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United States · Election results history · 1972 president · California
Election 1972 Results

Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.

1972 presidential election in California

Richard Nixon (Republican) beat George McGovern (Democrat) in California in 1972, 55.0% to 41.5%, a margin of 13.5 points and 1,126,249 votes.

California voted 9.7 points more Democratic than the country as a whole, where the margin was R+23.1.

The Republican hold continued from 1968, when Richard Nixon also won.

Republicans led in 52 of the 58 counties as they stood then and Democrats in 6. The largest, Los Angeles, cast 2,830,370 votes and went to the Republican by 12.7 points. The closest was Sierra, where 29 votes separated the two parties.

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Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.

Result

CandidatePartyVotesShare
Richard Nixon won Republican 4,602,096 55.0%
George McGovern Democratic 3,475,847 41.5%
All other candidates 289,919 3.5%
Total8,367,862

Every county

CountyDemocratRepublicanOthersTotalMargin
Los Angeles 1,189,977 42.0% 1,549,717 54.8% 90,676 2,830,370 R+12.7
Orange 176,847 26.9% 448,291 68.3% 31,515 656,653 R+41.3
San Diego 206,455 34.3% 371,627 61.8% 23,055 601,137 R+27.5
Alameda 259,254 55.0% 201,862 42.8% 10,079 471,195 D+12.2
Santa Clara 208,506 45.6% 237,334 51.9% 11,453 457,293 R+6.3
San Francisco 170,882 56.1% 127,461 41.8% 6,427 304,770 D+14.2
Sacramento 137,287 47.6% 141,218 49.0% 9,716 288,221 R+1.4
Contra Costa 111,718 43.5% 139,044 54.1% 6,122 256,884 R+10.6
San Mateo 109,745 42.8% 135,377 52.8% 11,175 256,297 R+10.0
San Bernardino 85,986 35.5% 144,689 59.7% 11,581 242,256 R+24.2
Riverside 71,591 38.4% 108,120 58.0% 6,693 186,404 R+19.6
Fresno 72,682 46.4% 79,051 50.4% 4,986 156,719 R+4.1
Ventura 49,307 32.7% 95,310 63.2% 6,188 150,805 R+30.5
Santa Barbara 50,609 41.6% 67,075 55.2% 3,857 121,541 R+13.5
Kern 41,937 35.2% 71,686 60.1% 5,570 119,193 R+25.0
San Joaquin 44,062 39.5% 61,646 55.3% 5,761 111,469 R+15.8
Sonoma 43,746 41.5% 57,697 54.7% 3,991 105,434 R+13.2
Marin 47,414 45.6% 54,123 52.1% 2,346 103,883 R+6.5
Monterey 32,545 39.5% 47,004 57.0% 2,859 82,408 R+17.5
Stanislaus 35,005 45.5% 39,521 51.4% 2,341 76,867 R+5.9
Santa Cruz 32,336 46.4% 34,799 49.9% 2,624 69,759 R+3.5
Tulare 21,775 36.2% 36,048 59.9% 2,327 60,150 R+23.7
Solano 24,766 42.7% 31,314 54.0% 1,885 57,965 R+11.3
San Luis Obispo 20,779 40.7% 28,566 56.0% 1,688 51,033 R+15.3
Butte 18,401 36.8% 28,819 57.6% 2,808 50,028 R+20.8
Humboldt 21,132 46.2% 22,345 48.8% 2,286 45,763 R+2.7
Yolo 23,694 55.4% 17,969 42.0% 1,075 42,738 D+13.4
Napa 14,529 37.0% 23,403 59.6% 1,329 39,261 R+22.6
Placer 16,911 45.8% 18,597 50.3% 1,437 36,945 R+4.6
Shasta 17,214 48.3% 16,618 46.7% 1,771 35,603 D+1.7
Merced 13,914 42.6% 17,737 54.3% 997 32,648 R+11.7
Imperial 7,982 34.9% 14,178 62.1% 689 22,849 R+27.1
Mendocino 9,435 43.3% 11,128 51.0% 1,251 21,814 R+7.8
El Dorado 8,654 41.4% 11,330 54.2% 921 20,905 R+12.8
Kings 7,274 39.1% 10,509 56.5% 812 18,595 R+17.4
Sutter 5,409 33.0% 10,224 62.4% 739 16,372 R+29.4
Madera 6,580 44.2% 7,835 52.6% 477 14,892 R+8.4
Siskiyou 6,434 43.8% 7,563 51.5% 699 14,696 R+7.7
Nevada 5,693 38.9% 8,004 54.7% 941 14,638 R+15.8
Tehama 5,175 41.7% 6,054 48.7% 1,195 12,424 R+7.1
Lake 4,715 40.1% 6,477 55.1% 558 11,750 R+15.0
Yuba 4,435 38.1% 6,623 56.9% 572 11,630 R+18.8
Tuolumne 4,596 42.3% 5,894 54.3% 366 10,856 R+12.0
Glenn 2,681 34.6% 4,569 59.0% 493 7,743 R+24.4
Inyo 2,006 28.0% 4,873 68.1% 280 7,159 R+40.0
Lassen 3,134 44.0% 3,618 50.8% 370 7,122 R+6.8
San Benito 2,582 37.5% 3,961 57.6% 338 6,881 R+20.0
Calaveras 2,268 33.5% 4,119 60.8% 392 6,779 R+27.3
Amador 2,705 40.9% 3,533 53.4% 378 6,616 R+12.5
Plumas 3,057 48.1% 2,952 46.4% 351 6,360 D+1.7
Del Norte 2,156 38.2% 2,927 51.8% 565 5,648 R+13.7
Colusa 1,810 38.4% 2,715 57.6% 192 4,717 R+19.2
Mariposa 1,487 39.3% 2,122 56.2% 170 3,779 R+16.8
Trinity 1,621 44.0% 1,868 50.7% 192 3,681 R+6.7
Modoc 1,271 35.7% 2,085 58.5% 209 3,565 R+22.8
Mono 828 29.6% 1,872 66.9% 99 2,799 R+37.3
Sierra 658 49.7% 629 47.5% 37 1,324 D+2.2
Alpine 195 33.9% 366 63.5% 15 576 R+29.7

Counties as they stood in 1972; some have since been split, merged or renamed. Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Sources and how the results were checked.

California in every presidential election we hold

YearWinnerMargin
2024 Kamala Harris (D) D+20.1
2020 Joe Biden (D) D+29.2
2016 Hillary Clinton (D) D+30.1
2012 Barack Obama (D) D+23.1
2008 Barack Obama (D) D+24.1
2004 John Kerry (D) D+9.9
2000 Al Gore (D) D+11.8
1996 Bill Clinton (D) D+12.9
1992 Bill Clinton (D) D+13.4
1988 George H. W. Bush (R) R+3.6
1984 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.2
1980 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.8
1976 Gerald Ford (R) R+1.8
1972 Richard Nixon (R) R+13.5
1968 Richard Nixon (R) R+3.1
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (D) D+18.3
1960 Richard Nixon (R) R+0.5
1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+11.1
1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+14.6
1948 Harry S. Truman (D) D+0.4
1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+13.5
1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+16.1
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+35.3
1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+21.0
1928 Herbert Hoover (R) R+30.5
1924 Calvin Coolidge (R) R+49.0
1920 Warren G. Harding (R) R+41.9
1916 Woodrow Wilson (D) D+0.4
1912 Theodore Roosevelt (other)
1908 William Howard Taft (R) R+22.5
1904 Theodore Roosevelt (R) R+34.9
1900 William McKinley (R) R+13.2
1896 William McKinley (R) R+0.6
1892 Grover Cleveland (D) D+0.1
1888 Benjamin Harrison (R) R+2.8
1884 James G. Blaine (R) R+6.6
1880 Winfield Scott Hancock (D) D+0.1
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R) R+1.8
1872 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+13.3
1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+0.5