Dr. George Stanley McGovern (born July 19, 1922 in Avon, South Dakota) was a United States Congressman, Senator, and Democratic presidential candidate, losing the 1972 presidential election to incumbent Richard Nixon.
McGovern was most noted for his opposition to the Vietnam War. He is currently serving as the United Nations global ambassador on hunger.

In the 1972 election, McGovern ran on a platform of:
unilateral withdrawal from the Vietnam War in exchange for the return of American prisoners of war [White p. 122] and amnesty for draft evaders who had left the country [White p. 360]
an across-the-board, 37% reduction in defense spending over three years [White p. 123]
a "demogrant" program giving $1,000 to every citizen in America [White p. 125], later changed to creating a $6,500 guaranteed minimum income for Americans, later dropped [White p. 190]
ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

This "anti-war" platform had been presaged in 1970 when McGovern sponsored the McGovern-Hatfield amendment, seeking to end U.S. participation in the war by Congressional action. His campaign manager in 1972 was Gary Hart. Between difficulties with his running-mate, Thomas Eagleton (whom he eventually dropped and replaced with Sargent Shriver), and the Republicans' successful campaign to paint him as unacceptably radical, he suffered a 60% - 38% defeat to Richard Nixon Ñ at the time the second biggest landslide in American history, losing in the Electoral College 520 to 17. McGovern's victories came in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia; McGovern failed to win his home state of South Dakota.

After this loss, McGovern returned to South Dakota, where he was re-elected to the Senate in 1974. In 1980, he was defeated for re-election by U.S. Rep. James Abdnor amidst that year's Republican sweep, which became known as the "Reagan Revolution." In 1984, he sought his party's presidential nomination once again. Although he finished in third place in the Iowa caucus amidst a crowded field, his campaign eventually floundered and he withdrew soon after the New Hampshire primary.

Thompson, Hunter S., Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72, Warner Books, 1973.