1972 United States presidential election

===Primaries===
[[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Whip]] [[Ted Kennedy]], the youngest brother of late [[President of the United States|President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] and late [[United States Senator]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]], was the favorite to win the 1972&nbsp;nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.<ref name="Kennedy">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ON9LAAAAIBAJ&pg=5489,4273487&dq=ted+kennedy+presidential+campaign&hl=en|title=Don't count out Ted Kennedy|newspaper=[[The Free Lance–Star]]|date=June 4, 1971|author=Jack Anderson|access-date=March 16, 2012|archive-date=February 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205083438/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ON9LAAAAIBAJ&pg=5489%2C4273487&dq=ted+kennedy+presidential+campaign&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Maine Senator [[Ed Muskie]],<ref name="'70s 298">{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link=David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York, New York |isbn= 0-465-04195-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/298 298] |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/298}}</ref> the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968]] vice-presidential nominee.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M001121 |title=Muskie, Edmund Sixtus, (1914–1996) |publisher=[[United States Congress]] |access-date=March 16, 2012 |archive-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205113140/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M001121 |url-status=live }}</ref> Muskie's momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the so-called "[[Canuck letter]]" was published in the ''[[Manchester Union-Leader]]''. The letter, actually a forgery from Nixon's "dirty tricks" unit, claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about [[French Canadian|French-Canadians]]&nbsp;– a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern [[New England]].<ref name="WP 2020">{{cite news |last1=Mitchell |first1=Robert |title=The Democrat who cried (maybe) in New Hampshire and lost the presidential nomination |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/09/new-hampshire-ed-muskie-tears-primary/ |access-date=March 3, 2020 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=February 9, 2020 |archive-date=March 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200329235846/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/09/new-hampshire-ed-muskie-tears-primary/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife [[Jane Muskie|Jane]], reporting that she drank and used [[Off-color humor|off-color]] language during the campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper's offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie later stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes, the press reported that Muskie broke down and cried, shattering the candidate's image as calm and reasoned.<ref name="WP 2020"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=1996-03-26 |title=REMEMBERING ED MUSKIE |url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990427124548/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/muskie_3-26.html |archive-date=1999-04-27}}</ref>

Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator [[George McGovern]] entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.<ref name="nyt011971">{{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30C11F7345C107B93CBA8178AD85F458785F9 |title=McGovern Enters '72 Race, Pledging Troop Withdrawal |author=[[R. W. Apple, Jr.]] |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 18, 1971 |page=1 |format=fee required |access-date=March 16, 2012 |archive-date=June 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608024557/https://query.nytimes.com/mem/page.html?res=F30C11F7345C107B93CBA8178AD85F458785F9&legacy=true&status=nf%2F |url-status=live }}</ref> McGovern was able to pull together support from the anti-war movement and other grassroots support to win the nomination in a primary system he had played a significant part in designing.

On January 25, 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm announced she would run, and became the first African-American woman to run for a major-party presidential nomination. Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink also announced she would run, and became the first Asian American person to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.<ref name="uic">{{cite web |title=Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign |author=Jo Freeman |publisher=University of Illinois at Chicago Women's History Project |date=February 2005 |url=http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150126085532/http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/polhistory/chisholm.htm |archive-date=January 26, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary. Two days later, journalist [[Robert Novak]] quoted a "Democratic senator", later revealed to be Thomas Eagleton, as saying: "The people don't know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot. Once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he's dead." The label stuck, and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid". It became Humphrey's battle cry to stop McGovern—especially in the Nebraska primary.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert D. Novak|title=The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Cq-v7M6N74C&pg=PA225|year=2008|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|page=225|isbn=9781400052004|access-date=November 20, 2015|archive-date=April 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418145321/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Cq-v7M6N74C&pg=PA225|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nancy L. Cohen|title=Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America|url=https://archive.org/details/deliriumpolitics0000cohe|url-access=registration|year= 2012|publisher=Counterpoint Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deliriumpolitics0000cohe/page/37 37]–38|isbn=9781619020689}}</ref>

[[Governor of Alabama|Alabama Governor]] [[George Wallace]], an infamous segregationist who ran on a third-party ticket in [[1968 United States presidential election|1968]], did well in the [[Southern United States|South]] (winning nearly every county in the Florida primary) and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the [[Northern United States|North]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=((The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica)) |title=United States presidential election of 1972 |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1972 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 December 2019 |archive-date=June 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605084714/https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1972 |url-status=live }}</ref> What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when [[George Wallace#1972 Democratic presidential primaries and assassination attempt|Wallace was shot]] in an assassination attempt by [[Arthur Bremer]] on May 15. Wallace was struck by five bullets and left [[paralysis|paralyzed]] from the waist down. The day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign, and he pulled out in July.

In the end, McGovern won the nomination by winning primaries through grassroots support, in spite of establishment opposition. McGovern had led a commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of [[1968 United States presidential election|1968]]. However, the new rules angered many prominent Democrats whose influence was marginalized, and those politicians refused to support McGovern's campaign (some even supporting Nixon instead), leaving the McGovern campaign at a significant disadvantage in funding, compared to Nixon. Some of the principles of the McGovern Commission have lasted throughout every subsequent nomination contest, but the Hunt Commission instituted the selection of [[superdelegates]] a decade later, in order to reduce the nomination chances of outsiders such as McGovern and [[Jimmy Carter]].