Hubert Humphrey George McGovern From January 24 to June 20, 1972, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1972 United States presidential election.

Thus, with Kennedy dead and McCarthy lacking support from the party establishment, Johnson's vice president Hubert H. Humphrey was easily nominated on the first ballot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

In response to the 1968 debacle, party leadership established a twenty-eight member committee selected by Senator Fred R. Harris to reform the presidential nomination process for 1972.

In general, the state parties complied with the McGovern-Fraser guidelines by adopting the use of primary elections, rather than delegate selection caucuses or conventions.

Harris and McGovern, having played a direct role in the reforms and having a detailed knowledge of their impact, were seen to gain an advantage as potential candidates for the nomination.

In fact, Nixon had widened the conflict by invading Cambodia in 1970, a move that ignited criticism in the press and Congress and widespread disorder on college campuses, including the Kent State shootings in May 1970.

[3] With Kennedy out, the establishment favorite for the Democratic nomination was Edmund Muskie,[4] a moderate Senator who had acquitted himself well as Humphrey's running mate in 1968.

[4] U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm from Queens, New York, announced her candidacy in January 1972,[5] making her the first black candidate to contest a major party's nomination for president.

Withdrawal date Hubert Humphrey made another run at the nomination, in an era when previous nominees were considered legitimate contenders even after losing a general election (Adlai Stevenson had been successful at being re-nominated by Democrats in 1956, and Nixon by the GOP in 1968).

He fell just short in delegates, despite winning the popular vote in the 24 states and the District of Columbia which held preference primary and caucus elections open to the rank and file Democratic voter.

Alabama governor George Wallace, with his "outsider" image, did well in the South (he won every county in the Florida primary with the exception of Miami-Dade)[39] and among alienated and dissatisfied voters.

Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Wilbur Mills was drafted by friends and fellow Congressmen to make himself available as a candidate for the primaries.

To position himself to appeal to senior citizens during the 1972 presidential campaign, Mills championed the automatic Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) to Social Security.

He was not strong in the primaries and won 33 votes for president from the delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention which nominated Senator George McGovern.

The letter (later revealed to have been forged as part of the "dirty tricks" campaign by Nixon staffers)[42] claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians.

In a widely noted article, journalist Seymour Hersh claimed that secret recordings of Nixon prove that, within hours of the assassination attempt, the president and a top aide dispatched a political operative, E. Howard Hunt, who rushed to Milwaukee with plans to surreptitiously enter Bremer's apartment and plant the campaign literature of Democratic contender George McGovern.