1972 United States presidential election (McGoverning)

The 1972 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Incumbent Democratic Senator, George McGovern of South Dakota defeated Republican President, Richard Nixon, and American Independent Governor, George Wallace, of Alabama.

Nixon swept aside challenges from two Republican congressmen in the 1972 Republican primaries to win renomination. McGovern, who had played a significant role in changing the Democratic nomination system after the 1968 election, mobilized the anti–Vietnam War movement and other liberal supporters to win his party's nomination. Among the candidates he defeated were early front-runner Edmund Muskie, 1968 nominee Hubert Humphrey, and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first African American person to run for a major party's presidential nomination.

Nixon emphasized the strong economy and his success in foreign affairs, while McGovern ran on a platform calling for an immediate end to the Vietnam War, and the institution of a guaranteed minimum income. Nixon maintained a large, and consistent, lead in polling. Separately, Nixon's reelection committee would be responsible for the firebombing and burglary of the Brookings Institution and the break-in in the Watergate complex to wiretap the Democratic National Committee's headquarters, a scandal that would later be known as "Watergate". McGovern's campaign, at first, struggled to find a candidate. After an intense search by McGovern's campaign staff, and primarily by national campaign director Gary Hart, McGovern asked Phillip Hart to be his running mate. Hart would accept the nomination