1972 United States presidential election in Alaska
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.
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| Elections in Alaska |
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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.
Analysis
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 that over the entire country, although McGovern received 2.88 percent less than his national share.[2] Nonetheless, Alaska weighed in for this election as 0.3% more Democratic than the nation-at-large.
McGovern won small majorities in Kusilvak and Bethel Census Areas, and the Democrats also received a plurality in North Slope Borough. Elsewhere, Nixon carried every borough and census area, with as typical the Republicans’ most dominant showings being in the relatively heavily populated areas around Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough.[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 one and only time that Alaska voted to the left of Hawaii.
Results
| 1972 United States presidential election in Alaska[1][5] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | ||
References
- "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972" (PDF). Clerk.house.gov. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- Counting the Votes; Alaska Archived 2017-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
- 1972 Presidential Election by County
- "1972 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
- "No change in state races". Archived from the original on May 1, 2019.
