1972 United States Presidential Election (Nixon Retires)

The **1972 United States presidential election** was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. The Republican ticket of President Nelson Rockefeller and Vice President Ronald Reagan defeated the Democratic ticket of South Dakota Senator George McGovern and former U.S. Ambassador to France Sargent Shriver.

The term of Rockefeller was highly praised by the majority of Americans, for his fruitful efforts that ended the Vietnam War and quailed protests between segregationists and African Americans still angry with Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination. Through his great term, it was almost guaranteed if he entered the race, he would be the automatic front runner for the GOP nomination, which he did. He and Reagan would be renominated to keep the White House. McGovern, who had played a significant role in changing the Democratic nomination system after the 1968 election, mobilized the anti-Vietnam War movement and other liberal supporters to win his party's nomination. Among the candidates he defeated were early front-runner Edmund Muskie, 1968 nominee Hubert Humphrey, and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American person to run for a major party's presidential nomination.

Rockefeller would easily win, becoming the first Republican to sweep the southern states, and being moderate would eventually be keep in turning the south into swing states and then into safe red states in further years. The 1972 presidential election was the first since the ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

The main issues in this election were the situation in Vietnam after America withdrew, sanctions given to the Soviet Union during Rockefeller's term, and Rockefeller's progressive plan for affordable housing.

## Primaries:

### Republican Primaries:

Rockefeller ran unopposed from when he entered in 1971, he and Reagan would easily gain the GOP ticket for the second straight election.

 Nelson Rockefeller

### Democratic Primaries:

Senator McGovern entered the race in March of '71. His main opponents were Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey dropped out due to his bad health, and Muskie's momentum faltered, McGovern became the nominee and made former U.S. Ambassador to France Sargent Shiver his running mate.

 George McGovern

## Campaign/Issues Unique to the Election:

### Republican Campaign:

The Rockefeller campaign portrayed McGovern as an extremist, and said his progressivism would rock the boat America had built too much, while promoting moderatism that had made Rockefeller popular.

### Democratic Campaign:

McGovern portrayed Rockefeller as two-faced, saying he secretly supported the war efforts in Vietnam and was trying to continue war, while promoting progressivism which had slowly been gaining popularity in the north.

### Vietnam:

Rockefeller pulled America out of the Vietnam War on Christmas Day of 1969. McGovern tried to say that Rockefeller was keeping PoW in Vietnam to try and speed operations, which Rockefeller denied, and McGovern's hard hitting style would soon lose him popularity.

### Soviet Union Sanctions:

With the influence of Vice President Reagan's Anti-Soviet stances, Rockefeller decided to deliver sanctions to the Soviet Union, who had been calling America's influence a giant problem, and saying an extermination was in order. McGovern felt Rockefeller took the soviets out of context. Rockefeller would fire back with this, and Americans started claiming McGovern was a Soviet sympathizer.

### Affordable Housing:

Rockefeller had recently introduced a bill to congress that would give housing affordable prices, McGovern claimed he was only cutting prices to hide unpopular parts of his Presidency, while Rockefeller said McGovern was trying to taint his legacy, even though he himself had popularity to back himself up, while McGovern didn't.

## Results and Aftermath:

Rockefeller would defeat McGovern in a landslide, despite McGovern pulling off a shocking upset in Michigan.

Rockefeller would be sworn in for his second term and eventually his bill for Affordable House pricing would go through. He would continue his term until his death by assassination on August 9, 1974.