The 1972 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 7, 1972 as part of the
1972 United States presidential election
The 1972 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. Un ...
. State voters chose nine representatives, or electors, to the
Electoral College, who voted for
president and
vice president.
Washington voted for the
Republican incumbent,
Richard Nixon, over the
Democratic challenger,
South Dakota Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pres ...
. Nixon took 56.92% of the vote to McGovern's 38.64%, a margin of 18.28%, which still made the state 4.87% more Democratic than the nation at-large.
Nixon won every county except heavily unionized Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, in the process being the first Republican to carry
Wahkiakum County (another heavily unionized timber county),
Kitsap County and
Snohomish County since
Herbert Hoover in
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...
.
[Menendez; ''The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States'', pp. 332-333 ]
Nixon's victory was the first of four consecutive Republican victories in the state, as Washington would not vote for a Democratic candidate again until
Michael Dukakis in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
. Since then it has become a safe Democratic state.
Results
Results by county
See also
*
United States presidential elections in Washington (state)
References
{{1972 United States elections
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
Washington
1972 Washington (state) elections