1972 United States presidential election in Illinois
The 1972 United States presidential election in Illinois was held on November 7, 1972 as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Incumbent President Richard Nixon won the state of Illinois with 59.03 percent of the vote, carrying the state's 26 electoral votes. He defeated his main opponent, Democratic candidate George McGovern in Illinois by a large margin of 18.52%, which still left Illinois 4.63% more Democratic than the nation.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 75.99% 5.4 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
County Results
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elections in Illinois |
|---|
Nixon won all but one of Illinois’ 102 counties. The solitary exception was Jackson County, home to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, which notably had voted for Nixon in the previous election and was one of only five counties outside McGovern’s home state to switch from Republican to Democratic at this election. Nixon thus became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying this county since Benjamin Harrison in 1888.
This election is the most recent in which Cook County voted Republican, the only Republican victory in St. Clair County since Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and the last until 2016 when Alexander County supported a Republican nominee.