
The 1972 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 7, 1972, as part of the concurrent United States presidential election. Florida voters chose seventeen electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon won the state over the Democratic nominee, South Dakota Senator George McGovern, by a landslide margin of 44.11% and over one million votes.
After having been among the strongest parts of the Democratic "Solid South" between 1892 and 1944 – except when vehement anti-Catholicism in the Panhandle and urban Republican support gave the state's electoral votes to Herbert Hoover in 1928 – Florida turned into a Republican-leaning state at the presidential level from 1948 due to the growth of a strongly business-oriented society in, and influx of conservative Northern retirees to, newly-developed South Florida following World War II. [1] Aided by this vote, the Republicans carried Florida in all three presidential elections from 1952 to 1960, [2] though North Florida remained Democratic-leaning.
The civil rights movement of the 1960s saw a dramatic change in the next two elections. The classically Deep Southern north of the state, affected by turmoil over school and university desegregation, [3] went powerfully to the staunchly conservative Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964 and then to the segregationist third-party candidacy of George Wallace in 1968. The southern urban areas that had supported the Republicans between 1948 and 1960, meanwhile, contained huge numbers of former Northern retirees hostile to Goldwater's proposed privatization of Social Security, and turned first to Lyndon Johnson before Nixon recaptured most of them for the Republicans in 1968. [4]
The 1972 Democratic presidential primary in Florida saw Wallace easily carry the state (including every county but highly urbanized Dade) in a ballot that also featured a referendum on court-ordered busing, in which more than three-fourths of voters supported a constitutional ban on the practice. [5] [6] McGovern and John Lindsay were supporters of busing who accused even their rivals Hubert Humphrey and Henry M. Jackson of being covert racists for their opposition thereto, while Wallace openly campaigned against it. [6] Wallace, the opponent most feared by Nixon, was paralyzed by an attempted assassination in May, and McGovern won the nomination from powerful support in the Midwestern and Pacific states. Once McGovern won the nomination, he offered Florida Governor Reubin Askew the vice-presidential slot, but Askew turned the position down. [7]
As of 2024, this is the last election in which Gadsden County voted for a Republican presidential candidate, and the only election in which a Republican won all of the state's counties. [8] 78% of white voters supported Nixon while 22% supported McGovern. [9] [10]
George Wallace would win a plurality[ clarification needed ] of the Democratic Primary vote in all of the counties in the state. [11]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | George C. Wallace | 526,651 | 41.65% | |
Democratic | Hubert Humphrey | 243,658 | 18.56% | |
Democratic | Henry M. Jackson | 170,156 | 13.46% | |
Democratic | Edmund Muskie | 112,523 | 8.90% | |
Democratic | John Lindsay | 82,386 | 6.52% | |
Democratic | George S. McGovern | 78,232 | 6.19% | |
Democratic | Shirley Chisholm | 43,989 | 3.48% | |
Democratic | Eugene McCarthy | 5,847 | 0.46% | |
Democratic | Wilbur Mills | 4,539 | 0.36% | |
Democratic | Vance Hartke | 3,009 | 0.24% | |
Democratic | Sam Yorty | 2,564 | 0.20% | |
Total votes | 1,264,554 | 100 |
Richard Nixon would end up winning a majority of the vote in all counties except for Desoto County. [13]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Richard Nixon (incumbent) | 360,278 | 86.98% | |
Republican | John M. Ashbrook | 36,617 | 8.84% | |
Republican | Pete McCloskey | 17,312 | 4.18% | |
Total votes | 414,207 | 100 |
Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Running mate | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote | ||||
Richard Nixon (incumbent) | Republican | California | 1,857,759 | 71.91% | 17 | Spiro Agnew (incumbent) | Maryland | 17 |
George McGovern | Democratic | South Dakota | 718,117 | 27.80% | 0 | Sargent Shriver | Maryland | 0 |
Various candidates | Write-ins | — | 7,407 | 0.29% | 0 | — | — | 0 |
Total | 2,583,283 | 100% | 17 | 17 | ||||
Needed to win | 270 | 270 |
County | Richard Nixon Republican | George McGovern Democratic | Various candidates Write-ins | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
Alachua | 22,536 | 56.54% | 17,245 | 43.26% | 80 | 0.20% | 5,291 | 13.28% | 39,861 |
Baker | 1,943 | 83.64% | 379 | 16.32% | 1 | 0.04% | 1,564 | 67.32% | 2,323 |
Bay | 20,245 | 83.80% | 3,914 | 16.20% | 16,331 | 67.60% | 24,159 | ||
Bradford | 3,652 | 73.67% | 1,217 | 24.55% | 88 | 1.78% | 2,435 | 49.12% | 4,957 |
Brevard | 62,773 | 78.73% | 16,854 | 21.14% | 106 | 0.13% | 45,919 | 57.59% | 79,733 |
Broward | 196,528 | 72.41% | 74,127 | 27.31% | 754 | 0.28% | 122,401 | 45.10% | 271,409 |
Calhoun | 2,069 | 81.68% | 461 | 18.20% | 3 | 0.12% | 1,608 | 63.48% | 2,533 |
Charlotte | 12,888 | 76.64% | 3,874 | 23.04% | 55 | 0.33% | 9,014 | 53.60% | 16,817 |
Citrus | 8,848 | 77.22% | 2,607 | 22.75% | 3 | 0.03% | 6,241 | 54.47% | 11,458 |
Clay | 10,467 | 85.53% | 1,748 | 14.28% | 23 | 0.19% | 8,719 | 71.25% | 12,238 |
Collier | 13,501 | 80.63% | 3,201 | 19.12% | 42 | 0.25% | 10,300 | 61.51% | 16,744 |
Columbia | 6,723 | 80.16% | 1,664 | 19.84% | 5,059 | 60.32% | 8,387 | ||
Dade | 256,529 | 58.87% | 177,693 | 40.78% | 1,541 | 0.35% | 78,836 | 18.09% | 435,763 |
DeSoto | 2,958 | 77.58% | 852 | 22.34% | 3 | 0.08% | 2,106 | 55.24% | 3,813 |
Dixie | 1,628 | 81.52% | 367 | 18.38% | 2 | 0.10% | 1,261 | 63.14% | 1,997 |
Duval | 122,154 | 72.19% | 46,530 | 27.50% | 520 | 0.31% | 75,624 | 44.69% | 169,204 |
Escambia | 56,071 | 79.57% | 14,078 | 19.98% | 315 | 0.45% | 41,993 | 59.59% | 70,464 |
Flagler | 1,409 | 74.08% | 493 | 25.92% | 916 | 48.16% | 1,902 | ||
Franklin | 2,277 | 82.14% | 490 | 17.68% | 5 | 0.18% | 1,787 | 64.46% | 2,772 |
Gadsden | 5,995 | 61.01% | 3,829 | 38.97% | 2 | 0.02% | 2,166 | 22.04% | 9,826 |
Gilchrist | 1,306 | 83.45% | 247 | 15.78% | 12 | 0.77% | 1,059 | 67.67% | 1,565 |
Glades | 1,019 | 78.81% | 253 | 19.57% | 21 | 1.62% | 766 | 59.24% | 1,293 |
Gulf | 2,628 | 78.54% | 713 | 21.31% | 5 | 0.15% | 1,915 | 57.23% | 3,346 |
Hamilton | 1,741 | 73.34% | 626 | 26.37% | 7 | 0.29% | 1,115 | 46.97% | 2,374 |
Hardee | 3,563 | 84.57% | 647 | 15.36% | 3 | 0.07% | 2,916 | 69.21% | 4,213 |
Hendry | 2,763 | 78.85% | 739 | 21.09% | 2 | 0.06% | 2,024 | 57.76% | 3,504 |
Hernando | 6,296 | 74.87% | 2,110 | 25.09% | 3 | 0.04% | 4,186 | 49.78% | 8,409 |
Highlands | 9,645 | 79.49% | 2,458 | 20.26% | 30 | 0.25% | 7,187 | 59.23% | 12,133 |
Hillsborough | 106,956 | 70.13% | 45,305 | 29.71% | 249 | 0.16% | 61,651 | 40.42% | 152,510 |
Holmes | 3,819 | 92.51% | 309 | 7.49% | 3,510 | 85.02% | 4,128 | ||
Indian River | 11,741 | 77.85% | 3,316 | 21.99% | 25 | 0.17% | 8,425 | 55.86% | 15,082 |
Jackson | 8,904 | 79.99% | 2,220 | 19.94% | 8 | 0.07% | 6,684 | 60.05% | 11,132 |
Jefferson | 2,108 | 66.04% | 1,049 | 32.86% | 35 | 1.10% | 1,059 | 33.18% | 3,192 |
Lafayette | 1,060 | 85.69% | 173 | 13.99% | 4 | 0.32% | 887 | 71.70% | 1,237 |
Lake | 23,079 | 82.63% | 4,803 | 17.20% | 48 | 0.17% | 18,276 | 65.43% | 27,930 |
Lee | 36,738 | 79.46% | 9,404 | 20.34% | 93 | 0.20% | 27,334 | 59.12% | 46,235 |
Leon | 27,479 | 63.72% | 15,555 | 36.07% | 92 | 0.21% | 11,924 | 27.65% | 43,126 |
Levy | 3,273 | 79.12% | 862 | 20.84% | 2 | 0.05% | 2,411 | 58.28% | 4,137 |
Liberty | 1,199 | 84.38% | 222 | 15.62% | 977 | 68.76% | 1,421 | ||
Madison | 3,236 | 72.92% | 1,187 | 26.75% | 15 | 0.34% | 2,049 | 46.17% | 4,438 |
Manatee | 32,664 | 79.79% | 8,058 | 19.68% | 218 | 0.53% | 24,606 | 60.11% | 40,940 |
Marion | 19,505 | 78.18% | 5,397 | 21.63% | 46 | 0.18% | 14,108 | 56.55% | 24,948 |
Martin | 11,296 | 78.83% | 2,946 | 20.56% | 88 | 0.61% | 8,350 | 58.27% | 14,330 |
Monroe | 11,688 | 72.18% | 4,469 | 27.60% | 36 | 0.22% | 7,219 | 44.58% | 16,193 |
Nassau | 5,078 | 79.44% | 1,293 | 20.23% | 21 | 0.33% | 3,785 | 59.21% | 6,392 |
Okaloosa | 23,303 | 88.64% | 2,843 | 10.81% | 144 | 0.55% | 20,460 | 77.83% | 26,290 |
Okeechobee | 2,581 | 80.58% | 621 | 19.39% | 1 | 0.03% | 1,960 | 61.19% | 3,203 |
Orange | 94,516 | 79.57% | 23,840 | 20.07% | 421 | 0.35% | 70,676 | 59.50% | 118,777 |
Osceola | 9,320 | 82.94% | 1,875 | 16.69% | 42 | 0.37% | 7,445 | 66.25% | 11,237 |
Palm Beach | 108,670 | 72.35% | 40,825 | 27.18% | 708 | 0.47% | 67,845 | 45.17% | 150,203 |
Pasco | 29,249 | 71.91% | 11,330 | 27.85% | 97 | 0.24% | 17,919 | 44.06% | 40,676 |
Pinellas | 179,541 | 69.83% | 77,197 | 30.02% | 378 | 0.15% | 102,344 | 39.81% | 257,116 |
Polk | 60,748 | 78.42% | 16,419 | 21.20% | 293 | 0.38% | 44,329 | 57.22% | 77,460 |
Putnam | 8,741 | 74.61% | 2,901 | 24.76% | 74 | 0.63% | 5,840 | 49.85% | 11,716 |
St. John's | 8,919 | 77.48% | 2,549 | 22.14% | 43 | 0.37% | 6,370 | 55.34% | 11,511 |
St. Lucie | 14,258 | 75.40% | 4,593 | 24.29% | 59 | 0.31% | 9,665 | 51.11% | 18,910 |
Santa Rosa | 12,669 | 88.94% | 1,491 | 10.47% | 85 | 0.60% | 11,178 | 78.47% | 14,245 |
Sarasota | 48,939 | 79.95% | 12,235 | 19.99% | 36 | 0.06% | 36,704 | 59.96% | 61,210 |
Seminole | 27,658 | 80.84% | 6,503 | 19.01% | 51 | 0.15% | 21,155 | 61.83% | 34,212 |
Sumter | 3,695 | 76.71% | 1,107 | 22.98% | 15 | 0.31% | 2,588 | 53.73% | 4,817 |
Suwannee | 4,435 | 80.77% | 1,027 | 18.70% | 29 | 0.53% | 3,408 | 62.07% | 5,491 |
Taylor | 4,109 | 84.50% | 754 | 15.50% | 3,355 | 69.00% | 4,863 | ||
Union | 1,314 | 83.85% | 253 | 16.15% | 1,061 | 67.70% | 1,567 | ||
Volusia | 52,656 | 70.60% | 21,637 | 29.01% | 290 | 0.39% | 31,019 | 41.59% | 74,583 |
Wakulla | 2,466 | 82.01% | 539 | 17.92% | 2 | 0.07% | 1,927 | 64.09% | 3,007 |
Walton | 6,217 | 85.93% | 988 | 13.66% | 30 | 0.41% | 5,229 | 72.27% | 7,235 |
Washington | 3,777 | 86.11% | 606 | 13.82% | 3 | 0.07% | 3,171 | 72.29% | 4,386 |
Totals | 1,857,759 | 71.91% | 718,117 | 27.80% | 7,407 | 0.29% | 1,139,642 | 44.11% | 2,583,283 |
Nixon won all 15 congressional districts, including 11 held by Democrats. The source cited does not include the results for third parties in that year. [15]
District [15] | Nixon | McGovern |
---|---|---|
1st | 83.7% | 16.3% |
2nd | 68.6% | 31.4% |
3rd | 69.8% | 30.2% |
4th | 76.5% | 23.5% |
5th | 76.3% | 23.7% |
6th | 69.4% | 30.6% |
7th | 69.7% | 30.3% |
8th | 79.4% | 20.6% |
9th | 80.5% | 19.5% |
10th | 79.2% | 2.08% |
11th | 74.2% | 25.8% |
12th | 72% | 28% |
13th | 55.5% | 44.5% |
14th | 58.1% | 41.9% |
15th | 63.4% | 36.6% |
Incumbent President Nixon overwhelmingly won the state of Florida with 71.91% of the vote, carrying all of Florida's 67 counties (the last time any presidential candidate has won every single county in the state) and seventeen electoral votes. [16] This made Florida about 21% more Republican than the nation-at-large, the farthest to the right of the nation it has ever voted. Nixon's victory in Florida made it his fifth strongest state after Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma and Alabama. [17] McGovern reached 40% of the vote only in Dade County with its substantial Jewish and Latin populations, plus Alachua County with its large population of liberal college students who were a major base for his candidacy [18] – and the Democratic candidate only reached thirty percent of the vote in four other counties. Nixon's message enabled him to capture virtually all of the Wallace vote from 1968, as shown by the fact that pineywoods Holmes County, which had been Wallace's fifth-strongest county in 1968, [19] was to be Nixon's fourth-best county in 1972 with over 92% of the vote. [20]
In addition to hostility towards busing and the "acid, amnesty and abortion" policies which Nixon consistently accused McGovern of [18] despite eventual running mate Sargent Shriver being firmly opposed to abortion, the Democratic campaign in Florida was also crippled by McGovern's policy of normalizing relationships with Fidel Castro's Cuba. Relationships with Cuba were a hotbed issue in the most liberal and least Southern region of the state around Miami, [21] and drove even many voters who had supported Humphrey in 1968 to Nixon and the Republican Party. [22] This allowed the GOP to carry Monroe County, which had consistently voted Democratic since 1888. [23]
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1968. Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace.
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide victory. With 60.7% of the popular vote, Richard Nixon won the largest share of the popular vote for the Republican Party in any presidential election.
From January 24 to June 20, 1972, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1972 United States presidential election. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections, caucuses, and state party conventions, culminating in the 1972 Democratic National Convention held from July 10 to July 13, 1972, in Miami, Florida.
Richard Nixon served as the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. He previously served as the 36th vice president of the United States from 1953 to 1961, and as a United States senator from 1950 to 1953 and United States representative from 1947 to 1950.
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.
The 1972 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 5, 1968, and was part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Whereas in the Deep South, Black Belt whites had deserted the national Democratic Party in 1948, in North Carolina, where they had historically been an economically liberalizing influence on the state Democratic Party, the white landowners of the Black Belt had stayed exceedingly loyal to the party until after the Voting Rights Act. This allowed North Carolina to be, along with Arkansas, the only state to vote for Democrats in all four presidential elections between 1952 and 1964. Indeed, the state had not voted Republican since anti-Catholic fervor lead it to support Herbert Hoover over Al Smith in 1928; and other than that the state had not voted Republican once in the century since the Reconstruction era election of 1872. Nonetheless, in 1964 Republican Barry Goldwater may have won a small majority of white voters, although he was beaten by virtually universal support for incumbent President Lyndon Johnson by a black vote estimated at 175 thousand.
The 1972 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 7, 1972. This was the fifteenth Presidential Election which New Mexico participated in. All fifty states plus the District of Columbia, were part of this presidential election. State voters chose four electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for the President and Vice President. South Dakota Senator George McGovern was nominated to run against Nixon, and was defeated in one of the most lopsided elections in United States history. McGovern lost every state except Massachusetts to Nixon.
The 1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 7, 1972. Incumbent President Richard Nixon won Alabama, winning 72.43% of the vote to George McGovern's 25.54%. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Dallas County, Hale County, Russell County, and Perry County in the Black Belt voted for the Republican candidate, and stands as the strongest ever performance by a Republican presidential candidate in the state.
The 1968 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 5, 1968. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of as a slate, as in the other 49 states.
The 1972 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 7, 1972. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1972 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. State voters chose seven representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Texas was held on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon overwhelmingly won the state of Texas with 66.20% of the vote, to the Democratic Party candidate George McGovern's 33.24%, thus giving him the state's 26 electoral votes. This result made Texas 9.8% more Republican than the nation-at-large. This was the first time a Republican won the state of Texas since Texas-born Dwight D. Eisenhower won it in 1956, even as Democrat Dolph Briscoe won the gubernatorial election on the same Ballot.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 7, 1972. Incumbent President Nixon won the state of Mississippi with 78.20% of the vote. This was the highest percentage Nixon received in any state in the election. Nixon even received a higher share of the vote in Mississippi than McGovern did in the District of Columbia, making this one of only two elections where Washington, D.C. wasn't the largest margin for either candidate, along with 1964.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Idaho voters chose four representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Oklahoma was held on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1968 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 5, 1968. Florida voters chose fourteen electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1972 United States presidential election in Missouri took place on November 7, 1972. All fifty states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1968 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.