1972 Republican Party presidential primaries
From March 7 to June 6, 1972, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 1972 United States presidential election. Incumbent President Richard Nixon was again selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 1972 Republican National Convention held from August 21 to August 23, 1972, in Miami, Florida.
Overview of the race[edit]
Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he seemed to have reached détente with China and the USSR. He shrugged off the first glimmers of that, after the election, because of the massive Watergate scandal.
Polls showed that Nixon had a strong lead. He was challenged by two minor candidates, liberal Pete McCloskey of California and conservative John Ashbrook of Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-Vietnam war candidate dedicated to a much more clearer liberal position compared to Nixon's ambiguity approach within the party, while Ashbrook was dedicated to a much more clearer conservative position than Nixon and opposed Nixon's détente policies towards China and the Soviet Union. In the New Hampshire primary McCloskey's platform of peace garnered 19.7% of the vote to Nixon's 67.9%, with Ashbrook receiving 10.9% and comedian Pat Paulsen receiving 1.1%.[10] Having previously stated that he would withdraw from the race had he not achieved 20% of the vote, McCloskey did so.
Nixon won 1,347 of the 1,348 delegates to the GOP convention, with McCloskey receiving the vote of one delegate from New Mexico.[11]