# 1972 United States presidential election in New Mexico

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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.
New Mexico was won by President Richard Nixon by a 24-point landslide, mirroring the national popular vote margin by a near-perfect amount and making New Mexico 1.3% more Republican than the nation-at-large. McGovern won only two counties: he comfortably won Rio Arriba County by 12.6 percentage points, and also won San Miguel County by 2.5 percentage points. Nixon was the first Republican to carry Grant County since 1928.
The 1972 election remains the last when Santa Fe, Taos or Mora counties provided a Republican majority or plurality, and Nixon won Mora County by a mere thirty votes. At the other extreme, solidly Republican Lea County in the Plains region was won by Nixon by 55.4 percent, and Lincoln County, which had not voted Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 landslide, by 55.9 percent. As of 2024, this was the best performance for a Republican presidential nominee in New Mexico.

## Primaries
### Democratic

George McGovern would defeat Alabama Governor, George Wallace, and previous Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey.
DemocraticPrimary – June 6, 1972 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | George McGovern | 51,011 | 33.28% |
| | Democratic | George Wallace | 44,843 | 29.25% |
| | Democratic | Hubert Humphrey | 39,768 | 25.94% |
| | Democratic | Edmund Muskie | 6,411 | 4.18% |
| | Democratic | Henry M. Jackson | 4,236 | 2.76% |
| | Democratic | Uncommitted | 3,819 | 2.49% |
| | Democratic | Shirley Chisholm | 3,205 | 2.09% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 153,293 | 100 |

### Republican
## Results

1972 United States presidential election in New Mexico :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Republican | Richard Nixon (incumbent)Spiro Agnew (incumbent) | 235,606 | 61.05% | +9.20 |
| | Democratic | George McGovernSargent Shriver | 141,084 | 36.56% | −3.19 |
| | American Independent | John G. SchmitzThomas J. Anderson | 8,767 | 2.27% | −5.59 |
| | Socialist Workers | Linda JennessAndrew Pulley | 474 | 0.12% | +0.04 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 385,931 | 100.00% | |
| | Republican win | Republican win | Republican win | Republican win | Republican win |

### Results by county

| County | Richard Nixon Republican | Richard Nixon Republican | George McGovern Democratic | George McGovern Democratic | John G. Schmitz American Independent | John G. Schmitz American Independent | Linda Jenness Socialist Workers | Linda Jenness Socialist Workers | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | Total votes cast |
| Bernalillo | 79,993 | 60.80% | 48,753 | 37.06% | 2,651 | 2.02% | 165 | 0.13% | 31,240 | 23.74% | 131,562 |
| Catron | 829 | 73.49% | 271 | 24.02% | 26 | 2.30% | 2 | 0.18% | 558 | 49.47% | 1,128 |
| Chaves | 11,493 | 70.87% | 4,296 | 26.49% | 415 | 2.56% | 12 | 0.07% | 7,197 | 44.38% | 16,216 |
| Colfax | 2,663 | 57.88% | 1,855 | 40.32% | 82 | 1.78% | 1 | 0.02% | 808 | 17.56% | 4,601 |
| Curry | 8,392 | 75.85% | 2,416 | 21.84% | 246 | 2.22% | 10 | 0.09% | 5,976 | 54.01% | 11,064 |
| De Baca | 752 | 71.82% | 270 | 25.79% | 24 | 2.29% | 1 | 0.10% | 482 | 46.03% | 1,047 |
| Dona Ana | 14,562 | 59.76% | 9,416 | 38.64% | 367 | 1.51% | 21 | 0.09% | 5,146 | 21.12% | 24,366 |
| Eddy | 9,921 | 64.65% | 5,040 | 32.84% | 368 | 2.40% | 17 | 0.11% | 4,881 | 31.81% | 15,346 |
| Grant | 4,431 | 50.46% | 4,081 | 46.48% | 262 | 2.98% | 7 | 0.08% | 350 | 3.98% | 8,781 |
| Guadalupe | 1,297 | 51.37% | 1,202 | 47.60% | 23 | 0.91% | 3 | 0.12% | 95 | 3.77% | 2,525 |
| Harding | 522 | 68.68% | 220 | 28.95% | 18 | 2.37% | 0 | 0.00% | 302 | 39.73% | 760 |
| Hidalgo | 1,051 | 63.43% | 562 | 33.92% | 44 | 2.65% | 0 | 0.00% | 489 | 29.51% | 1,657 |
| Lea | 12,478 | 76.41% | 3,429 | 21.00% | 409 | 2.50% | 15 | 0.09% | 9,049 | 55.41% | 16,331 |
| Lincoln | 2,528 | 77.07% | 696 | 21.22% | 52 | 1.59% | 4 | 0.12% | 1,832 | 55.85% | 3,280 |
| Los Alamos | 5,039 | 66.09% | 2,435 | 31.94% | 138 | 1.81% | 12 | 0.16% | 2,604 | 34.15% | 7,624 |
| Luna | 2,958 | 63.25% | 1,560 | 33.35% | 157 | 3.36% | 2 | 0.04% | 1,398 | 29.90% | 4,677 |
| McKinley | 5,366 | 49.74% | 5,124 | 47.49% | 273 | 2.53% | 26 | 0.24% | 242 | 2.25% | 10,789 |
| Mora | 1,165 | 50.26% | 1,135 | 48.96% | 15 | 0.65% | 3 | 0.13% | 30 | 1.30% | 2,318 |
| Otero | 7,033 | 65.91% | 2,981 | 27.94% | 646 | 6.05% | 10 | 0.09% | 4,052 | 37.97% | 10,670 |
| Quay | 3,224 | 71.30% | 1,161 | 25.67% | 133 | 2.94% | 4 | 0.09% | 2,063 | 45.63% | 4,522 |
| Rio Arriba | 4,351 | 42.68% | 5,642 | 55.34% | 192 | 1.88% | 10 | 0.10% | -1,291 | -12.66% | 10,195 |
| Roosevelt | 4,727 | 73.03% | 1,612 | 24.90% | 132 | 2.04% | 2 | 0.03% | 3,115 | 48.13% | 6,473 |
| San Juan | 10,788 | 67.55% | 4,296 | 26.90% | 828 | 5.18% | 58 | 0.36% | 6,492 | 40.65% | 15,970 |
| San Miguel | 4,434 | 47.71% | 4,663 | 50.18% | 175 | 1.88% | 21 | 0.23% | -229 | -2.47% | 9,293 |
| Sandoval | 3,507 | 50.25% | 3,293 | 47.18% | 169 | 2.42% | 10 | 0.14% | 214 | 3.07% | 6,979 |
| Santa Fe | 12,211 | 52.53% | 10,761 | 46.29% | 255 | 1.10% | 19 | 0.08% | 1,450 | 6.24% | 23,246 |
| Sierra | 2,074 | 67.47% | 934 | 30.38% | 62 | 2.02% | 4 | 0.13% | 1,140 | 37.09% | 3,074 |
| Socorro | 2,658 | 56.19% | 1,994 | 42.16% | 72 | 1.52% | 6 | 0.13% | 664 | 14.03% | 4,730 |
| Taos | 3,617 | 50.49% | 3,472 | 48.46% | 65 | 0.91% | 10 | 0.14% | 145 | 2.03% | 7,164 |
| Torrance | 1,758 | 64.54% | 908 | 33.33% | 56 | 2.06% | 2 | 0.07% | 850 | 31.21% | 2,724 |
| Union | 1,545 | 72.50% | 496 | 23.28% | 87 | 4.08% | 3 | 0.14% | 1,049 | 49.22% | 2,131 |
| Valencia | 8,239 | 56.09% | 6,110 | 41.60% | 325 | 2.21% | 14 | 0.10% | 2,129 | 14.49% | 14,688 |
| Totals | 235,606 | 61.05% | 141,084 | 36.56% | 8,767 | 2.27% | 474 | 0.12% | 94,522 | 24.49% | 385,931 |

#### Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Grant
* McKinley
* Sandoval
* Colfax
* Santa Fe
* Hidalgo