1972 United States presidential election in California explained

See main article: 1972 United States presidential election.

The 1972 United States presidential election in California took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election. State voters chose 45 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

California voted for the Republican incumbent, Richard Nixon, over the Democratic challenger, South Dakota Senator George McGovern. Nixon took 55.00% of the vote to McGovern's 41.54%, a margin of 13.46%.

Nixon had previously won California against John F. Kennedy in 1960 and then against Hubert Humphrey in 1968. This was the first presidential election in which California had the most electoral college votes as a result of the 1970 census, a status it has maintained ever since.

Primaries

Democratic

George McGovern would defeat previous Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, by just under 200,000 votes.^[2]

Republican

Richard Nixon would easily win the California Republican Primary by a wide margin over his only state challenger.^[3]

Results

1972 United States presidential election in California[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Richard Nixon (incumbent)	4,602,096	55.00%	45
	Democratic	George McGovern	3,475,847	41.54%	0
	American Independent	John G. Schmitz	232,554	2.78%	0
	Peace and Freedom	Benjamin Spock	55,167	0.66%	0
	Libertarian	John Hospers (write-in)	980	0.01%	0
	Socialist Workers	Linda Jenness (write-in)	574	0.01%	0
	Communist	Gus Hall (write-in)	373	0.00%	0
	Socialist Labor	Louis Fisher (write-in)	197	0.00%	0
	Prohibition Party	E. Harold Munn (write-in)	53	0.00%	0
	Universal Party	Gabriel Green (write-in)	21	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			8,367,862	100.00%	45
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Richard Nixon Republican		George McGovern Democratic		John G. Schmitz American Independent		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
		%		%		%		%		%
	Alameda		201,862		42.84%		259,254		55.02%		6,930		1.47%		3,149		0.67%		-57,392		-12.18%		471,195
	Alpine		366		63.54%		195		33.85%		7		1.22%		8		1.39%		171		29.69%		576
	Amador		3,533		53.40%		2,705		40.89%		340		5.14%		38		0.57%		828		12.51%		6,616
	Butte		28,819		57.61%		18,401		36.78%		2,468		4.93%		340		0.68%		10,418		20.83%		50,028
	Calaveras		4,119		60.76%		2,268		33.46%		304		4.48%		88		1.30%		1,851		27.30%		6,779
	Colusa		2,715		57.56%		1,810		38.37%		167		3.54%		25		0.53%		905		19.19%		4,717
	Contra Costa		139,044		54.13%		111,718		43.49%		4,701		1.83%		1,421		0.55%		27,326		10.64%		256,884
	Del Norte		2,927		51.82%		2,156		38.17%		515		9.12%		50		0.89%		771		13.65%		5,648
	El Dorado		11,330		54.20%		8,654		41.40%		794		3.80%		127		0.61%		2,676		12.80%		20,905
	Fresno		79,051		50.44%		72,682		46.38%		3,927		2.51%		1,059		0.68%		6,369		4.06%		156,719
	Glenn		4,569		59.01%		2,681		34.62%		458		5.92%		35		0.45%		1,888		24.39%		7,743
	Humboldt		22,345		48.83%		21,132		46.18%		1,896		4.14%		390		0.85%		1,213		2.65%		45,763
	Imperial		14,178		62.05%		7,982		34.93%		607		2.66%		82		0.36%		6,196		27.12%		22,849
	Inyo		4,873		68.07%		2,006		28.02%		240		3.35%		40		0.56%		2,867		40.05%		7,159
	Kern		71,686		60.14%		41,937		35.18%		5,112		4.29%		458		0.38%		29,479		24.96%		119,193
	Kings		10,509		56.52%		7,274		39.12%		742		3.99%		70		0.38%		3,235		17.40%		18,595
	Lake		6,477		55.12%		4,715		40.13%		509		4.33%		49		0.42%		1,762		14.99%		11,750
	Lassen		3,618		50.80%		3,134		44.00%		320		4.49%		50		0.70%		484		6.80%		7,122
	Los Angeles		1,549,717		54.75%		1,189,977		42.04%		71,978		2.54%		18,698		0.66%		359,740		12.71%		2,830,370
	Madera		7,835		52.61%		6,580		44.18%		428		2.87%		49		0.33%		1,255		8.43%		14,892
	Marin		54,123		52.10%		47,414		45.64%		1,326		1.28%		1,020		0.98%		6,709		6.46%		103,883
	Mariposa		2,122		56.15%		1,487		39.35%		141		3.73%		29		0.77%		635		16.80%		3,779
	Mendocino		11,128		51.01%		9,435		43.25%		1,050		4.81%		201		0.92%		1,693		7.76%		21,814
	Merced		17,737		54.33%		13,914		42.62%		836		2.56%		161		0.49%		3,823		11.71%		32,648
	Modoc		2,085		58.49%		1,271		35.65%		188		5.27%		21		0.59%		814		22.84%		3,565
	Mono		1,872		66.88%		828		29.58%		78		2.79%		21		0.75%		1,044		37.30%		2,799
	Monterey		47,004		57.04%		32,545		39.49%		2,274		2.76%		585		0.71%		14,459		17.55%		82,408
	Napa		23,403		59.61%		14,529		37.01%		1,141		2.91%		188		0.48%		8,874		22.60%		39,261
	Nevada		8,004		54.68%		5,693		38.89%		868		5.93%		73		0.50%		2,311		15.79%		14,638
	Orange		448,291		68.27%		176,847		26.93%		28,634		4.36%		2,881		0.44%		271,444		41.34%		656,653
	Placer		18,597		50.34%		16,911		45.77%		1,251		3.39%		186		0.50%		1,686		4.57%		36,945
	Plumas		2,952		46.42%		3,057		48.07%		318		5.00%		33		0.52%		-105		-1.65%		6,360
	Riverside		108,120		58.00%		71,591		38.41%		5,843		3.13%		850		0.46%		36,529		19.59%		186,404
	Sacramento		141,218		49.00%		137,287		47.63%		7,841		2.72%		1,875		0.65%		3,931		1.37%		288,221
	San Benito		3,961		57.56%		2,582		37.52%		308		4.48%		30		0.44%		1,379		20.04%		6,881
	San Bernardino		144,689		59.73%		85,986		35.49%		10,342		4.27%		1,239		0.51%		58,703		24.24%		242,256
	San Diego		371,627		61.82%		206,455		34.34%		20,188		3.36%		2,867		0.48%		165,172		27.48%		601,137
	San Francisco		127,461		41.82%		170,882		56.07%		3,702		1.21%		2,725		0.89%		-43,421		-14.25%		304,770
	San Joaquin		61,646		55.30%		44,062		39.53%		5,027		4.51%		734		0.66%		17,584		15.77%		111,469
	San Luis Obispo		28,566		55.98%		20,779		40.72%		1,156		2.27%		532		1.04%		7,787		15.26%		51,033
	San Mateo		135,377		52.82%		109,745		42.82%		4,079		1.59%		7,096		2.77%		25,632		10.00%		256,297
	Santa Barbara		67,075		55.19%		50,609		41.64%		3,103		2.55%		754		0.62%		16,466		13.55%		121,541
	Santa Clara		237,334		51.90%		208,506		45.60%		8,236		1.80%		3,217		0.70%		28,828		6.30%		457,293
	Santa Cruz		34,799		49.88%		32,336		46.35%		1,931		2.77%		693		0.99%		2,463		3.53%		69,759
	Shasta		16,618		46.68%		17,214		48.35%		1,595		4.48%		176		0.49%		-596		-1.67%		35,603
	Sierra		629		47.51%		658		49.70%		27		2.04%		10		0.76%		-29		-2.19%		1,324
	Siskiyou		7,563		51.46%		6,434		43.78%		621		4.23%		78		0.53%		1,129		7.68%		14,696
	Solano		31,314		54.02%		24,766		42.73%		1,616		2.79%		269		0.46%		6,548		11.29%		57,965
	Sonoma		57,697		54.72%		43,746		41.49%		3,192		3.03%		799		0.76%		13,951		13.23%		105,434
	Stanislaus		39,521		51.41%		35,005		45.54%		1,943		2.53%		398		0.52%		4,516		5.87%		76,867
	Sutter		10,224		62.45%		5,409		33.04%		647		3.95%		92		0.56%		4,815		29.41%		16,372
	Tehama		6,054		48.73%		5,175		41.65%		1,161		9.34%		34		0.27%		879		7.08%		12,424
	Trinity		1,868		50.75%		1,621		44.04%		169		4.59%		23		0.62%		247		6.71%		3,681
	Tulare		36,048		59.93%		21,775		36.20%		2,076		3.45%		251		0.42%		14,273		23.73%		60,150
	Tuolumne		5,894		54.29%		4,596		42.34%		299		2.75%		67		0.62%		1,298		11.95%		10,856
	Ventura		95,310		63.20%		49,307		32.70%		5,586		3.70%		602		0.40%		46,003		30.50%		150,805
	Yolo		17,969		42.04%		23,694		55.44%		800		1.87%		275		0.64%		-5,725		-13.40%		42,738
	Yuba		6,623		56.95%		4,435		38.13%		518		4.45%		54		0.46%		2,188		18.82%		11,630
Total	4,602,096	55.00%	3,475,847	41.54%	232,554	2.78%	57,365	0.69%	1,126,249	13.46%	8,367,862

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Amador
• Contra Costa
• Fresno
• Kings
• Lassen
• Madera
• Merced
• Placer
• San Mateo
• Santa Clara
• Stanislaus
• Solano
• Sacramento
• Napa
• Trinity

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018 . California Secretary of State . 2022-05-05.
2. Web site: Our Campaigns - CA US President - D Primary Race - Jun 06, 1972. www.ourcampaigns.com. August 18, 2024.
3. Web site: Our Campaigns - CA US President - R Primary Race - Jun 06, 1972. www.ourcampaigns.com. August 18, 2024.
4. Web site: 1972 Presidential General Election Results - California. 2008-08-25 . Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas.