Following the victory , McGovern harbored thoughts of running in the 1976 presidential election , but given the magnitude of his presidential defeat , the Democratic Party wanted nothing to do with him then or later . Unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter , McGovern secretly voted for Ford instead . McGovern 's view on intervention in Southeast Asia took a turn in 1978 in reaction to the ongoing Cambodian genocide . Noting that it affected a percentage of the population that made " Hitler 's operation look tame " , he advocated an international military intervention in Cambodia to put the Khmer Rouge regime out of power
Cambodian genocide
Cambodian genocide
George McGovern