Ramsay Muñiz lost his bid for governor in the 1972 elections. He obtained 6.28 percent of the vote, Dolph Briscoe – the Democratic candidate – received 47.8 percent of the vote, and Republican Henry Grover received 45.08 percent. An estimated 18 percent of Mexican Americans who voted in the 1972 election voted for Ramsay Muñiz. He received very high voting rates in rural cities and counties with lower incomes. He received 51 percent of the vote in Brooks County and 46 percent in Jim Hogg County. In the 15 Mexican American counties, he received 30,020 votes compared to Grover's 31,641, and the winning Democrat, Dolph Briscoe. who polled 60,697 votes. While they lost the gubernatorial election, La Raza Unida Party won fifteen local positions in several borderland counties: La Salle, Dimmit, Zavala, and Hidalgo. Despite this success in the 1972 election, it could not be replicated at the state level again. However, several counties in South Texas continued to see candidates elected by La Raza Unida for years after the 1972 election, until 1978, when the party broke apart.