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| Turnout | 84.41%[1] ( 2.40%) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County Results Nixon 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%
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The1972 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 7, 1972. All 50states andthe District of Columbia were part of the1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose 17 electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.
New Jersey was won by theRepublican nominees, incumbent PresidentRichard Nixon ofCalifornia and his running mate incumbent Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew ofMaryland. Nixon and Agnew defeated theDemocratic nominees,SenatorGeorge McGovern ofSouth Dakota and his running mate United States AmbassadorSargent Shriver of Maryland.
Nixon carried New Jersey with 61.57 percent of the vote to McGovern's 36.77 percent, a margin of 24.80 points.[2]
Nixon swept every county in New Jersey, including even traditional Democratic strongholds likeEssex County,Mercer County, andHudson County. Nixon's unique nationwide appeal to working-class Democrats in 1972 was most evident in his performance in Hudson County; the traditionally heavily Democratic county, which Nixon had lost decisively with less than forty percent of the vote in both1960 and1968, went to Nixon in 1972 by a 60–39 margin. This remains the last election in which a Republican presidential nominee has won Essex County,[3] although it was still McGovern's strongest, only narrowly going to Nixon by a 50–48 margin. Mercer County was the second-closest, with Nixon winning it, 52–47. Nixon's strongest county was ruralSussex County, where he received 74 percent of the vote.
New Jersey in this era was aswing state with a slight Republican lean, and this pattern continued with the results of 1972. In the midst of a nationwide Republican landslide, New Jersey voted basically how the nation voted, its result being 1.6% more Republican than the national average.
This was the third time in five presidential elections (1956–72) that the winning candidate won each of New Jersey's counties in an election, having also happened in1956 and1964. It had only happened once before, whenWarren G. Harding achieved it in1920[4] and as of2024, this is the last time that any presidential candidate has won all of New Jersey's counties.
| 1972 United States presidential election in New Jersey | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Richard Nixon (incumbent) | 1,845,502 | 61.57% | 17 | |
| Democratic | George McGovern | 1,102,211 | 36.77% | 0 | |
| American | John G. Schmitz | 34,378 | 1.15% | 0 | |
| People's | Benjamin Spock | 5,355 | 0.18% | 0 | |
| Socialist Labor | Louis Fisher | 4,544 | 0.15% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers | Linda Jenness | 2,233 | 0.07% | 0 | |
| America First | John Mahalchik | 1,743 | 0.06% | 0 | |
| Communist | Gus Hall | 1,263 | 0.04% | 0 | |
| (Write-In) | John Hospers | 89 | 0.003% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,997,318 | 100.0% | 17 | ||
| Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) | 60%/82% | ||||
| County | Richard Nixon Republican | George McGovern Democratic | John G. Schmitz[5] American | Various candidates[5] Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Atlantic | 45,667 | 59.54% | 28,203 | 36.77% | 1,373 | 1.79% | 1,457 | 1.90% | 17,464 | 22.77% | 76,700 |
| Bergen | 285,458 | 65.34% | 147,155 | 33.68% | 2,985 | 0.68% | 1,296 | 0.30% | 138,303 | 31.66% | 436,894 |
| Burlington | 70,805 | 61.97% | 41,520 | 36.34% | 1,485 | 1.30% | 450 | 0.39% | 29,285 | 25.63% | 114,260 |
| Camden | 111,935 | 58.85% | 75,202 | 39.54% | 2,313 | 1.22% | 757 | 0.40% | 36,733 | 19.31% | 190,207 |
| Cape May | 22,621 | 70.54% | 8,729 | 27.22% | 564 | 1.76% | 155 | 0.48% | 13,892 | 43.32% | 32,069 |
| Cumberland | 26,409 | 58.18% | 18,692 | 41.18% | 229 | 0.50% | 62 | 0.14% | 7,717 | 17.00% | 45,392 |
| Essex | 170,036 | 50.17% | 161,270 | 47.59% | 6,257 | 1.85% | 1,325 | 0.39% | 8,766 | 2.58% | 338,888 |
| Gloucester | 44,806 | 62.92% | 25,509 | 35.82% | 771 | 1.08% | 123 | 0.17% | 19,297 | 27.10% | 71,209 |
| Hudson | 136,895 | 60.15% | 87,977 | 38.65% | 1,669 | 0.73% | 1,059 | 0.47% | 48,918 | 21.50% | 227,600 |
| Hunterdon | 21,282 | 68.97% | 9,031 | 29.27% | 387 | 1.25% | 156 | 0.51% | 12,251 | 39.70% | 30,856 |
| Mercer | 69,303 | 52.03% | 62,180 | 46.68% | 1,211 | 0.91% | 497 | 0.37% | 7,123 | 5.35% | 133,191 |
| Middlesex | 149,033 | 61.41% | 88,397 | 36.42% | 4,517 | 1.86% | 747 | 0.31% | 60,636 | 24.99% | 242,694 |
| Monmouth | 124,830 | 65.71% | 63,176 | 33.25% | 1,280 | 0.67% | 691 | 0.36% | 61,654 | 32.46% | 189,977 |
| Morris | 113,469 | 68.18% | 50,937 | 30.60% | 1,573 | 0.95% | 455 | 0.27% | 62,532 | 37.58% | 166,434 |
| Ocean | 77,979 | 72.43% | 27,710 | 25.74% | 1,036 | 0.96% | 942 | 0.87% | 50,269 | 46.69% | 107,667 |
| Passaic | 108,511 | 62.03% | 62,302 | 35.62% | 1,401 | 0.80% | 2,709 | 1.55% | 46,209 | 26.41% | 174,923 |
| Salem | 16,371 | 64.84% | 8,609 | 34.10% | 216 | 0.86% | 53 | 0.21% | 7,762 | 30.74% | 25,249 |
| Somerset | 56,524 | 66.03% | 26,537 | 31.00% | 2,257 | 2.64% | 287 | 0.34% | 29,987 | 35.03% | 85,605 |
| Sussex | 25,977 | 74.44% | 8,585 | 24.60% | 299 | 0.86% | 37 | 0.11% | 17,392 | 49.84% | 34,898 |
| Union | 148,290 | 61.03% | 90,482 | 37.24% | 2,369 | 0.98% | 1,832 | 0.75% | 57,808 | 23.79% | 242,973 |
| Warren | 19,301 | 65.33% | 10,008 | 33.88% | 186 | 0.63% | 48 | 0.16% | 9,293 | 31.45% | 29,543 |
| Totals | 1,845,502 | 61.57% | 1,102,211 | 36.77% | 34,378 | 1.15% | 15,138 | 0.51% | 743,291 | 24.80% | 2,997,229 |
State and district results of the1972 United States presidential election | ||
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