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The George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign began when United States Senator George McGovern from South Dakota launched his second candidacy for the Presidency of the United States in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to win the 1972 presidential election against incumbent president Richard Nixon, winning only in the District of Columbia and ...
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election.
- Overview
- The Democratic campaign
United States presidential election of 1972, American presidential election held on November 7, 1972, in which Republican Pres. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, defeating Democrat George McGovern in one of the largest landslides in U.S. history.
In January 1971 McGovern announced his candidacy for the 1972 presidential election. Initially, most political observers assumed that the party’s nominee would be Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine. But McGovern’s team hoped to mount a serious challenge in New Hampshire, which on March 7, 1972, would hold the first primary. A victory there, they hoped, would provide the momentum necessary to capture the nomination.
Early on, Muskie lined up leading Democratic politicians to endorse him, including Gov. John Gilligan of Ohio; Leonard Woodcock, president of the United Auto Workers; Iowa Sen. Harold Hughes; and Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp. Muskie ran an exhausting campaign that stretched his energies and resources thin. Through January and February 1972, he shuttled between New Hampshire, Florida, Wisconsin and all the other necessary stops. On February 26, in New Hampshire, the pressure began to tell. Mounting the bed of a truck parked outside the offices of the conservative Manchester Union Leader, the state’s largest newspaper, Muskie launched an attack on the paper’s publisher, William Loeb. As he spoke of Loeb’s unflattering remarks about Mrs. Muskie, the senator’s voice cracked, and the crowd saw tears form in his eyes. The spectacle badly dented the image Muskie had tried all year to present—that of a calm, trustworthy, serene candidate. When New Hampshire voted on March 7, Muskie won the hollowest of victories, 46 percent of the vote, far below the predicted 65 percent. McGovern, reaping the benefit of his early start and vigorous organization, was close behind with 37 percent.
In Florida the Democratic battle turned over the issue of busing. In January 1972 a U.S. District Court judge merged school districts in Richmond, Va., and ordered that students be bused to achieve racial balance. Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, an opponent of federally ordered integration, entered the Florida primary and focused squarely on the issue. Florida Gov. Reubin Askew campaigned statewide against having an antibusing referendum placed on the presidential primary ballot by the Florida legislature. Lacking the votes in the legislature to keep the antibusing question off the ballot, Askew managed to have another question added: “Do you favor providing an equal opportunity for quality education for all children regardless of race, creed, color or place of residence, and oppose a return to a dual system of public schools?”
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Askew’s campaign focused the rage of many of his constituents on him, and the Democratic presidential candidates, of which there were 11, found themselves discussing busing much more often than they might otherwise have wished. Mayor John Lindsay of New York City, Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York, former senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, and Senator McGovern, all liberal candidates, spoke in favour of busing when asked. Sen. Vance Hartke of Indiana, Rep. Wilbur D. Mills of Arkansas, and Mayor Sam Yorty of Los Angeles, although on the ballot, were not campaigning actively. Senator Muskie and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota bobbed and weaved on the issue. Only Wallace and Sen. Henry M. Jackson of Washington spoke out squarely against busing.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
George McGovern (born July 19, 1922, Avon, South Dakota, U.S.—died October 21, 2012, Sioux Falls, South Dakota) was an American politician who was an unsuccessful reformist Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in 1972.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Oct 21, 2012 · LIFE.com remembers the native South Dakotan and former senator with a series of photos by Bill Eppridge, made on the campaign trail during McGovern's 1972 race for the presidency.
Oct 21, 2012 · It was a campaign in 1972 dishonored by Watergate, a scandal that fully unfurled too late to knock Republican President Richard M. Nixon from his place as a commanding favorite for re-election.
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Feb 15, 2022 · In 1972, Democratic Sen. George McGovern made a run for the presidency. Despite having little experience on Capitol Hill, McGovern secured the Democratic nomination.
