1972 United States presidential election in Illinois

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

1972 United States presidential election in Illinois

The election took place on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon won Illinois with 59.03% of the vote, earning all 26 of the state’s electoral votes. George McGovern, the Democrat, received 40.51%. The margin was 18.52 percentage points. Illinois voted about 4.6 points more Democratic than the national result. Nixon carried 101 of Illinois’s 102 counties; McGovern’s sole county win was Jackson County, home to Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Nixon thus became the first Republican to win the presidency without carrying Jackson County since 1888. As of 2024, Cook County (Chicago) and St. Clair County have not voted Republican since 1972, and Alexander County did not vote Republican again until 2016.

Turnout was high: the general election turnout was 75.99% with 4,723,236 votes cast. The primaries occurred the same day as other federal and state contests; primary turnout was 22.54% with 1,258,713 votes.

Democratic presidential primary (March 21, 1972)
- Candidates and results:
- Edmund Muskie (Maine): 62.60% (766,914 votes) – 59 delegates
- Eugene McCarthy (Minnesota): 36.26% (444,260 votes) – 0 delegates
- George McGovern (South Dakota): 0.30% (3,687 votes) – 3 delegates
- Delegates were chosen by district vote, with Muskie leading in the statewide beauty contest.

Republican presidential primary (March 21, 1972)
- All candidates were write-ins; Richard Nixon (California) won with 96.97% (32,550 votes).

Notes
- Nixon’s strong statewide win was aided by carrying almost every county in Illinois, a feat rarely matched in the state’s history.
- Nixon’s Illinois victory contributed to a broader national landslide for him in 1972.