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The1972 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the1972 United States presidential election which was held throughout all fifty states and theDistrict of Columbia. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Maine was won by the incumbent Republican presidentRichard Nixon by a landslide 23 point margin over his Democratic challenger, SenatorGeorge McGovern ofSouth Dakota. Nixon took 61.46% of the vote, totaling up to 256,458 votes, to McGovern’s 38.48%, and 160,584 votes. In the midst of Nixon’s massive 49-state landslide victory, Maine voted almost exactly as the country did, only voting about 0.7% more Republican than the nation as a whole.
Richard Nixon swept every county in the state except forAndroscoggin, where McGovern won by a mere 103 votes.[1] Androscoggin was the solitary county McGovern won in the Northeast outside ofMassachusetts or in the city limits ofBaltimore,New York,Philadelphia, andWashington.
Nixon's victory was the first of five consecutive Republican victories in the state, as Maine would not vote for a Democratic candidate again untilBill Clinton in1992; it has since become a Democratic-leaning state.
Since 1972 no presidential candidate of either party has surpassed Nixon’s 61.46% of the vote in Maine (the closest beingRonald Reagan’s 60.83% in1984).
This was the first presidential election in which Maine allocated its electoral votes proportionally, giving 2 electoral votes to the overall winner of the state and 1 electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district.
| 1972 United States presidential election in Maine[2] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Richard Nixon (incumbent) | 256,458 | 61.46% | 4 | |
| Democratic | George McGovern | 160,584 | 38.48% | 0 | |
| American Independent | John G. Schmitz (write-in) | 117 | 0.03% | 0 | |
| Peace and Freedom | Benjamin Spock (write-in) | 3 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers | Linda Jenness (write-in) | 2 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Communist | Gus Hall (write-in) | 2 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | John Hospers (write-in) | 1 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Write-ins | Scattered (Otherwrite-ins) | 104 | 0.02% | 0 | |
| Totals | 417,271 | 100.00% | 4 | ||
| Voter turnout | 60%/68% | ||||
Nixon won both congressional districts, including one held by a Democrat.
| District | Nixon | McGovern | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 61.42% | 38.58% | Peter Kyros |
| 2nd | 61.58% | 38.42% | William Hathaway (92nd Congress) |
| William Cohen (93rd Congress) |
| County | Richard Nixon Republican | George McGovern Democratic | Various candidates Write-ins | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Androscoggin | 19,406 | 49.86% | 19,509 | 50.12% | 9 | 0.02% | -103 | -0.26% | 38,924 |
| Aroostook | 19,051 | 62.37% | 11,474 | 37.56% | 22 | 0.07% | 7,577 | 24.81% | 30,547 |
| Cumberland | 51,268 | 60.59% | 33,326 | 39.38% | 23 | 0.03% | 17,942 | 21.21% | 84,617 |
| Franklin | 5,958 | 66.50% | 2,988 | 33.35% | 14 | 0.16% | 2,970 | 33.15% | 8,960 |
| Hancock | 11,889 | 73.90% | 4,191 | 26.05% | 7 | 0.04% | 7,698 | 47.85% | 16,087 |
| Kennebec | 24,617 | 59.99% | 16,379 | 39.91% | 39 | 0.10% | 8,238 | 20.08% | 41,035 |
| Knox | 8,478 | 70.19% | 3,601 | 29.81% | 4,877 | 40.38% | 12,079 | ||
| Lincoln | 7,580 | 72.28% | 2,903 | 27.68% | 4 | 0.04% | 4,677 | 44.60% | 10,487 |
| Oxford | 12,114 | 64.36% | 6,661 | 35.39% | 48 | 0.26% | 5,453 | 28.97% | 18,823 |
| Penobscot | 30,186 | 61.92% | 18,552 | 38.06% | 11 | 0.02% | 11,634 | 23.86% | 48,749 |
| Piscataquis | 4,617 | 64.70% | 2,518 | 35.29% | 1 | 0.01% | 2,099 | 29.41% | 7,136 |
| Sagadahoc | 6,463 | 65.35% | 3,414 | 34.52% | 13 | 0.13% | 3,049 | 30.83% | 9,890 |
| Somerset | 10,079 | 62.97% | 5,921 | 36.99% | 5 | 0.03% | 4,158 | 25.98% | 16,005 |
| Waldo | 6,480 | 68.78% | 2,941 | 31.21% | 1 | 0.01% | 3,539 | 37.57% | 9,422 |
| Washington | 7,820 | 67.57% | 3,742 | 32.33% | 12 | 0.10% | 4,078 | 35.24% | 11,574 |
| York | 30,452 | 57.53% | 22,464 | 42.44% | 20 | 0.04% | 7,988 | 15.09% | 52,936 |
| Totals | 256,458 | 61.46% | 160,584 | 38.48% | 229 | 0.05% | 95,874 | 22.98% | 417,271 |
State and district results of the1972 United States presidential election | ||
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 Elections and referendums in Maine | |||||
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