← 1968 November 7, 1972 166,476 139,945 Start date November 7, 1972 | 4 0 54.2% 45.5% | |
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South Dakota was the home state of George McGovern, the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 United States presidential election.
Although McGovern, a member of the liberal wing of his party in a relatively conservative state, was at the time of the election a popular two-term Senator, having won re-election in 1968 with 56.8% of the vote, he lost the presidential vote here to incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon. McGovern's loss was heavily influenced by voter opposition to his supposedly far-left ideology.
McGovern's loss of South Dakota made him the second candidate in four years to lose his state of birth (in 1968 Hubert Humphrey also lost South Dakota, where he was born) and residence (also in 1968 Richard Nixon lost New York, where he then resided). McGovern remained the last candidate to lose his state of residence until 2000, when Al Gore lost Tennessee.
Despite South Dakota weighing in as nearly 15% more Democratic than the national average for this election, it is actually tied for the longest Republican streak since 1964.