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1972 United States presidential election in Alaska

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1972 United States presidential election in Alaska

← 1968 November 7, 1972 1976 →
 
Nominee Richard Nixon George McGovern John G. Schmitz
Party Republican Democratic American Independent
Home state California South Dakota California
Running mate Spiro Agnew Sargent Shriver Thomas J. Anderson
Electoral vote 3 0 0
Popular vote 55,349 32,967 6,903
Percentage 58.10% 34.61% 7.25%


President before election

Richard Nixon
Republican

Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

The 1972 United States presidential election in Alaska took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Alaska was won by incumbent President Richard Nixon (R-California) with 58.1% of the popular vote against George McGovern (D-South Dakota) with 34.6%.[1] Nixon ultimately won the national vote as well, defeating McGovern and Representative John G. Schmitz (R-California), who ran under the American Independent Party ticket.

Results

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1972 United States presidential election in Alaska[1][2]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Richard Nixon (incumbent) 55,349 58.10% 3
Democratic George McGovern 32,967 34.61% 0
American Independent John G. Schmitz 6,903 7.25% 0
Libertarian John Hospers (write-in) 45 0.05% 0
Totals 95,264 100.00% 3

Boroughs and Census Areas that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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Analysis

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Although Alaska has only voted Democratic once, which was for Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, during the state's first four presidential elections Alaska was not substantially more Republican than the nation at-large: indeed owing to a fairly strong third-party campaign Nixon won 2.57 percent less of the vote in Alaska than over the entire country, although McGovern received 2.88 percent less than his national share.[3]

While Alaska would prove to be John Schmitz's second strongest state after Idaho,[4] he failed to equal the success of George Wallace’s campaign in the previous election.[1] This is the only time that Alaska voted to the left of Hawaii.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972" (PDF). Clerk.house.gov. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  2. ^ "No change in state races". Archived from the original on May 1, 2019.
  3. ^ Counting the Votes; Alaska Archived 2017-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "1972 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.