Maryland was won by incumbent President Richard Nixon of California and Vice President Spiro Agnew (a Maryland native), winning 61.26% of the vote to George McGovern and Shriver's 37.36%. Nixon won every county in the state, only losing independentBaltimore City. He won over 77% of the vote in Carroll County, and over 70% in another eight counties. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last time Prince George's County has voted Republican in a presidential election, the strongest performance by a Republican in Maryland, and the last time the Democratic candidate was held to under 60% of the vote in Baltimore City.[1][2] This was also the last of only 7 occasions[a] since the emergence of the Republican Party that Maryland has voted more Republican than the nation as a whole.[3]
A voting machine in the town of Saint Michaels malfunctioned on election day, causing only 14 of the 435 ballots cast on it to be properly recorded.[4] Circuit Judge Harry Clark barred the Talbot County Board of Election Supervisors from certifying the county's results until a revote was held at the affected polling location, which occurred on November 15.[5]
Of his three presidential campaigns, this was the only time Nixon carried the home state of his running mate. Nixon had lost Maryland in 1968 and had also failed to win Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.'s home state of Massachusetts in 1960.
Results
1972 United States presidential election in Maryland[6]
^The other six are 1864, 1896 under William Jennings Bryan's "cross of gold" opposed by Northeastern industrialists, and the four elections from 1944 to 1956
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