Rhode Island voted for the
Republican incumbent,
Richard Nixon, over the
Democratic challenger,
South DakotaSenatorGeorge McGovern. Nixon took 53.00% of the vote to McGovern's 46.81%, a margin of 6.19%. However, this result made Rhode Island about 17% more Democratic than the nation as a whole. This was the second of three elections in which Rhode Island did not vote for the same candidate as neighboring
Massachusetts, which recurred only in 1852 and
1980.
As of the
2020 presidential election[update], this is the last election in which
Providence County voted for the Republican candidate, and Nixon won the county by only 186 votes. This is the most recent presidential election where a Republican presidential candidate was able to win every county in the state of Rhode Island. Nixon was also the most recent Republican presidential candidate to win
East Providence and
North Providence.
Rhode Island would go on to vote Republican only once more since this election; in
1984, when
Ronald Reagan narrowly won the state.
Results
1972 United States presidential election in Rhode Island[1][2]