1972 United States presidential election in Minnesota
The 1972 United States presidential election in Minnesota took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
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| Turnout | 70.31% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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County Results
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| Elections in Minnesota |
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Minnesota was won by the Republican Party candidate, incumbent President Richard Nixon, who won the state over U.S. Senator George McGovern of South 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 only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Anoka County and Koochiching County voted Republican for the only time between 1928 and 2000, and Clearwater County, Lake of the Woods County, Pennington County, Roseau County, and Kittson County voted Republican for the first time since 1928. Nixon also remains the last Republican to carry heavily populated Hennepin County, with 1972 also the last time that county did not vote the same as neighboring Ramsey County. Nixon further became the first-ever Republican to win the White House without carrying Stevens County, which was one of five counties outside of McGovern's home state of South Dakota that he flipped nationwide.
The 1972 election was the last time Minnesota—a state which has generally favored Democrats since the New Deal—was carried by a Republican. 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 by Ronald Reagan in the landslide year of 1984. During Nixon's second term as President, the Watergate 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 the Republican 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.