The1972 United States presidential election in Minnesota took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten electors, or representatives to theElectoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Minnesota was won by theRepublican candidate, incumbent PresidentRichard Nixon, who won the state overU.S. SenatorGeorge McGovern ofSouth Dakota by a margin of 95,923 votes, or 5.51%, the closest state in the election. This result made Minnesota around 18% more Democratic than the nation as a whole. Nixon went on to win the election nationally, by a landslide margin of 23.15% of the popular vote. McGovern carried onlyMassachusetts and theDistrict of Columbia.
As of 2025, this is the last time Minnesota, a state that has generally favored Democrats since theNew Deal, was carried by a Republican, as well as the last election in which theMidwest voted unanimously in the electoral college. Minnesota would go on to have the longest streak voting for Democrats out of any state after this election, as every other state would be won byRonald Reagan in the landslide year of1984. This is also the last time a Republican has won heavily populatedHennepin County, while Rice County would not vote Republican again until 2016 and Pine County until 2012. Nixon further became the first-ever Republican to win the White House without carryingStevens County, which was one of six counties outside of McGovern's home state of South Dakota that he flipped nationwide. Had Nixon lost the state, then this would have been the first election in which a Republican won two terms to the presidency without carrying the state at least once, the first to do so since1916 and Minnesota would have had the longest streak of any state voting for same party, as this is the only election since1956 where a Republican presidential candidate won the state and did not go Democrat.
During Nixon's second term as president, theWatergate scandal resulted in the loss of the Republican Party's credibility both nationally and in Minnesota. The damage caused by Watergate was so pronounced that theRepublican Party of Minnesota was forced to rebrand itself as the "Independent-Republican Party" from 1975 to 1995 to distance itself from the national Republican Party.
County Results
Precinct/Township Results[1]
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