The 1972 presidential election—which pitted incumbent President Richard Nixon against Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota—was an absolute wipeout.
Nixon won 49 of the 50 states, losing only Massachusetts.
In Delaware that year, Nixon took 59.6% of the popular vote and McGovern took only 39.2%. But the incumbent Republican senator running for reelection there that year suffered a surprising defeat.
“President Nixon, a conservative, won handily in Delaware,” reported the Wilmington News Journal the day after that election. “Yet, Democrat Joseph R. Biden, a moderate-to-liberal Democrat, defeated the more conservative Sen. J. Caleb Boggs despite Boggs’ longevity in the Senate.”
Age was a key issue in this race between Boggs and Biden—with Biden running ads that suggested Boggs was too old and local newspapers celebrating the then-29-year-old Biden’s…
