U.S. presidential election, 1972

The Democratic Party was split between four major candidates, former United States Vice President Hubert Humphrey, South Dakota Senator George McGovern, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, and Alabama Governor George Wallace. Other candidates included congresswoman Shirley Chisholm of New York (the first African-American woman to run for president), senator Scoop Jackson of Washington, senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma and John V. Lindsay, mayor of New York City and formerly a Republican.

The establishment-favorite for the nomination was 1968 Vice Presidential candidate, the moderate Ed Muskie, but he failed to live up to expectations in key primaries. The primary-voters were in large part anti-war. This favoured senator George McGovern. When favourite-son Muskie did worse than expected in the New Hampshire primary, his neighbouring state, and McGovern came in on a good second, McGovern got the momentum Muskie was supposed to have had. The good second-placing was put to good use by McGovern's effective campaign-manager, Gary Hart, a presidential contender himself 10 years later.

George Wallace did well in the South (he won every county in the Florida primary) and amongst alienated and dissatisfied voters with his 'outsider'-image. In 1968, the Alabama Governor had led a law & order campaign similar to that of Richard Nixon, taking a lot of votes away from the Nixon, especially in the South. This lead Nixon to fear Wallace fronting a Democratic ticket in 1972. The president had supported the incumbent Governor of Alabama in the gubernatorial primaries against Wallace in 1970, as well as ordering IRS investigations of the Wallace campaign, to little effect. What could've become a forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was gunned down while campaigning in Maryland. He would go on to win the Maryland primary, but that was the effective end of his campaign.

The Democrats nominated George McGovern, who ran on a platform of ending the Vietnam War and instituting guaranteed minimum incomes for the nation's poor. Between difficulties with his running-mate, Thomas Eagleton (who he eventually dropped and replaced with Sargent Shriver), and the Republicans' successful campaign to paint him as unacceptably radical, he suffered a landslide defeat of 61%-38% to sitting President Richard Nixon. The Watergate burglary to steal Democratic Party information during the election laid the seeds for Nixon's later downfall.

Nixon was challenged in the GOP primaries by two congressmen from both sides of the political spectrum, the liberal Pete McCloskey of California and the conservative John Ashbrook of Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war and anti-Nixon candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards China and the USSR. In the New Hampshire primary McCloskey's peace-platform garnered a surprising 20% to Nixon's 60%. Ashbrook got 10%. The outspoken McCloskey, one of a handful of antiwar Republicans in Congress, eventually snubbed the president by denying Nixon his coveted "nomination by acclamation" when the California congressman won the vote of exactly one delegate at the Republican National Convention, to Nixon's 1,347 delegates.

Conservative congressman John G. Schmitz of the American Party was on the ballot in 32 states and received 1,099,482 popular votes.

John Hospers of the newly formed Libertarian Party was on the ballot only in Colorado and Washington and received only 3,673 popular votes. However, he was given one electoral vote by Republican delegate Roger MacBride. This election had the lowest voter turnout for a presidential election since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting.

Spiro T. Agnew resigned as Vice-President October 10, 1973; he pleaded no contest to a charge that he had failed to report income from payoffs by Maryland businessmen and was fined $10,000. He was the second Vice-President of the United States to resign (after John C. Calhoun in 1832); he was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, the first Vice President to be appointed without a national election.

Richard M. Nixon resigned as President August 9, 1974, under threat of impeachment, also over fallout from the Watergate burglary. He was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, who appointed Nelson A. Rockefeller his Vice-President.

Timeline

• May 15 - Governor and Presidential candidate George C. Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur H. Bremer at a Laurel, Md., political rally.
• June 17 - Watergate break-in, Washington, D.C.
• July 10-July 13 - United States Democratic Party convention and nomination of George McGovern
• August 21-August 23 - United States Republican Party convention and nomination of Richard M. Nixon
• November 7 - Richard M. Nixon defeated George McGovern

See also: President of the United States, U.S. presidential election, 1972, History of the United States (1964-1980)