1972 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
selection of Pennsylvania's presidential electors
The 1972 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 7, 1972, and was part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Voters chose 27 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Pennsylvania strongly voted for the Republican nominee, President Richard Nixon, over the Democratic nominee, Senator George McGovern. Nixon won Pennsylvania by a large margin of 19.98%, winning every county except for Philadelphia. This result nonetheless was over 3% more Democratic than the nation at large. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election in which Allegheny County, which hosts Pittsburgh, voted Republican, as well as the last time when the Republican presidential nominee carried the state by double digits.
Nixon became the first Republican since Herbert Hoover in 1928 to carry the coal-mining, unionized Southwestern Pennsylvania counties of Fayette County, Greene County, Washington County, and Westmoreland County.
“1972 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania” enters the record as selection of Pennsylvania's presidential electors. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what United, States and presidential can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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