See main article: 1972 United States presidential election.
| Election Name: | 1972 United States presidential election in Maine |
| Country: | Maine |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1968 United States presidential election in Maine |
| Previous Year: | 1968 |
| Next Election: | 1976 United States presidential election in Maine |
| Next Year: | 1976 |
| Election Date: | November 7, 1972 |
| Image1: | Richard Nixon presidential portrait (1).jpg |
| Nominee1: | Richard Nixon |
| Party1: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State1: | California |
| Running Mate1: | Spiro Agnew |
| Electoral Vote1: | 4 |
| Popular Vote1: | 256,458 |
| Percentage1: | 61.46% |
| Nominee2: | George McGovern |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | South Dakota |
| Running Mate2: | Sargent Shriver |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 160,584 |
| Percentage2: | 38.48% |
| Map Size: | 350px |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Richard Nixon |
| Before Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Richard Nixon |
| After Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
The 1972 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 7, 1972, as part of the 1972 United States presidential election which was held throughout all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Maine was won by the incumbent Republican president Richard Nixon by a landslide 23 point margin over his Democratic challenger, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. Nixon took 61.46% of the vote, totaling up to 256,458 votes, to McGovern’s 38.48%, and 160,584 votes. In the midst of Nixon’s massive 49-state landslide victory, Maine voted almost exactly as the country did, only voting about 0.7% more Republican than the nation as a whole.
Richard Nixon swept every county in the state except for Androscoggin, where McGovern won by a mere 103 votes.[1] Androscoggin was the solitary county McGovern won in the Northeast outside of Massachusetts or in the city limits of Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.
Nixon's victory was the first of five consecutive Republican victories in the state, as Maine would not vote for a Democratic candidate again until Bill Clinton in 1992; it has since become a Democratic-leaning state.
Since 1972 no presidential candidate of either party has surpassed Nixon’s 61.46% of the vote in Maine (the closest being Ronald Reagan’s 60.83% in 1984).
This was the first presidential election in which Maine allocated its electoral votes proportionally, giving 2 electoral votes to the overall winner of the state and 1 electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district.
| 1972 United States presidential election in Maine[2] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | ||
| Republican | Richard Nixon (incumbent) | 256,458 | 61.46% | 4 | ||
| Democratic | George McGovern | 160,584 | 38.48% | 0 | ||
| American Independent | John G. Schmitz (write-in) | 117 | 0.03% | 0 | ||
| Peace and Freedom | Benjamin Spock (write-in) | 3 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Socialist Workers | Linda Jenness (write-in) | 2 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Communist | Gus Hall (write-in) | 2 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Libertarian | John Hospers (write-in) | 1 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Write-ins | Scattered (Other write-ins) | 104 | 0.02% | 0 | ||
| Totals | 417,271 | 100.00% | 4 | |||
| Voter turnout | 60%/68% | |||||
| district | Nixon | McGovern | Representative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61.42% | 38.58% | Peter Kyros | |||
| 61.58% | 38.42% | William Hathaway (92nd Congress) | |||
| William Cohen (93rd Congress) | |||||
| County | Richard Nixon Republican | George McGovern Democratic | Various candidates Write-ins | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | ||||||||||||||||
| Androscoggin | 19,406 | 49.86% | 19,509 | 50.12% | 9 | 0.02% | -103 | -0.26% | 38,924 | ||||||||||
| Aroostook | 19,051 | 62.37% | 11,474 | 37.56% | 22 | 0.07% | 7,577 | 24.81% | 30,547 | ||||||||||
| Cumberland | 51,268 | 60.59% | 33,326 | 39.38% | 23 | 0.03% | 17,942 | 21.21% | 84,617 | ||||||||||
| Franklin | 5,958 | 66.50% | 2,988 | 33.35% | 14 | 0.16% | 2,970 | 33.15% | 8,960 | ||||||||||
| Hancock | 11,889 | 73.90% | 4,191 | 26.05% | 7 | 0.04% | 7,698 | 47.85% | 16,087 | ||||||||||
| Kennebec | 24,617 | 59.99% | 16,379 | 39.91% | 39 | 0.10% | 8,238 | 20.08% | 41,035 | ||||||||||
| Knox | 8,478 | 70.19% | 3,601 | 29.81% | 4,877 | 40.38% | 12,079 | ||||||||||||
| Lincoln | 7,580 | 72.28% | 2,903 | 27.68% | 4 | 0.04% | 4,677 | 44.60% | 10,487 | ||||||||||
| Oxford | 12,114 | 64.36% | 6,661 | 35.39% | 48 | 0.26% | 5,453 | 28.97% | 18,823 | ||||||||||
| Penobscot | 30,186 | 61.92% | 18,552 | 38.06% | 11 | 0.02% | 11,634 | 23.86% | 48,749 | ||||||||||
| Piscataquis | 4,617 | 64.70% | 2,518 | 35.29% | 1 | 0.01% | 2,099 | 29.41% | 7,136 | ||||||||||
| Sagadahoc | 6,463 | 65.35% | 3,414 | 34.52% | 13 | 0.13% | 3,049 | 30.83% | 9,890 | ||||||||||
| Somerset | 10,079 | 62.97% | 5,921 | 36.99% | 5 | 0.03% | 4,158 | 25.98% | 16,005 | ||||||||||
| Waldo | 6,480 | 68.78% | 2,941 | 31.21% | 1 | 0.01% | 3,539 | 37.57% | 9,422 | ||||||||||
| Washington | 7,820 | 67.57% | 3,742 | 32.33% | 12 | 0.10% | 4,078 | 35.24% | 11,574 | ||||||||||
| York | 30,452 | 57.53% | 22,464 | 42.44% | 20 | 0.04% | 7,988 | 15.09% | 52,936 | ||||||||||
| Totals | 256,458 | 61.46% | 160,584 | 38.48% | 229 | 0.05% | 95,874 | 22.98% | 417,271 | ||||||||||