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 County results Congressional district results
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The1972 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 7, 1972. All 50 states andthe District of Columbia, were part of the1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose 41 electors to theElectoral College, which voted forPresident andVice President.
New York was won by incumbentRepublicanPresidentRichard Nixon, who succeeded in securing re-election againstDemocraticSenatorGeorge McGovern ofSouth Dakota. Nixon ran withVice President, and formerMarylandGovernor,Spiro Agnew for vice president, and McGovern ran with United States AmbassadorSargent Shriver for vice president. In the midst of a nationwide Republican landslide, Nixon took 58.54% of the vote in New York State to McGovern's 41.21%, a margin of 17.34%. New York weighed in for this election as more Democratic than the national average by about 6%.
Nearly allcounties in New York State turned out for Nixon, and only theNew York Cityboroughs ofManhattan,Brooklyn andthe Bronx voted for McGovern. McGovern was able to win New York City overall with his victories in these three boroughs, taking two-thirds of the vote in Manhattan and also winning majority votes in Brooklyn and the Bronx. However, Nixon was able to put in a relatively strong performance citywide, winning 56% of the vote inQueens and 74% of the vote inStaten Island. 1972 remains the last election in which a Republican presidential nominee has won any New York City borough other than Staten Island, Queens being a heavily populated county that was historically key to Republican competition in New York. This was also the last election in which a Republican presidential nominee has won the upstate counties ofErie County, where the city ofBuffalo is located, andAlbany County, where the state capital ofAlbany is located, as well as in turn, the last Republican to win every county of upstate New York.[1] Both of these counties have become solidly Democratic in the years that have followed.
The presidential election of 1972 was an extremelypartisan election for New York, with 99.75% of the electorate voting either Republican or Democrat.[2] Having delivered as President a period of relative economic stability and growth, and showing promising movements towards peace inVietnam, Nixon was able to gain reelection withelectors from every State in the U.S., exceptMassachusetts and theDistrict of Columbia. The Vietnam War continued to be a strong issue during this election, with both candidates declaring desire to end the conflict.[3]
This was the first election since1808 in which New York did not have the largest number of electors in the Electoral College, having fallen to 41 electors versusCalifornia's 45 as a result of the1970 census. It is also the only presidential election from1952 onwards in which New York did not vote the same way asMassachusetts. As of the2024 U.S. presidential election, this is the last time that New York state voted more Republican thanMichigan,Wisconsin, andSouth Dakota, and the last time thatQueens voted Republican in a presidential election.
The number of votes cast on theLiberal Party of New York's ballot line declined by almost 60%.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | George McGovern | 215 | 96.41% | ||
| Liberal | Benjamin Spock | 8 | 3.59% | ||
| Total votes | 223 | 100.00% | |||
| 1972 United States presidential election in New York | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Richard Nixon | 3,824,642 | 53.40% | ||
| Conservative | Richard Nixon | 368,136 | 5.14% | ||
| Total | Richard Nixon (incumbent) | 4,192,778 | 58.54% | 41 | |
| Democratic | George McGovern | 2,767,956 | 38.65% | ||
| Liberal | George McGovern | 183,128 | 2.56% | ||
| Total | George McGovern | 2,951,084 | 41.21% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers | Evelyn Reed | 7,797 | 0.11% | 0 | |
| Communist | Gus Hall | 5,641 | 0.08% | 0 | |
| Socialist Labor | Louis Fisher | 4,530 | 0.06% | 0 | |
| Totals | 7,161,830 | 100.0% | 41 | ||
| 1972 presidential election in New York City | Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Staten Island | Total | |||
| Democratic- Liberal | George McGovern | 354,326 | 243,345 | 387,768 | 328,316 | 29,241 | 1,342,996 | 51.46% | |
| 66.25% | 55.16% | 50.78% | 43.42% | 25.62% | |||||
| Republican- Conservative | Richard Nixon | 178,515 | 196,754 | 373,903 | 426,015 | 84,686 | 1,259,873 | 48.27% | |
| 33.38% | 44.60% | 48.96% | 56.34% | 74.21% | |||||
| Communist | Gus Hall | 938 | 458 | 797 | 628 | 71 | 2,892 | 0.11% | |
| 0.18% | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.08% | 0.06% | |||||
| Socialist Workers | Evelyn Reed | 702 | 355 | 672 | 674 | 84 | 2,487 | 0.10% | |
| 0.13% | 0.08% | 0.09% | 0.09% | 0.07% | |||||
| Socialist Labor | Louis Fisher | 382 | 262 | 480 | 454 | 41 | 1,619 | 0.06% | |
| 0.07% | 0.06% | 0.06% | 0.06% | 0.04% | |||||
| TOTAL | 534,863 | 441,174 | 763,620 | 756,087 | 114,123 | 2,609,867 | 100.00% | ||
| County | Richard Nixon Republican/Conservative | George McGovern Democratic/Liberal | Evelyn Reed[6] Socialist Workers | Gus Hall[6] Communist | Louis Fisher[6] Socialist Labor | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Albany | 81,848 | 54.76% | 67,297 | 45.02% | 158 | 0.11% | 85 | 0.06% | 87 | 0.06% | 14,551 | 9.74% | 149,475 |
| Allegany | 13,426 | 73.43% | 4,812 | 26.32% | 28 | 0.15% | 9 | 0.05% | 9 | 0.05% | 8,614 | 47.11% | 18,284 |
| Bronx | 196,754 | 44.60% | 243,345 | 55.16% | 355 | 0.08% | 458 | 0.10% | 262 | 0.06% | −46,591 | −10.56% | 441,174 |
| Broome | 55,736 | 59.84% | 37,154 | 39.89% | 132 | 0.14% | 49 | 0.05% | 64 | 0.07% | 18,582 | 19.95% | 93,135 |
| Cattaraugus | 21,906 | 66.53% | 10,909 | 33.13% | 66 | 0.20% | 21 | 0.06% | 25 | 0.08% | 10,997 | 33.40% | 32,927 |
| Cayuga | 22,774 | 67.08% | 11,097 | 32.68% | 34 | 0.10% | 11 | 0.03% | 36 | 0.11% | 11,677 | 34.40% | 33,952 |
| Chautauqua | 37,158 | 58.44% | 26,253 | 41.29% | 77 | 0.12% | 39 | 0.06% | 56 | 0.09% | 10,905 | 17.15% | 63,583 |
| Chemung | 26,200 | 67.28% | 12,650 | 32.48% | 50 | 0.13% | 16 | 0.04% | 28 | 0.07% | 13,550 | 34.80% | 38,944 |
| Chenango | 13,770 | 70.58% | 5,695 | 29.19% | 28 | 0.14% | 5 | 0.03% | 11 | 0.06% | 8,075 | 41.39% | 19,509 |
| Clinton | 17,048 | 63.60% | 9,703 | 36.20% | 31 | 0.12% | 10 | 0.04% | 12 | 0.04% | 7,345 | 27.40% | 26,804 |
| Columbia | 17,995 | 70.27% | 7,558 | 29.51% | 26 | 0.10% | 12 | 0.05% | 19 | 0.07% | 10,437 | 40.76% | 25,610 |
| Cortland | 12,885 | 70.97% | 5,234 | 28.83% | 20 | 0.11% | 10 | 0.06% | 7 | 0.04% | 7,651 | 42.14% | 18,156 |
| Delaware | 15,136 | 74.10% | 5,243 | 25.67% | 27 | 0.13% | 10 | 0.05% | 10 | 0.05% | 9,893 | 48.43% | 20,426 |
| Dutchess | 64,864 | 69.82% | 27,872 | 30.00% | 79 | 0.09% | 38 | 0.04% | 50 | 0.05% | 36,992 | 39.82% | 92,903 |
| Erie | 256,462 | 53.88% | 218,105 | 45.82% | 568 | 0.12% | 377 | 0.08% | 511 | 0.11% | 38,357 | 8.06% | 476,023 |
| Essex | 11,763 | 70.22% | 4,955 | 29.58% | 14 | 0.08% | 13 | 0.08% | 7 | 0.04% | 6,808 | 40.64% | 16,752 |
| Franklin | 10,959 | 67.40% | 5,266 | 32.39% | 20 | 0.12% | 3 | 0.02% | 12 | 0.07% | 5,693 | 35.01% | 16,260 |
| Fulton | 15,200 | 67.33% | 7,303 | 32.35% | 28 | 0.12% | 16 | 0.07% | 28 | 0.12% | 7,897 | 34.98% | 22,575 |
| Genesee | 17,107 | 66.28% | 8,631 | 33.44% | 41 | 0.16% | 11 | 0.04% | 21 | 0.08% | 8,476 | 32.84% | 25,811 |
| Greene | 14,313 | 72.96% | 5,260 | 26.81% | 28 | 0.14% | 10 | 0.05% | 7 | 0.04% | 9,053 | 46.15% | 19,618 |
| Hamilton | 2,597 | 77.89% | 731 | 21.93% | 1 | 0.03% | 1 | 0.03% | 4 | 0.12% | 1,866 | 55.96% | 3,334 |
| Herkimer | 20,194 | 67.84% | 9,487 | 31.87% | 46 | 0.15% | 23 | 0.08% | 17 | 0.06% | 10,707 | 35.97% | 29,767 |
| Jefferson | 23,123 | 66.41% | 11,629 | 33.40% | 31 | 0.09% | 15 | 0.04% | 19 | 0.05% | 11,494 | 33.01% | 34,817 |
| Kings | 373,903 | 48.96% | 387,768 | 50.78% | 672 | 0.09% | 797 | 0.10% | 480 | 0.06% | −13,865 | −1.82% | 763,620 |
| Lewis | 6,591 | 68.60% | 2,987 | 31.09% | 14 | 0.15% | 6 | 0.06% | 10 | 0.10% | 3,604 | 37.51% | 9,608 |
| Livingston | 15,886 | 69.13% | 7,031 | 30.60% | 31 | 0.13% | 15 | 0.07% | 17 | 0.07% | 8,855 | 38.53% | 22,980 |
| Madison | 18,392 | 74.47% | 6,241 | 25.27% | 32 | 0.13% | 14 | 0.06% | 18 | 0.07% | 12,151 | 49.20% | 24,697 |
| Monroe | 196,579 | 61.95% | 120,031 | 37.83% | 358 | 0.11% | 162 | 0.05% | 175 | 0.06% | 76,548 | 24.12% | 317,305 |
| Montgomery | 16,640 | 63.58% | 9,460 | 36.15% | 44 | 0.17% | 11 | 0.04% | 16 | 0.06% | 7,180 | 27.43% | 26,171 |
| Nassau | 438,723 | 63.31% | 252,831 | 36.48% | 723 | 0.10% | 418 | 0.06% | 332 | 0.05% | 185,892 | 26.83% | 693,027 |
| New York | 178,515 | 33.38% | 354,326 | 66.25% | 702 | 0.13% | 938 | 0.18% | 382 | 0.07% | −175,811 | −32.87% | 534,863 |
| Niagara | 54,777 | 58.22% | 38,991 | 41.44% | 156 | 0.17% | 90 | 0.10% | 77 | 0.08% | 15,786 | 16.78% | 94,091 |
| Oneida | 78,549 | 69.86% | 33,642 | 29.92% | 135 | 0.12% | 54 | 0.05% | 64 | 0.06% | 44,907 | 39.94% | 112,444 |
| Onondaga | 140,039 | 69.18% | 61,895 | 30.58% | 231 | 0.11% | 105 | 0.05% | 146 | 0.07% | 78,144 | 38.60% | 202,416 |
| Ontario | 23,828 | 68.23% | 11,012 | 31.53% | 42 | 0.12% | 22 | 0.06% | 17 | 0.05% | 12,816 | 36.70% | 34,921 |
| Orange | 63,556 | 71.00% | 25,778 | 28.80% | 92 | 0.10% | 36 | 0.04% | 53 | 0.06% | 37,778 | 42.20% | 89,515 |
| Orleans | 10,938 | 71.35% | 4,371 | 28.51% | 13 | 0.08% | 3 | 0.02% | 4 | 0.03% | 6,567 | 42.84% | 15,329 |
| Oswego | 29,109 | 71.84% | 11,317 | 27.93% | 44 | 0.11% | 16 | 0.04% | 32 | 0.08% | 17,792 | 43.91% | 40,518 |
| Otsego | 17,364 | 68.58% | 7,898 | 31.19% | 33 | 0.13% | 11 | 0.04% | 15 | 0.06% | 9,466 | 37.39% | 25,321 |
| Putnam | 21,673 | 73.48% | 7,747 | 26.26% | 32 | 0.11% | 23 | 0.08% | 22 | 0.07% | 13,926 | 47.22% | 29,497 |
| Queens | 426,015 | 56.34% | 328,316 | 43.42% | 674 | 0.09% | 628 | 0.08% | 454 | 0.06% | 97,699 | 12.92% | 756,087 |
| Rensselaer | 48,864 | 66.87% | 24,019 | 32.87% | 79 | 0.11% | 54 | 0.07% | 55 | 0.08% | 24,845 | 34.00% | 73,071 |
| Richmond | 84,686 | 74.21% | 29,241 | 25.62% | 84 | 0.07% | 71 | 0.06% | 41 | 0.04% | 55,445 | 48.59% | 114,123 |
| Rockland | 64,753 | 64.29% | 35,771 | 35.52% | 73 | 0.07% | 54 | 0.05% | 69 | 0.07% | 28,982 | 28.77% | 100,720 |
| St. Lawrence | 26,145 | 63.00% | 15,286 | 36.83% | 77 | 0.13% | 35 | 0.06% | 38 | 0.06% | 10,859 | 26.17% | 41,503 |
| Saratoga | 40,582 | 69.22% | 17,899 | 30.53% | 98 | 0.13% | 42 | 0.05% | 51 | 0.07% | 22,683 | 38.69% | 58,631 |
| Schenectady | 47,529 | 61.46% | 29,619 | 38.30% | 15 | 0.12% | 16 | 0.13% | 1 | 0.01% | 17,910 | 23.16% | 77,339 |
| Schoharie | 8,644 | 69.68% | 3,730 | 30.07% | 5 | 0.07% | 1 | 0.01% | 3 | 0.04% | 4,914 | 39.61% | 12,406 |
| Schuyler | 4,945 | 71.76% | 1,937 | 28.11% | 18 | 0.13% | 5 | 0.04% | 10 | 0.07% | 3,008 | 43.65% | 6,891 |
| Seneca | 9,368 | 67.68% | 4,441 | 32.08% | 44 | 0.11% | 10 | 0.02% | 18 | 0.04% | 4,927 | 35.60% | 13,842 |
| Steuben | 28,708 | 75.05% | 9,462 | 24.74% | 39 | 0.10% | 17 | 0.04% | 27 | 0.07% | 19,246 | 50.31% | 38,253 |
| Suffolk | 316,452 | 70.34% | 132,441 | 29.44% | 505 | 0.11% | 273 | 0.06% | 227 | 0.05% | 184,011 | 40.90% | 449,898 |
| Sullivan | 17,035 | 63.24% | 9,847 | 36.55% | 30 | 0.11% | 15 | 0.06% | 11 | 0.04% | 7,188 | 26.69% | 26,938 |
| Tioga | 13,396 | 70.84% | 5,470 | 28.93% | 29 | 0.15% | 5 | 0.03% | 10 | 0.05% | 7,926 | 41.91% | 18,910 |
| Tompkins | 17,605 | 58.66% | 12,344 | 41.13% | 32 | 0.11% | 16 | 0.05% | 14 | 0.05% | 5,261 | 17.53% | 30,011 |
| Ulster | 46,883 | 68.51% | 21,371 | 31.23% | 81 | 0.12% | 45 | 0.07% | 53 | 0.08% | 25,512 | 37.28% | 68,433 |
| Warren | 16,649 | 74.11% | 5,760 | 25.64% | 33 | 0.15% | 6 | 0.03% | 17 | 0.08% | 10,889 | 48.47% | 22,465 |
| Washington | 16,136 | 73.80% | 5,677 | 25.97% | 24 | 0.11% | 8 | 0.04% | 19 | 0.09% | 10,459 | 47.83% | 21,864 |
| Wayne | 23,379 | 73.89% | 8,203 | 25.92% | 34 | 0.11% | 19 | 0.06% | 7 | 0.02% | 15,176 | 47.97% | 31,642 |
| Westchester | 262,901 | 62.83% | 154,412 | 36.90% | 548 | 0.13% | 345 | 0.08% | 229 | 0.05% | 108,489 | 25.93% | 418,435 |
| Wyoming | 11,184 | 71.75% | 4,365 | 28.00% | 22 | 0.14% | 9 | 0.06% | 8 | 0.05% | 6,819 | 43.75% | 15,588 |
| Yates | 6,639 | 77.04% | 1,958 | 22.72% | 11 | 0.13% | 4 | 0.05% | 6 | 0.07% | 4,681 | 54.32% | 8,618 |
| Totals | 4,192,778 | 58.54% | 2,951,084 | 41.21% | 7,797 | 0.11% | 5,641 | 0.08% | 4,530 | 0.06% | 1,241,694 | 17.33% | 7,161,830 |
This table shows the results by congressional district in New York.
| District[7] | Nixon | McGovern |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 70.4% | 29.6% |
| 2nd | 72.5% | 27.5% |
| 3rd | 66.7% | 33.3% |
| 4th | 64% | 36% |
| 5th | 62.5% | 37.5% |
| 6th | 62.3% | 37.7% |
| 7th | 41.4% | 58.6% |
| 8th | 49.7% | 50.3% |
| 9th | 73.4% | 26.6% |
| 10th | 63.1% | 36.9% |
| 11th | 51.8% | 48.2% |
| 12th | 15.6% | 84.4% |
| 13th | 48.6% | 51.4% |
| 14th | 47.8% | 52.2% |
| 15th | 67.7% | 32.3% |
| 16th | 46.2% | 53.8% |
| 17th | 62% | 38% |
| 18th | 41.9% | 58.1% |
| 19th | 18.6% | 81.4% |
| 20th | 34.4% | 65.6% |
| 21st | 20.5% | 79.5% |
| 22nd | 39.9% | 60.1% |
| 23rd | 60.4% | 39.6% |
| 24th | 60.9% | 39.1% |
| 25th | 70% | 30% |
| 26th | 67.8% | 32.2% |
| 27th | 63.6% | 36.4% |
| 28th | 57% | 43% |
| 29th | 69.9% | 30.1% |
| 30th | 67% | 33% |
| 31st | 69.7% | 30.3% |
| 32nd | 69.7% | 30.3% |
| 33rd | 69.6% | 30.4% |
| 34th | 62.7% | 37.3% |
| 35th | 65.7% | 34.3% |
| 36th | 60.2% | 39.8% |
| 37th | 43% | 57% |
| 38th | 60.8% | 39.2% |
| 39th | 66.2% | 33.8% |
State and district results of the1972 United States presidential election | ||
|---|---|---|
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