1972 United States presidential election in Massachusetts

← 1968 November 7, 1972 1976 →
Turnout	80.76%[1]
Nominee George McGovern Richard Nixon Party Democratic Republican Home state South Dakota California Running mate Sargent Shriver Spiro Agnew Electoral vote 14 0 Popular vote 1,332,540 1,112,078 Percentage 54.20% 45.23%
County results Municipality results McGovern   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Nixon   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%
President before election Richard Nixon Republican Elected President Richard Nixon Republican

The1972 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the1972 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states andD.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president. Along withWashington, D.C. this was the only state that voted for McGovern in the election.

Massachusetts voted for theDemocratic nominee,SenatorGeorge McGovern ofSouth Dakota, over incumbentRepublicanPresidentRichard Nixon ofCalifornia. McGovern's running mate was U.S. AmbassadorSargent Shriver ofMaryland, who had replaced SenatorThomas Eagleton during the campaign, while Nixon ran with incumbentVice PresidentSpiro Agnew ofMaryland.

McGovern carried Massachusetts with 54.20% of the vote to Nixon's 45.23%, a Democratic victory margin of 8.97 percentage points (19.82% more votes than Nixon). In the midst of a massive nationwide Republican landslide in which Richard Nixon had carried 49 states, Massachusetts proved to be the only state in the nation that would cast its electoral votes for George McGovern, joined by theDistrict of Columbia. McGovern also carried the state by a surprisingly comfortable nine-point margin, making the state 32% more Democratic than the national average in the 1972 election.

McGovern, a staunchliberal Democrat best known for his strong principled opposition to theVietnam War, was painted by the Nixon campaign as an extremist too far to the left of the American mainstream at the time, and this paid off in delivering Nixon a nationwide re-election landslide. Prior to 1972, Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since1928, and a Democratic stronghold since1960. But McGovern's comfortable victory in 1972 still stands out, as many other traditional Democratic strongholds abandoned the Democrats in 1972. For example, Nixon took neighboringRhode Island by six points, even though it normally voted similarly to Massachusetts.J. Anthony Lukas noted that many New Yorkers felt thatTed Kennedy's outsize money and influence in Massachusetts played a major role in keeping the state in the Democratic column, summing up this explanation simply as "Teddy did it". Kennedy was also the brother-in-law of Democratic vice presidential nominee Shriver.^[2]

To date, this is the last time that the towns ofDeerfield,Gill,Monterey,Oak Bluffs,Pelham,Tisbury,Williamsburg, andWilliamstown have voted Republican.

• Plymouth

McGovern won 11 of 12 congressional districts, including three that elected Republicans. Nixon won one that elected a Democrat (the12th district). The results below show the percentage of the two-party vote share won by each candidate and do not account for third party votes.^[5]

On the county map, McGovern carried 9 of the state's 14 counties, including the most heavily populated parts of the state. The state's capital and largest city,Boston, would prove to be a McGovern stronghold; voters inSuffolk County, where Boston is located, cast 66% of the vote for McGovern. Boston is one of the few areas in the country where McGovern actually outperformedJimmy Carter’s performance four years later in1976; while Carter won narrow popular and electoral victories nationally, he carried Suffolk County with only 61%. On the other hand, despite Nixon's loss in the state and thoughRonald Reagan would carry the state twice, this election remains the last timeDukes County, which had never voted Democratic beforeLyndon B. Johnson’s landslide in1964,^[6] has voted Republican.^[7]

The results in 1972 made Massachusetts the only state which Richard Nixon never carried inany ofhis threepresidential campaigns, although it voted for Nixon when he wasDwight Eisenhower's running mate in1952 and1956. It voted for its native sonJohn F. Kennedy when he defeated Nixon in 1960, andHubert Humphrey when he lost to Nixon in1968. This was also the first time in history that a Republican president was elected twice without ever carrying Massachusetts, a feat that has since been repeated twice, in2004 and2024. Nixon was the first president to win two terms without the state since Andrew Jackson in 1828 and 1832. As of 2024, this election marks only the second of three times (after 1852 and 1980) that Massachusetts has not voted for the same candidate as neighboring Rhode Island.

After Nixon was re-elected, he would later resign only a year and a half into his second term due to his involvement in theWatergate scandal and the illegal activities he committed. After the Watergate scandal broke and Nixon resigned due to criminal activity, bumper stickers with the words "Don't blame me! I'm from Massachusetts" (and variants) became a symbol of the sentiment felt by Massachusetts residents, serving as a proverbial "I told you so" to the 49 states that supported Nixon's re-election.^[8]

• 1972 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia, the only other place that voted Democratic in the 1972 presidential election.
• 1984 United States presidential election in Minnesota, the only state to vote Democratic in 1984, like Massachusetts was in 1972.
• United States presidential elections in Massachusetts

• United States presidential elections in Massachusetts
• 1972 Massachusetts elections
• 1972 United States presidential election by state

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