Richard Nixon promised to restore law and order, bring an end to the Vietnam conflict, and encourage the American economy. During his first administration, there were many fewer incidents of violent protests (though the one at Kent State was an exception). Nixon’s proposal to accomplish his second goal was the “Vietnamization” of the conflict, by which he meant that the USA would train the anti-communist South Vietnamese troops to carry on the war without American aid. In his second State of the Union address, Nixon enlarged his goals by including environmental legislation.

After a relatively successful first term, Nixon had little trouble in his renomination campaign. Two members of the U.S. House opposed him: the liberal Paul McCloskey and the conservative John Ashbrook of Ohio. Nixon won the first primary (New Hampshire) with 68% of the vote to McCloskey’s 20% and Ashbrook’s 10%. In only one other primary did either of the challengers win more than 10% of the vote. All but one delegates supported Nixon at the convention. There was some discussion of replacing Agnew on the ticket, but on the roll call only three delegates chose not to support him.

The road to the Democratic nomination was slightly more calm than 1968 but complicated nonetheless. The two leading contenders initially were Sens. Edmund Muskie of Maine and George McGovern of South Dakota. Muskie won the New Hampshire primary by a 48–37 margin. Muskie dropped out of the race after losing his em

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Richard Nixon promised to restore law and order, bring an end to the Vietnam conflict, and encourage the American economy. During his first administration, there were many fewer incidents of violent protests (though the one at Kent State was an exception). Nixon’s proposal to accomplish his second goal was the “Vietnamization” of the conflict, by which he meant that the USA would train the anti-communist South Vietnamese troops to carry on the war without American aid. In his second State of the Union address, Nixon enlarged his goals by including environmental legislation.

After a relatively successful first term, Nixon had little trouble in his renomination campaign. Two members of the U.S. House opposed him: the liberal Paul McCloskey and the conservative John Ashbrook of Ohio. Nixon won the first primary (New Hampshire) with 68% of the vote to McCloskey’s 20% and Ashbrook’s 10%. In only one other primary did either of the challengers win more than 10% of the vote. All but one delegates supported Nixon at the convention. There was some discussion of replacing Agnew on the ticket, but on the roll call only three delegates chose not to support him.

The road to the Democratic nomination was slightly more calm than 1968 but complicated nonetheless. The two leading contenders initially were Sens. Edmund Muskie of Maine and George McGovern of South Dakota. Muskie won the New Hampshire primary by a 48–37 margin. Muskie dropped out of the race after losing his emotions after a debate with the editor of a newspaper in Manchester NH. The next major primary was Florida, where George Wallace won by a two-to-one margin over Hubert Humphrey. McGovern won in Wisconsin but lost the next primaries to Humphrey (PA and OH) and Wallace. Then at the end of the campaign, as the more liberal elements of the party swung behind McGovern, his campaign picked up steam. He won OR, RI, CA, and NM. The moderate Democrats failed to find a suitable compromise candidate to stop the McGovern bandwagon; a challenge to the solid McGovern delegation from California failed, and he received the nomination on the first ballot. His choice for VP was Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, who dropped out of the running later and was replaced with Sergeant Shriver.

Throughout the campaign, information about a minor break-in at the Democratic National headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC surfaced occasionally in the news. There was a tenuous link of the crime to the President, but nothing significant came of the event until after his landslide re-election.

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