1972 presidential election | |
  Nominees McGovern and Eagleton | |
| Convention | |
|---|---|
| Date(s) | July 10–13, 1972 |
| City | Miami Beach, Florida |
| Venue | Miami Beach Convention Center |
| Keynote speaker | Reubin Askew[1] |
| Candidates | |
| Presidential nominee | George McGovern of South Dakota |
| Vice-presidential nominee | Thomas Eagleton ofMissouri |
| ‹ 1968 · 1976 › | |
The1972 Democratic National Convention was thepresidential nominating convention of theDemocratic Party for the1972 presidential election. It was held atMiami Beach Convention Center inMiami Beach, Florida, also the host city of theRepublican National Convention that year, on July 10–13, 1972.Lawrence F. O'Brien served as permanent chairman of the convention, whileYvonne Braithwaite Burke served as vice-chair, becoming the first African American and the first woman of color to hold that position.[2][3] On the last day of the convention, Lawrence F. O'Brien departed and Burke was left to preside for about fourteen hours.[3][2]
The convention nominatedSenatorGeorge McGovern ofSouth Dakota forpresident and SenatorThomas Eagleton ofMissouri for vice president. Eagleton withdrew from the race just 19 days later after it was disclosed that he had previously undergonemental health treatment, includingelectroshock therapy, and he was replaced on the ballot bySargent Shriver ofMaryland, aKennedy in-law.
The convention, which has been described as "a disastrous start to the general election campaign",[4] was one of the most unusual—perhaps the most contentious in the history of the Democratic Party since1924—with sessions beginning in the early evening and lasting until sunrise the next morning. Previously excluded political activists gained influence at the expense of elected officials and traditional core Democratic constituencies such asorganized labor. A protracted vice presidential nominating process delayed McGovern's acceptance speech (which he considered "the best speech of his life") until 2:48 a.m.—after most television viewers had gone to bed.[4][5][6]
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The 1972 convention was significant as the first implementation of the reforms set by theCommission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, which McGovern himself had chaired before deciding to run for president. After McGovern resigned from his position as chair, he was replaced as chair byU.S. RepresentativeDonald Fraser, which gave theMcGovern–Fraser Commission its name. The 28-member commission was established after the tumultuous1968 convention.
The commission set guidelines ordering state parties to "adopt explicit written Party rules governing delegate selection" and implemented eight "procedural rules and safeguards", including the prohibition ofproxy voting, the end of the unit rule (winner-take-all primaries) and related practices such as instructing delegations, a newquorum requirement of not less than 40% at all party committee meetings, the removal of all mandatory assessments of delegates and the cap of mandatory participation fees at $10. In addition, there were new rules ensuring that party meetings in non-rural areas were held on uniform dates, at uniform times, and in places of easy access and that adequate public notice of all party meetings concerned with delegate selection was posted. Among the most significant of the changes were new quotas mandating that certain percentages of delegates be women or members ofminority groups.
As a result of the new rules, subjects that were previously deemed not fit for political debate, such as abortion andgay rights, now occupied the forefront of political discussion. The new rules for choosing and seating delegates created an unusual number of rules and credentials challenges. Many traditional Democratic groups such as organized labor and big-citypolitical machines had small representation at the convention. Their supporters challenged the seating of relative political novices, but for the most part were turned back by the supporters of McGovern, who during thepresidential primaries had amassed the most delegates to the convention by using agrassroots campaign that was powered byopposition to the Vietnam War. Many traditional Democratic leaders and politicians felt that McGovern's delegate count did not reflect the wishes of most Democratic voters.Georgia GovernorJimmy Carter helped to spearhead a "Stop McGovern" campaign, while at the same time trying to become McGovern's candidate for vice president. The stop-McGovern forces tried unsuccessfully to alter the delegate composition of the California delegation.
TheIllinois primary required voters to select individual delegates, not presidential candidates. Most Illinois delegation members were uncommitted and were controlled or influenced byChicago MayorRichard J. Daley, the leader of theChicago political machine. The delegation was challenged by McGovern supporters arguing that the results of the primary did not create a diverse enough delegation in terms of women and minorities. The credentials committee, headed byPatricia Roberts Harris, rejected the entire elected delegation, including elected women and minorities, and seated an unelected delegation led by Chicago AldermanWilliam Singer andJesse Jackson, pledged to George McGovern.
The California primary was "winner-take-all", which was contrary to the delegate selection rules. So even though McGovern only won the California primary by a 5% electoral margin, he won all 271 of their delegates to the convention. The anti-McGovern group argued for a proportional distribution of the delegates, while the McGovern forces stressed that the rules for the delegate selection had been set and the Stop McGovern alliance was trying to change the rules after the game. The credentials committee ruled in favor of the anti-McGovern group prior to the convention, leaving McGovern short of a first-ballot majority. However, the committee was overruled by a floor vote on the first day of the convention and a unanimous McGovern delegation was seated.
McGovern recognized the mixed results of the changes that he made to the Democratic nominating convention, saying, "I opened the doors of the Democratic Party and 20 million people walked out".[7]
The so-called "magic number", or number of delegates needed to secure the nomination, was 1,509.[8]
Formed after "divisive platform battles", the 1972 Democratic National Convention's platform has been characterized as "probably the mostliberal one ever adopted by a major party in the United States". It advocated immediate withdrawal fromVietnam,amnesty forwar resisters, the abolition of thedraft, a guaranteed job for all Americans (it offered to "make the government the employer of last resort"), and aguaranteed family income well above thepoverty line.[4]
TheFeminist Movement was a major influence on the Democratic platform of 1972, and on the entire convention in general. With renewed vigor, the Democrats reaffirmed their dedication to theEqual Rights Amendment, as did the Republicans.
There were disagreements within the Democrats of theNational Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), and the Women's Movement in general, over how to best approach certain issues. At the conventionBetty Friedan clashed withGloria Steinem over the way NWPC women should approach certain issues, and whether or not they should make sure to throw all possible support behindShirley Chisholm (both women were supporters of Chisholm's presidential campaign).
As the convention was occurring onMiami Beach, Gloria Steinem chose The Betsy Ross Hotel as headquarters for theNational Organization for Women (NOW). Built in 1942, the hotel had been named afterBetsy Ross, the Philadelphia seamstress who sewed American Flags.
McGovern ultimately excised the abortion issue from the party's platform; recent publications show McGovern was deeply conflicted on the issue.[9] Actress and activistShirley MacLaine, though privately supporting abortion rights, urged the delegates to vote against the plank.Gloria Steinem later wrote this description of the events:
The consensus of the meeting of women delegates held by the caucus had been to fight for the minority plank on reproductive freedom; indeed our vote had supported the plank nine to one. So fight we did, with three women delegates speaking eloquently in its favor as a constitutional right. One male Right-to-Life zealot spoke against, and Shirley MacLaine also was an opposition speaker, on the grounds that thiswas a fundamental right but didn't belong in the platform. We made a good showing. Clearly we would have won if McGovern's forces had left their delegates uninstructed and thus able to vote their consciences.[10]
Germaine Greer flatly contradicted Steinem's account. Having recently gained public notoriety for her feminist manifestoThe Female Eunuch and sparring withNorman Mailer, Greer was commissioned to cover the convention forHarper's Magazine. Greer criticized Steinem's "controlled jubilation" that 38% of the delegates were women, ignoring that "many delegations had merely stacked themselves with token females...The McGovern machine had already pulled the rug out from under them".[11]
Greer leveled her most searing critique on Steinem for her capitulation on abortion rights. Greer reported, "Jacqui Ceballos called from the crowd to demand abortion rights on the Democratic platform, butBella [Abzug] and Gloria stared glassily out into the room", thus killing the abortion rights platform. Greer asks, "Why had Bella and Gloria not helped Jacqui to nail him on abortion? What reticence, what loserism had afflicted them?"[11] The cover ofHarper's that month read, "Womanlike, they did not want to get tough with their man, and so, womanlike, they got screwed".[12]
A coalition ofgay rights groups at the convention "drew up a proposed platform provision that called for, among other things, repealing laws againsthomosexuals marrying". The provision was rejected by a vote of 54–34. Afterwards, however, two delegates,Jim Foster andMadeline Davis (the first openly lesbian delegate to a major national political convention), spoke publicly on its behalf.[13]
The platform championedbusing under its "Education" plank, stating, "Transportation of students is another tool to accomplish desegregation".[14]
In addition to a guaranteed job for all Americans (it offered to "make the government the employer of last resort") and aguaranteed family income above thepoverty line,[4] the McGovern platform championed the right of Americanwelfare recipients to be represented by organizations resemblinglabor unions when dealing with welfare agencies.
The McGovern platform is often criticized as a "reformist coup" responsible in large part for the subsequent decline inAmerican liberalism and chasing away the Democratic Party's "best politicians". It alienated the "working- and lower-middle class voters [who] saw [the platform] as threatening to traditional, deeply valued, if inequitable social arrangements"—so much so that one in three Democrats voted for Nixon, the Republican incumbent, in thepresidential election in November. For example:
Although the McGovern platform did not promisesocialism, it did pledge to eliminate—through government guarantee anddicta—any manifestation of free enterprise that could potentially produce inequality or failure. It promised to use the tax system and federal law enforcement to redistribute income and wealth. And it said the Democrats would study whethercorporations should be chartered as federal institutions.[5]
The Democrats also included "the right to be different" in their 1972 platform.[15] According to the party, this right included the right to "maintain a cultural orethnic heritage or lifestyle, without being forced into a compelled homogeneity".[16][17]
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| Candidate | total Delegate vote | percentage |
|---|---|---|
| George McGovern | 1,729 | 57.37%[18] |
| Henry M. Jackson | 525 | 17.42% |
| George Wallace | 382 | 12.67% |
| Shirley Chisholm | 152 | 5.04% |
| Terry Sanford | 78 | 2.59% |
| Hubert Humphrey | 67 | 2.22% |
| Wilbur Mills | 34 | 1.13% |
| Edmund Muskie | 25 | 0.83% |
| Ted Kennedy | 13 | 0.43% |
| Wayne Hays | 5 | 0.17% |
| Eugene McCarthy | 2 | 0.07% |
| Ramsey Clark | 1 | 0.03% |
| Walter Mondale | 1 | 0.03% |
Most polls showed McGovern running well behind incumbent PresidentRichard Nixon, except when McGovern was paired withMassachusetts SenatorTed Kennedy. McGovern and his campaign brain trust lobbied Kennedy heavily to accept the bid to be McGovern'srunning mate, but he continually refused their advances, and instead suggestedU.S. Representative (andHouse Ways and Means Committee chairman)Wilbur Mills ofArkansas andBoston MayorKevin White.[19] Offers were then made toHubert Humphrey, Connecticut SenatorAbraham Ribicoff, and Minnesota SenatorWalter Mondale, all of whom turned it down.[19]
McGovern and his campaign staff felt that a Kennedy-style figure was best tobalance the ticket: a Catholic, big city-based leader with strong ties to organized labor and urban political machines. After McGovern informed Kennedy that he was seriously considering Kevin White (who had informed McGovern he was available), the Massachusetts delegation threatened to walk out of the convention if McGovern chose White, anEdmund Muskie supporter who had fought sharply with the McGovern slate during the primary. Immediately, White was dropped from consideration.[19]
Finally, the vice presidential slot was offered to SenatorThomas Eagleton of Missouri, who was relatively unknown to many of the delegates.
The delegates insisted on nominating eight candidates for vice president, including Eagleton, SenatorMike Gravel ofAlaska, former Massachusetts GovernorEndicott Peabody, andFrances "Sissy" Farenthold of theTexas state house: Farenthold was the first serious female candidate for the Democratic vice president nomination[20] sinceNellie Tayloe Ross in 1928.
By the time the roll call finally began, many of the delegates were angry and wary after the protracted infighting, and combined with the last-day-of-school atmosphere of the proceedings, caused the vice-presidential balloting to become nothing short of a farce. The delegates cast ballots for a record 79 people, including many not involved in politics, as well as three deceased persons, Chinese leaderMao Zedong, and the fictionalArchie Bunker.
As the vote went on, Farenthold began to attract an unexpected level of support, eventually leading to something of a grassroots campaign to nominate her over Eagleton. However, this ultimately proved too late and too disorganized to have any serious chance of denying Eagleton the nomination.
Eventually, Eagleton secured the nomination at 1:40 a.m.[19] This delay forced the acceptance speeches of the candidates to be given well past the television prime time hours, and probably hurt the McGovern campaign by not creating the so-called "convention bounce".
Several days after the convention, it was revealed that Senator Eagleton had been hospitalized fordepression and hadelectric shock treatment, and was also rumored to be more than a social drinker. McGovern stood behind his choice and stated that he was behind Senator Eagleton "1000 percent". The news media and many political pros, especially in the Democratic Party,lobbied hard for his removal from the ticket.
Eventually, McGovern felt compelled to accept Senator Eagleton's withdrawal from the ticket. The episode had placed McGovern in a "no-win" situation: if he kept Eagleton, the selection did not look good for the decision-making ability of the McGovern team, while if he removed Eagleton, he appeared to be weak and vacillating. Since this incident, front-running presidential candidates have developed short lists of potential running mates, and have meticulously performed background checks.
McGovern choseSargent Shriver as his running mate a few weeks later: the McGovern-Shriver ticket went on to win electoral votes in onlyMassachusetts andD.C., and lost the election to incumbents Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew by the largest percentage of the vote since 1936.
Source:[21]
| Preceded by 1968 Chicago, Illinois | Democratic National Conventions | Succeeded by 1976 New York, New York |
July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012 U.S. Senator from South Dakota (1963–1981) U.S. Representatives from South Dakota (1957–1961) | ||
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38thVice President of the United States (1965–1969) •U.S. Senator from Minnesota (1949–1964, 1971–1978) | |||||||
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