In the elections of 1972 he sought reelection but lost to Rafael Hernández Colón of the PPD. The PPD had claimed that many corruption scandals (rather minor compared to similar ones in the various administrations following Ferré's) had been overlooked by the Ferré administration. A bloody student strike at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras in 1971 had been neutralized by the Puerto Rican police using brute force, something about which Ferré had mixed feelings. Hernández played the youth card in his campaign (when elected he was the youngest Puerto Rican governor). All these issues, along with the reunification of the People's Party and the PDP, contributed to a PDP win over Ferré in the election.