McGovern, who was famously defeated everywhere except the District of Columbia and Massachusetts in his 1972 presidential bid against Richard Nixon, was responsible for many of the new minority, women, and youth voters who began to identify themselves with the Democratic Party, many of whom still do to this day. McGovern was also responsible for reforms that paved the way for racial minorities to hold positions in the Democratic Party and – ultimately – paved the way for the presidency of Barack Obama.
