26 0 66.2% 33.2% | 2,298,896 1,154,291 Start date November 7, 1972 | |
 | ||
Nixon
50-60%
60-70%
70-80%
80-90% McGovern
50-60%
80-90% | ||
The 1972 United States presidential election in Texas was held on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon overwhelmingly won the state of Texas with 66.20 percent of the vote, to the Democratic Party candidate George McGovern’s 33.24 percent, thus giving him the state’s 26 electoral votes. This was the first time a Republican won the state of Texas since 1956.
Nixon’s win in Texas made him the first ever Republican presidential candidate to break sixty percent of Texas’ popular vote in a presidential election, surpassing former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s performance of 55.26 percent in 1956, and even native son Lyndon B. Johnson’s 63.32 percent in the 1964 election. Nixon is so far the only Republican candidate to break 65 percent of the state’s popular vote. At the county level, 246 of Texas’ 254 counties voted for Nixon, all by wide margins except heavily black Robertson County where Nixon won by a single vote. Nixon won 22 of 24 congressional districts – although McGovern’s two wins constituted the only congressional districts he won anywhere in the former Confederacy.
McGovern’s only county wins came from the south Texas region along the U.S.-Mexico border and Cottle County in the northern part of the state, though even his performances here were underwhelming. In fact, in the oldest extant Democrat stronghold in the entire United States, Nixon became the only Republican since Herbert Hoover in 1928 to carry Hidalgo County, the only Republican since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 to win Dimmit County and also Presidio County, one of only two Republicans since the county was founded in 1911 (following Eisenhower in 1956) to carry Jim Wells County and the only Republican apart from Eisenhower’s two victories there to win Wilacy County since it was created in 1921. This is also the last election at which Zavala County has voted Republican, though that county did so even in 1960. Duval County, however, gave McGovern over 85 percent of the vote, which was the highest percentage of votes he received in any county nationally. 1972 was the third successive election when Duval proved the most Democratic county in the nation.
As with the rest of the country that year, with the exception of Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., Texas voted for the Republican candidate as Nixon emphasized on a good economy and his successes in foreign affairs, such as coming near to ending American involvement in the Vietnam War and establishing relations with China. McGovern was constantly portrayed throughout the campaign as being a left-wing extremist because of his support for busing and civil rights, plus his opposition to the Vietnam War, support for granting amnesty to draft dodgers and support for a thousand-dollar giveaway to each American as a solution to poverty. McGovern was also viewed as inconsistent following the replacement of his first running mate, Thomas Eagleton, while many Republican campaigners believed McGovern would legalise abortion and illicit drugs if he were elected – despite the fact that his ultimate running mate Sargent Shriver was firmly pro-life.