1912 United States presidential election

Election of Woodrow Wilson related races 1912 United States elections January 2026 November 2013 1912 United States presidential election United States 1912 presidential no 1908 United States presidential election 1908 November 5, 1912 1916 United States presidential election 1916 531 members of the Electoral College 266 electoral 59.0% 6.7 pp First round Runoff Woodrow Wilson Portrait 1912 (3x4 cropped).tif Woodrow Wilson Democratic Party (United States) New Jersey Thomas R. Marshall 435 40 6,296,284 41.8% Theodore Roosevelt-Pach (cropped).jpg Theodore Roosevelt Progressive a2ed70 New York Hiram Johnson 88 6 4,122,721 27.4% File:William Howard Taft Portrait (3x4 cropped).jpg William Howard Taft Republican Party (United States) Ohio Nicholas Murray Butler (replacing James S. Sherman †) 8 2 3,486,242 23.2% Eugene Debs portrait.jpeg Eugene V. Debs Socialist Party of America Indiana Emil Seidel 0 0 901,551 6.0% 100px Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Wilson/Marshall, light green denotes those won by Roosevelt/Johnson, red denotes those won by Taft/Butler. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. President William Howard Taft Republican Party (United States) Woodrow Wilson Democratic Party (United States) 155px 155px 156px 150px Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1912. The Democratic ticket of governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey and governor Thomas Marshall of Indiana defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent President William Howard Taft and university president Nicholas Butler,Sherman died on October 30, 1912, and Taft did not name another running mate before the 1912 election was held. After the election, the Republican National Committee designated Nicholas Murray Butler as Taft's running mate for the purposes of the electoral vote, and Butler received eight electoral votes while also defeating the Progressive/"Bull Moose" ticket of former president Theodore Roosevelt and governor Hiram Johnson of California, and the Socialist Party ticket of former Indiana state representative Eugene V. Debs and Milwaukee mayor Emil Seidel.Morris Edmund Colonel Roosevelt Random House Trade Paperbacks New York 215, 646 Roosevelt served as president from 1901 to 1909 as a Republican, and Taft succeeded him with his support. Taft's conservatism angered Roosevelt, so he challenged Taft for the party nomination at the 1912 Republican National Convention. When Taft and his conservative allies narrowly prevailed, Roosevelt rallied his progressive supporters and launched a third-party bid. At the Democratic Convention, Wilson won the presidential nomination on the 46th ballot, defeating Speaker of the House Champ Clark and several other candidates with the support of William Jennings Bryan and other progressive Democrats. The Socialist Party renominated its perennial standard-bearer, Eugene V. Debs. The general election was bitterly contested by Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs. Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" platform called for social insurance programs, reduction to an eight-hour workday, and robust federal regulation of the economy. Wilson's "New Freedom" platform called for tariff reduction, banking reform, and new antitrust regulation. Incumbent Taft conducted a subdued campaign based on his platform of "progressive conservatism". Debs, who was attempting to gain widespread support for his socialist policies, claimed that Wilson, Roosevelt and Taft were all financed by different factions within the capitalist trusts, and that Roosevelt in particular was a demagogue using socialistic language in order to divert socialist policies up safe channels for the capitalist establishment. The Republican split enabled Wilson to win 40 states and a landslide victory in the electoral college with just 41.8% of the popular vote, the lowest vote share for a victorious presidential candidate since 1860. Wilson was the first Democrat to win a presidential election since 1892 as well as the first presidential candidate to receive over 400 electoral votes in a presidential election – he is also the only candidate in any presidential election to receive 400 or more electoral votes without attaining an absolute majority of the popular vote. Roosevelt finished second with 88 electoral votes and 27.4% of the popular vote. Taft took 23.2% of the national vote and carried two states, Vermont and Utah; he won the lowest share of the popular vote of any Republican nominee in history. Debs, the fourth-place finisher, won no electoral votes but received 6% of the popular vote, which remains the highest percentage of the vote ever won by a Socialist candidate in the history of American presidential elections. In this election, more than one third of voters cast third-party votes, the greatest percentage of votes to have ever been cast for third-party candidates in an American presidential election. This was the last U.S. presidential election to date in which the second-placed candidate was neither a Republican nor a Democrat. Background thumb|197x197px|William Howard Taft, the incumbent president in 1912, whose term expired on March 4, 1913 Republican president Theodore Roosevelt had declined to run for re-election in 1908 in fulfillment of a pledge to the American people not to seek a third term.Though he had become President upon the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, only six months of McKinley's term had elapsed. Thus, Roosevelt had served nearly a full eight years, effectively two full terms. Although the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution did not become effective until 1951, it would have barred Roosevelt from seeking another term, since he had served more than two years to which some other person (McKinley) had been elected. Roosevelt had tapped Secretary of War William Howard Taft to become his successor, and Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 general election. Republican Party split thumb|upright=1.0|A Punch cartoon by Leonard Raven-Hill, depicting the perceived aggression between Taft and Roosevelt. During Taft's administration, a rift developed between Roosevelt and Taft, and they became the leaders of the Republican Party's two wings: progressives led by Roosevelt and conservatives led by Taft.Gould Lewis L. The Republicans: A History of the Grand Old Party 16 October 2014 Oxford Academic online New York 2014 116–142 5. The Taft-Roosevelt Split, 1905–1912 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199936625.003.0006 Lewis L. Gould Progressives favored labor restrictions protecting women and children, promoted ecological conservation, and were more sympathetic toward labor unions. They also favored the popular election of federal and state judges over appointment by the president or governors. Conservatives supported high tariffs to encourage domestic production, but favored business leaders over labor unions and were generally opposed to the popular election of judges. Taft's policies Cracks in the party began to show when Taft supported the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1909.Coletta, Presidency of William Howard Taft ch 3 The Act favored the industrial Northeast and angered the Northwest and South, where demand was strong for tariff reductions.G. M. Fisk, "The Payne-Aldrich Tariff". Political Science Quarterly (1910). 25(1), 35–39. 10.2307/2141008. Early in his term, President Taft had promised to stand for a lower tariff bill, but protectionism had been a major policy of the Republican Party since its founding.Stanley D. Solvick, "William Howard Taft and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50.3 (1963): 424–442. 1902605. Taft also fought against Roosevelt's antitrust policy.Anderson (1973), p. 79 Roosevelt distinguished "good trusts" from "bad trusts", for which he had been lambasted.TR Center – The President's dream of a successful hunt https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o290993 www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org Taft argued that all monopolies must be broken up. Taft also fired popular conservationist Gifford Pinchot as head of the Bureau of Forestry in 1910.Schweikart and Allen, p. 491. By 1910, the split within the party was deep, and Roosevelt and Taft turned against one another despite their personal friendship. In that summer Roosevelt began a national speaking tour, during which he outlined his progressive philosophy and the New Nationalist platform, which he introduced in a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31.O'Mara Margaret Pivotal Tuesdays University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, PA 32 Court power and judicial recall Another source of tension involved the authority of the nation's courts, especially the Supreme Court. As early as 1910, Roosevelt had begun criticizing certain court decisions, such as Lochner v. New York (1905), and those jurists whom he dubbed "fossilized judges." He believed that the Supreme Court was interpreting the due process clause of the 14th Amendment and the doctrine of "freedom of contract" to forestall necessary reform legislation, such as the limiting of work hours. He, as well as more populist progressives like William Jennings Bryan in the Democratic Party, came out in favor of an amendment to allow the recall of judges and, possibly, judicial decisions. This outraged Taft (a former judge and future Supreme Court Chief Justice) and other constitutional conservatives, like Elihu Root and Alton B. Parker. Taft considered Roosevelt a danger to constitutional government and resolved to resist his eventual challenge for the Republican nomination.Istre Logan S. 2021 Bench over Ballot: The Fight for Judicial Supremacy and the New Constitutional Politics, 1910–1916 https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1537781420000079/type/journal_article The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era en 20 1 2–23 10.1017/S1537781420000079 1537-7814 subscription Roosevelt emboldened In the 1910 midterm elections, the Republicans lost 57 seats in the House of Representatives as the Democrats gained a majority for the first time since 1894. These results were a large defeat for the conservative wing of the party.Schantz Harvey L. American Presidential Elections State University of New York Press Albany 169 James E. Campbell writes that one cause may have been a large number of progressive voters choosing third-party candidates over conservative Republicans.Campbell James E. The Presidential Pulse of Congressional Elections University Press of Kentucky Lexington 261 Roosevelt continued to reject calls to run for president into 1911. In a January letter to newspaper editor William Allen White, he wrote, "I do not think there is one chance in a thousand that it will ever be wise to have me nominated."Theodore Roosevelt William Allen White Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Allen White January 24, 1911 https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record/ImageViewer?libID=o215330&imageNo=1 October 12, 2020 However, speculation continued, further harming Roosevelt and Taft's relationship. After months of continually increasing support, Roosevelt changed his position, writing to journalist Henry Beach Needham in January 1912 that if the nomination "comes to me as a genuine public movement of course I will accept."O'Mara Margaret Pivotal Tuesdays University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia 35–37 Nominations Republican Party nomination 65px|center|link=Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party (United States)1912 Republican Party ticketwhite William Howard Taftwhite James S. Shermanfor Presidentfor Vice Presidentcenter|200x200pxcenter|200x200px27thPresident of the United States(1909–1913)27thVice President of the United States(1909–1912)Campaign566 Delegates791,425 votes Other major candidates Candidates in this section are sorted by number of delegates won in the nomination raceTheodore RooseveltRobert La FolletteAlbert Cumminscenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxFmr. President of the United Statesfrom New York(1901–1909)U.S. Senatorfrom Wisconsin(1906–1925)U.S. Senatorfrom Iowa(1908–1926)CampaignCampaignCampaignLN Lost Nomination: June 22, 1912466 Delegates1,183,238 votesLN Lost Nomination: June 22, 191236 Delegates336,373 votesLN Lost Nomination: June 22, 191210 Delegates0 votes Delegate selection 1912 Republican Party presidential primaries For the first time, many convention delegates were elected in presidential preference primaries. Progressive Republicans advocated primary elections as a way of breaking the control of political parties by bosses. Altogether, 12 states held Republican primaries. Prior to Roosevelt's entry into the contest, Senator Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette was seen as the most likely challenger to Taft, but his campaign fell apart early on, firstly due to his giving a poorly-received speech to the Periodical Publishers Banquet on February 2, and then due to his being forced to take a two week break from campaigning due to ill-health.Nancy C. Unger, "The 'Political Suicide' of Robert M. La Follette: Public Disaster, Private Catharsis" Psychohistory Review 21#2 (1993), pp. 187–220 online. La Follette still won two of the first four primaries (North Dakota and his home state of Wisconsin), but Roosevelt's entry into the contest doomed what little chance he still had. Meanwhile, Taft won a major victory in Roosevelt's home state of New York and continued to rack up delegates in more conservative, traditional state conventions. Beginning with a runaway victory in Illinois on April 9, Roosevelt won 9 of the last 10 presidential primaries (including Taft's home state of Ohio), losing only Massachusetts.History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/1912-republican-convention.html 2016-08-18 Smithsonianmag.com September 27, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110927121157/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/1912-republican-convention.html dead Taft also had support from the bulk of the Southern Republican organizations. Delegates from the former Confederate states supported Taft by a 5 to 1 margin. These states had voted solidly Democratic in every presidential election since 1880, and Roosevelt objected that they were given one-quarter of the delegates when they would contribute nothing to a Republican victory. Convention 1912 Republican National Convention thumb|BUTT, ARCHIBALD WILLINGHAM. MILITARY AIDE TO PRESIDENT TAFT. GARDEN FETE WITH PRESIDENT AND MRS. TAFT For the Republican National Convention, held June 18–22 in Chicago, 388 delegates were selected through the primaries and Roosevelt won 281 delegates, Taft received 71 delegates, and La Follette received 36 delegates. However, Taft had a 566–466 margin, placing him over the 540 needed for nomination, with the delegations selected at state conventions. Roosevelt accused the Taft faction of having over 200 fraudulently selected delegates. However, the Republican National Committee ruled in favor of Taft for 233 of the delegate cases while 6 were in favor of Roosevelt. The committee reinvestigated the 92 of the contested delegates and ruled in favor of Taft for all of them.Nash Howard P. Jr. 1959 Third Parties in American Politics PublicAffairshttps://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/06/16/100586218.pdf https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/06/16/100586218.pdf 2022-10-09 live Taft 566 – Roosevelt 466. – Present Line-Up of Instructed and Pledged Delegates With All the Contests Decided. The New York Times 1912-06-16 2016-02-24 Roosevelt supporters criticized the large amount of delegates coming from areas the Republicans would not win, with over 200 delegates coming from areas that had not been won by a Republican since the Compromise of 1877, or the four delegates that came from the territories which didn't vote in the general election. However, Roosevelt had rejected an attempt to abolish delegations from the south at the 1908 Republican National Convention due to him needing them for Taft's nomination. Herbert S. Hadley served as Roosevelt's floor manager at the convention. Hadley made a motion for 74 of Taft's delegates to be replaced by 72 delegates after the reading of the convention call, but his motion was ruled out of order. Elihu Root, a supporter of Taft, was selected to chair the convention after winning 558 votes against McGovern's 501 votes. Root was accused of having won through the rotten boroughs of the southern delegations as every northern state, except for four, voted for McGovern. In his closing speech, Root reiterated the party's support of "constitutional checks and limitations" by quoting figures like Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, and Abraham Lincoln, effectively rebuking Roosevelt's support of the judicial recall and identifying the GOP with constitutional conservatism.Istre Logan Stagg 2021 Bench over Ballot: The Fight for Judicial Supremacy and the New Constitutional Politics, 1910–1916 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537781420000079 The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 20 1 13 10.1017/s1537781420000079 1537-7814 subscription Roosevelt broke with tradition and attended the convention, where he was welcomed with great support from voters.O'Mara Margaret Pivotal Tuesdays University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia 44 Despite Roosevelt's presence in Chicago and his attempts to disqualify Taft supporters, the incumbent ticket of Taft and James S. Sherman was renominated on the first ballot.June 23, 1912 Taft Nominee; Sherman His Running Mate https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-taft-nominee-sherman-hi/174911225/ Chicago Tribune October 12, 2020 Newspapers.com Sherman was the first sitting vice president re-nominated since John C. Calhoun in 1828. After losing the vote, Roosevelt announced the formation of a new party dedicated "to the service of all the people."O'Laughlin John June 23, 1912 Roosevelt Is Named Leader Of New Party https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-roosevelt-is-named-leade/182405073/ Chicago Tribune October 12, 2020 Newspapers.com This would later come to be known as the Progressive Party. Roosevelt announced that his party would hold its convention in Chicago and that he would accept their nomination if offered. Meanwhile, Taft decided not to campaign before the election beyond his acceptance speech on August 1.Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft (1939) 2:818, 832, 834, Warren G. Harding presented Taft's name for the nomination. Taft won the nomination while 344 of Roosevelt's delegates abstained from the vote. Henry Justin Allen read a speech from Roosevelt in which he criticized the process and stated that delegates had been stolen from his in order to secure Taft's nomination. Presidential BallotJune 22, 1912 Taft Is Nominated On First Ballot Santa Cruz News Santa Cruz, CA https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/50489331/ January 7, 2018June 23, 1912 Taft Wins With 561 The Courier Harrisburg, PA https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/69726115/ January 7, 2018Pietrusza David https://books.google.com/books?id=Avw4DgAAQBAJ&q=taft+561+1912+cummins+hughes&pg=PT58 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents Carroll & Graf 2007 978-0-7867-1622-7 New York David PietruszaWilliam Howard Taft561Theodore Roosevelt107Robert M. La Follette41Albert B. Cummins17Charles Evans Hughes2Present, not voting 344Absent 6 Vice Presidential BallotJames S. Sherman596William Borah21Charles Edward Merriam20Herbert S. Hadley14Albert J. Beveridge2 Democratic Party nomination 1912 Democratic National Convention 65px|center|link=Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party (United States)1912 Democratic Party ticket white Woodrow Wilson white Thomas R. Marshallfor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px 34thGovernor of New Jersey(1911–1913) 27thGovernor of Indiana(1909–1913)CampaignBC Before Convention 122 Delegates527,296 votes Other major candidates Candidates in this section are sorted by number of delegates won in the nomination raceChamp ClarkOscar UnderwoodJudson HarmonEugene FossThomas Marshallcenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxSpeaker of the Housefrom Missouri(1911–1919)U.S. Congressmanfrom Alabama(1897–1915)Governorof Ohio(1909–1913)Governorof Massachusetts(1911–1914)Governorof Indiana(1909–1913)CampaignCampaignCampaignCampaignLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 1912423 Delegates427,938 votesLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 191284 Delegates114,947 votesLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 191248 Delegates128,633 votesLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 191236 Delegates0 votesLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 191230 Delegates0 votesSimeon BaldwinJohn Burkecenter|120x120pxcenter|120x120pxGovernorof Connecticut(1911–1915)Governorof North Dakota(1907–1913)CampaignCampaignLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 191214 Delegates0 votesLN Lost Nomination: July 2, 191210 Delegates9,357 votes In early 1912, it was widely believed that three-time Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan would make a fourth attempt to earn the party's nomination, and would likely not have difficulty in winning it. However, Bryan announced several months before the convention that he was not interested in another run for the White House. Though still seen by many as the Democrats' ideological leader, power shifts within the party in the wake of their success at the 1910 mid-term elections meant that Bryan could no longer be guaranteed the two-thirds majority needed to earn the nomination. Bryan privately conceded that his three presidential runs having all ended in decisive losses, firstly to William McKinley, and then to Taft, would seriously handicap his credibility as a candidate, even if the 1904 election, the only one of the previous four in which Bryan was not the Democratic candidate, had resulted in an even more lop-sided defeat for the party. However, Bryan still had enough followers in the party that he was in a strong position to be the kingmaker at the convention. The Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2. Initially, the front-runner was Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri. Though Clark received the most votes on early ballots, he was unable to get the two-thirds majority required to win. Tammany Hall, the powerful New York City Democratic political machine, anticipated that Clark did not have enough support to wrap up a swift victory, and planted the state's delegates with Ohio governor Judson Harmon, switching its support to Clark on the tenth ballot and giving him a simple majority of the vote. Had Clark been able to make a deal for the delegates of House Majority Leader Oscar Underwood, together with any of the favorite sons still in the contest at that point, he would have won the nomination. Unbeknownst to either Clark's campaign or Tammany Hall, however, Underwood had in fact already struck a behind-the-scenes deal with Woodrow Wilson, the reformist Governor of New Jersey. Wilson and Underwood were both from the party's progressive wing, and neither wanted Clark, who they both considered to be too pro-business, to take the nomination; the two agreed that if one of them got into a position to win the nomination, the other would withdraw in their favor. More significantly, the Tammany endorsement caused Bryan to turn against Clark, whom he decried as the candidate of Wall Street, and he shifted his support to Wilson, who had consistently finished second in balloting until that point.Ambar Saladin Woodrow Wilson: Campaigns and Elections https://millercenter.org/president/wilson/campaigns-and-elections UVA: Miller Center 25 July 2026 Little changed over the next half-dozen ballots, and Wilson briefly considered releasing his delegates and asking them to support Underwood, but he was persuaded to remain in the contest. Starting with the 20th ballot, Clark's delegate total begin to decline, with Wilson slowly but surely gaining at his expense. Wilson took the lead on the 30th ballot, and despite Clark's staying in the contest in the hopes of denying him the two-thirds majority, several state delegations (including Illinois, Virginia, and West Virginia) moved from Clark's column into Wilson's on the 43rd ballot. After two more ballots, Wilson's delegate total reached the point where the support of Underwood's delegates would be sufficient to win the nomination; Underwood honored their agreement and withdrew in favor of Wilson, who won the nomination on the 46h ballot. Wilson offered the running-mate's slot to Underwood, who declined, preferring to remain in the House of Representatives. Thomas R. Marshall, the governor of Indiana who had swung Indiana's votes to Wilson, was instead named Wilson's running mate.John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (NY, 2009), 150–151, 157–158 (1-24)Presidential Ballot1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24thWilson324339.75345349.5351354352.5351.5352.5350.5354.5354356361362.5362.5362.5361358388.5395.5396.5399402.5Clark440.5446.5441443443445449.5448.5452556554547.5554.5553552551545535532512508500.5497.5496Harmon148141140.5136.5141.5135129.5130127312929292929292929292929000Underwood117.5111.25114.5112119.5121123.5123122.5117.5118.5123115.5111110.5112.5112.5125130121.5118.5115114.5115.5Foss000000000000200000125434543T. Marshall313131313131313131313030303030303030303030303030Baldwin2214141400000000000000000000W.J. Bryan121001111111122111711111Kern00122111111102224.53.5111100James000000010000000000030000Sulzer220000000000000000000000Gaynor000000011000000000000110Lewis000000000000000000000000Blank20.50000000002.500003.53.5000000 (25–46)Presidential Ballot25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32nd 33rd 34th 35th 36th 37th 38th 39th 40th 41st 42nd 43rd 44th 45th 46th UnanimousWilson405407.5406.5437.5436460475.5477.5477.5479.5494.5496.5496.5498.5501.5501.5499.54946026296339901,088Clark469463.5469468.5468.5455446.5446.5447.5447.5433.5434.5432.542542242342443032930630684Harmon29292929291917142929292929292928272728272512Underwood108112.5112112.5112121.5116.5119.5103.5101.5101.598.5100.510610610610610498.599970Foss4343383838303028282828282828282828282727270T. Marshall3030300000000000000000000Baldwin0000000000000000000000W.J. Bryan111100000000000010.51000Kern0001422222111111111000James3000000000000000010000Sulzer0000000000000000000000Gaynor0000000000000000110000Lewis0000000000000000010000Blank01.52.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.50.51.5002 Vice Presidential Ballot1st 2nd UnanimousThomas R. Marshall 389 644.5 1,088John Burke 304.67 386.33George E. Chamberlain 157 12.5Elmore W. Hurst 78 0James H. Preston 58 0Martin J. Wade 26 0William F. McCombs 18 0John E. Osborne 8 0William Sulzer 3 0Blank 46.33 44.67 Progressive Party nomination 1912 Progressive National Convention 70px|center|link=Bull Moose Party|Progressive Party (United States, 1912)1912 Progressive Party ticket white Theodore Roosevelt white Hiram Johnsonfor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px 26thPresident of the United States(1901–1909) 23rdGovernor of California(1911–1917) thumb|upright=1.5|The Progressive convention at the Chicago Coliseum, 1912 Taft had won the Republican nomination while 344 of Roosevelt's delegates abstained from the vote. Later that day supporters of Roosevelt met in the Chicago Orchestra Hall and nominated him as an independent candidate for president which Roosevelt accepted although he requested a formal convention. Roosevelt initially considered not running as a third-party candidate until George Walbridge Perkins and Frank Munsey offered their financial support. Roosevelt and his supporters formed the Progressive Party at a convention, temporarily chaired by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, on August 5, and Hiram Johnson was selected as his vice-presidential running mate. Ben B. Lindsey and John M. Parker had been considered for the presidential nomination, but Parker and Lindsey instead both nominated Johnson for the position. The Progressives promised to increase federal regulation and protect the welfare of ordinary people. At the convention, Perkins blocked an antitrust plank, shocking reformers who thought of Roosevelt as a true trust-buster.August 2020 The delegates to the convention sang the hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" as their anthem. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt compared the coming presidential campaign to the Battle of Armageddon and stated that the Progressives were going to "battle for the Lord."TR Center - First National Convention of the Progressive Party http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/Item/First%20National%20Convention%20of%20the%20Progressive%20Party 2018-05-01 www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org en The convention made Hiram Johnson a national figure for decades to come, later he would be part of the group of "Irreconcibles" a notable group of Senators, who successfully rallied against the US joining the League of Nations.independent Associated Press The Associated Press is an City not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York 1945-08-07 From the Archives: Death Ends Career of Sen. Hiram Johnson https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-hiram-johnson-19450807-story.html 2026-09-22 Los Angeles Times en-US Socialist Party nomination 1912 Convention of the Socialist Party of America 70px|center|link=Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party of America1912 Socialist Party ticket white Eugene V. Debs white Emil Seidelfor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px Indiana state representative(1885–1887) 36thMayor of Milwaukee(1910–1912) Socialist candidates: Eugene V. Debs, former Indiana state representative from Indiana Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Charles Edward Russell, journalist from New York thumb|upright=1.3|Eugene V. Debs's popular vote results were the highest for the Socialist Party. Members of the Socialist Party of America had won in multiple elections between the 1908 and 1912 presidential elections with Emil Seidel being elected as the mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Victor L. Berger was elected to the United States House of Representatives. The party claimed that it had 435 members elected to office by 1911, and over one thousand by 1912.Morgan H. Wayne 1962 Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President Syracuse University Press Dan Hogan put Debs name up for the presidential nomination. Debs won the presidential nomination, although he had supported giving the nomination to the Appeal to Reasons editor Fred Warren, with 165 votes while Seidel received 56 votes and Charles Edward Russell received 54 votes. Seidel was given the vice-presidential nomination against Russell and Hogan.Haynes Fred 1924 200 Social Politics in the United States The Riverside Press CambridgeCurrie Harold W. 1976 Eugene V. Debs Twayne PublishersColeman McAlister McAlister Coleman 1930 Eugene V. Debs: A Man Unafraid Greenberg Publisher After the presidential ballot Seidel and Russell proposed a motion to make Debs' nomination unanimous and it was accepted. Hogan and Slayton proposed to make the nomination of Seidel unanimous after the vice-presidential selection and it was accepted. Otto Branstetter, Berger, and Carl D. Thompson, who were serving as delegates, voted for Seidel during the presidential balloting. Morris Hillquit, Meyer London, and John Spargo, who were serving as delegates, supported Russell during the presidential balloting. Hogan, a delegate from Arkansas, had supported Debs during the presidential balloting.Spargo John John Spargo 1912 Proceedings of the National Convention of the Socialist Party Socialist Party of America J. Mahlon Barnes, who had managed Debs' campaign in the 1908 election, also managed the campaign in 1912. The Socialists predicted that they would receive over two million votes and have 12 members elected to Congress, but Debs only received 897,011 votes and Berger lost reelection. Debs received his largest number of votes from Ohio while his best percentage was in Nevada. The largest percentage gain since the 1908 presidential election was in West Virginia where their vote total increased by over 300%. George Brinton McClellan Harvey stated that had Roosevelt not run then Debs would have gained an additional half a million votes. The number of Socialists in the state legislatures increased from 20 to 21.Murphy Paul 1974 Political Parties In American History, Volume 3, 1890-present G. P. Putnam's Sons Presidential ballot 1st ballot 2nd ballot Vice-presidential ballot 1st ballot 2nd ballot Eugene V. Debs 165 Unanimous Emil Seidel 159 Unanimous Emil Seidel 56 Dan Hogan 73 Charles Edward Russell 54 John W. Slayton 24 Reference General election Roosevelt conducted a vigorous national campaign for the Progressive Party, denouncing the way the Republican nomination had been "stolen". He bundled together his reforms under the rubric of "The New Nationalism" and stumped the country for a strong federal role in regulating the economy and chastising bad corporations. February 2017 Roosevelt rallied progressives with speeches denouncing the political establishment. He promised "an expert tariff commission, wholly removed from the possibility of political pressure or of improper business influence."Theodore Roosevelt Association. "The New Nationalism." The New Nationalism – Theodore Roosevelt Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. Wilson supported a policy called "The New Freedom". This policy was based mostly on individualism instead of a strong government.New Freedom New Freedom Progressive Era, Woodrow Wilson, Tariff Reform Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Freedom 2026-06-19 Encyclopedia Britannica enthumb|left| A Republican editorial cartoon depicts Roosevelt mixing "radical" ingredients in his speeches.|288x288px Wilson opposed Roosevelt's proposal to establish a powerful state bureaucracy charged with regulating large corporations, with Wilson instead favoring the break-up of large corporations in order to create a level economic playing field. Though Wilson's rhetoric paid homage to the traditional Democratic Party skepticisms of government and "collectivism", after his election win Wilson would embrace some of the progressive reforms which Roosevelt had campaigned on. thumb|A Republican campaign postcard charges a Wilson administration would force pensioners back to work.|alt=|302x302pxTaft campaigned quietly and spoke of the need for judges to be more powerful than elected officials. The departure of the progressives left the Republican Party firmly controlled by the conservative wing. Much of the Republican effort was designed to discredit Roosevelt as a dangerous radical, but this had little effect. February 2017 Many of the nation's pro-Republican newspapers depicted Roosevelt as an egotist running only to spoil Taft's chances and feed his vanity. February 2017 The Socialists had little funding compared to the Republican, Democratic and Progressive campaigns. Debs' campaign spent only $66,000, mostly on 3.5 million leaflets and travel to locally organized rallies. Debs' biggest event was a speech to 15,000 supporters in New York City. The crowd sang "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale." Debs's running mate Emil Seidel boasted: Only a year ago workingmen were throwing decayed vegetables and rotten eggs at us but now all is changed... Eggs are too high. There is a great giant growing up in this country that will someday take over the affairs of this nation. He is a little giant now but he is growing fast. The name of this little giant is socialism. Debs claimed that there was no hope under the present decaying capitalist system, and that the worker who votes the Republican or Democratic ticket does worse than throw away his vote, as he is a deserter of his class and becomes his own worst enemy. Debs insisted that Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans alike were financed by different factions within the capitalist trusts, and that only the Socialists represented labor. Debs condemned "Injunction Bill Taft" and condemned Roosevelt for stealing his socialist clothes with the intent to make socialist policies "safer" for the establishment. At a campaign speech in Philadelphia on September 28, 1912, Debs said of Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt now alludes to me as "Brother Debs". I do not acknowledge the new relation. I still wish to be the undesirable citizen in his eyes. If he knew me then, I know him now. I know what he stands for and what his methods are. I know he is the enemy of the workers. I know he is now trying to deceive that class to further his own selfish ambition — to get back into the White House and if possible remain there for life.https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/120928-debs-redseaofsocialism.pdf https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/120928-debs-redseaofsocialism.pdf 2022-10-09 live The Red Sea of Socialism: Campaign Speech at Convention Hall, Philadelphia (September 28, 1912) marxists.org Attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt Attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt Running on a platform he first declared in 1910, which later became formalized under the name of "New Nationalism", Theodore Roosevelt spent part of 1910, 1911, and finally full time in 1912 campaigning to win back the presidency. When it became clear his leftward political shift and the Republican Party were incompatible, a new party was spun up called The Bull Moose Party. Campaigning under the banner of the Bull Moose, Roosevelt was at a campaign stop in Milwaukee on October 14, John Schrank, a saloonkeeper from New York, shot Roosevelt in the chest. The bullet penetrated his steel eyeglass case and a 50-page single-folded copy of his speech Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual and became lodged in his chest. Schrank was immediately disarmed and captured.Gerard Helferich, Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin: Madness, Vengeance, and the Campaign of 1912 (2013) Schrank had been stalking Roosevelt. He was suffering from delusion and said the ghost of President McKinley ordered him to kill Roosevelt to prevent a third term.Lewis Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics (2008) p. 171. Roosevelt shouted for Schrank to remain unharmed and assured the crowd he was all right, then ordered police to take charge of Schrank and ensure no violence was done to him.Oliver E. Remey Henry F. Cochems Wheeler P. Bloodgood The Attempted Assassination of Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt The Progressive Publishing Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1912 192 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21261 Roosevelt, an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung. He declined suggestions to go to the hospital and instead delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt.Medical History of American Presidents https://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/z_x26a_g.htm September 14, 2010 Doctor Zebra His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose." He spoke for 90 minutes before completing his speech and accepting medical attention.Detroit Free Press Excerpt http://www.historybuff.com/library/refteddy.html History buff January 23, 2018 April 19, 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150419001634/http://www.historybuff.com/library/refteddy.html dead.It Takes More Than That to Kill a Bull Moose: The Leader and The Cause http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/site/c.elKSIdOWIiJ8H/b.9297449/k.861A/It_Takes_More_Than_That_to_Kill_a_Bull_Moose_The_Leader_and_The_Cause.htm October 14, 2015 Theodore Roosevelt Association Afterward, probes and an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura. Doctors concluded that it would be less dangerous to leave it in place than to attempt to remove it, and Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/timeline.htm Roosevelt Timeline Theodore Roosevelt September 14, 2010Timeline of Theodore Roosevelt's Life by the Theodore Roosevelt Association at http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org Taft was not campaigning and focused on his presidential duties. Wilson briefly suspended his campaigning. By October 17, Wilson was back on the campaign trail but avoided any criticism of Roosevelt or his party."Wilson Starts on a Tour: Will Not Touch on Third Party's Programme in Speeches." New York Times Oct 17. 1912, p. 10. Roosevelt spent two weeks recuperating before returning to the campaign trail with a major speech on October 30, designed to reassure his supporters he was strong enough for the presidency.Morris Edmund Colonel Roosevelt Random House Trade Paperbacks New York 250–251 Death of Vice President Sherman On October 30, 1912, Vice President James S. Sherman died of nephritis, leaving Taft without a running mate less than a week before the election. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, was quickly chosen to replace Sherman on the Republican ticket.Gould Lewis L. Four hats in the ring : the 1912 election and the birth of modern American politics 2008 University Press of Kansas 978-0-7006-1564-3 Lawrence, Kan. 157 180756978 Results Election Night Victory Speechalt=Classic vintage lithograph style view of the early Princeton campus|thumb|center|240x240px“We must have the quietest temper in what we are going to do. We must not let any man divert us. We must have quiet temper and yet be resolute of purpose. But let us hear them all patiently, and yet, hearing all, let us not be diverted. You men must play a great part. I plead with you again to look constantly forward. I summon you for the rest of your lives to support the men who like myself want to carry the nation forward to its highest destiny and greatness.” — Woodrow Wilson Victory Address to Princeton Undergraduatesdelivered from his porch on Cleveland Lane(November 5, 1912)Remarks to Princeton University Students and Neighbors on the Election Victory The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-princeton-university-students-and-neighbors-the-election-victory 2026-10-13 www.presidency.ucsb.edu Turnout in the election was 59%, with 27.9% of the voting age population participating in the election.Abramson Aldrich Rohde 1995 99 Wilson captured the presidency handily by carrying a record 40 states. This election saw the lowest turnout among eligible voters since the 1836 presidential election, falling 20 points short of the turnout in the 1896 election.http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present United States Election Project CQ Press The implementation of Jim Crow laws after the Reconstruction Era significantly reduced Black voter turnout.Sides John Shaw Daron R. Grossmann Matthew Lipsitz Keena Campaigns and elections: rules, reality, strategy, choice 2023 W.W. Norton & Company New York London 9781324046912 78 Fourth, election update Wilson won the presidency with a lower percentage of the popular vote than any candidate since Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Taft's result remains the worst performance for any incumbent president, both in terms of electoral votes (8) and share of popular votes (23.17%). His 8 electoral votes remain the fewest by a Republican and by any major-party candidate, matched by Alf Landon's 1936 campaign. His 23.17% of the popular vote is the lowest ever for a Republican or any major party nominee. This was the first time since 1852 that Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Rhode Island voted for a Democrat, and the first time in history that Massachusetts voted Democratic. Democrats would not win Maine again until 1964, Connecticut and Delaware until 1936, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin until 1932, and Massachusetts and Rhode Island until 1928. Additionally, it was the last time until 1932 that the Republicans failed to win Michigan, Minnesota, and South Dakota. This is one of two times since 1852 that Maine and Vermont did not support the same party (the other being in 1968). Theodore Roosevelt's 88 electoral votes and 27.4% of the popular vote are the highest won by a third party in a presidential election.Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016 Wilson's raw vote total and percentage were less than William Jennings Bryan's total in any of his three campaigns.The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, p. 14 In only two regions, New England and the Pacific, was Wilson's vote greater than the greatest Bryan vote.The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, p. 15 The 1912 election was the first to include all 48 of the current contiguous United States. This was the first election since 1864, where the winner's home state was not Ohio or New York. Only 12 of the 48 states saw a candidate win with a majority of the popular vote. Wilson won a majority in the 11 former Confederate states. Only South Dakota, where Taft did not appear on the ballot, gave Roosevelt a majority. Taft won only two states, Vermont and Utah, each with a plurality. This is the only time in American history that three people who at some point served as president ran for president in the same election, though in 1920 and 1960 three future presidents ran for either president or vice-president. This was the last election where the winning presidential ticket featured two incumbent governors, with Wilson and his running mate Thomas R. Marshall being the incumbent governors of New Jersey and Indiana, respectively. Wilson finished 1st in 40 states. He finished 2nd behind Roosevelt in 5 states, and 2nd behind Taft only in Utah. He finished 3rd in 2 states, in Michigan where Roosevelt finished 1st and Taft finished 2nd, and in Vermont where Taft finished 1st and Roosevelt finished 2nd. Roosevelt would win the most electoral votes out of any third-party candidate in American history, finishing 1st in 6 states.Sides John Campaigns and elections: rules, reality, strategy, choice Shaw Daron R. Grossmann Matthew Lipsitz Keena 2023 W.W. Norton & Company 978-1-324-04691-2 Fourth edition, election update New York London 171 He finished 2nd in 24 states, behind Wilson in 23, and behind Taft in Vermont. He finished 3rd in 17 states. In 15 of those, Wilson finished 1st and Taft finished 2nd. In the other two, Taft finished 1st and Wilson finished 2nd in Utah, while Wilson finished 1st and Debs finished 2nd in Florida. Roosevelt was not on the ballot in Oklahoma. Taft finished 1st in Vermont and Utah. He finished 2nd in 18 states, behind Wilson in 17 of those. The one exception was Michigan where Taft finished 2nd behind Roosevelt. He finished 3rd in 21 states. In 18 of those, Wilson finished 1st and Roosevelt finished 2nd. In the other 3, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington, Roosevelt finished 1st and Wilson finished 2nd. Taft also finished 4th in 5 states. In 4 of those, the top 3 in order were Wilson-Roosevelt-Debs. In Florida, Wilson finished 1st, Debs finished 2nd, and Roosevelt finished 3rd. While not on the ballot in California, Taft received 3,914 write-in votes in the state, placing him 5th, behind Roosevelt, Wilson, Debs, and Chafin. Taft was not on the ballot at all in South Dakota, not even as a write-in option. Debs finished 2nd in Florida behind Wilson. He finished 3rd in 7 states. In Nevada, Arizona, Louisiana and Mississippi, Wilson finished 1st, Roosevelt finished 2nd, Debs finished 3rd and Taft finished 4th. The other 3 states where Debs finished 3rd were Oklahoma, where Roosevelt was not on the ballot; South Dakota, where Taft was not on the ballot; and California, where Taft was not on the ballot, but received write-in votes, causing Taft to finish 5th in California. Debs finished 4th in 38 states. Debs was beaten by Chafin in two states, Vermont and Delaware, with Debs finishing 5th in both states. Chafin finished last in 18 states. The states where Chafin avoided finishing last were 19 of the 20 states where Reimer was on the ballot – Reimer finished last in all 20 states that he contested – as well as Vermont and Delaware, where Chafin managed to force Debs into last place. The other state where Chafin avoided last place was California, where Taft was only a write-in candidate and finished last. Reimer was not on the ballot in 28 states, while Chafin was not on the ballot in 8 states. Only in Utah was Reimer on the ballot but Chafin was not. The eleven states of the former Confederacy provided 5.44% of Taft's votes, with him taking 12.22% of the vote in that region while Roosevelt took 16.76%.Sherman 1973 263 County results In a plurality of 1,396 counties, no candidate obtained a majority.The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, p. 17 Wilson won 1,969 counties but held a majority in only 1,237, less than Bryan had had in any of his campaigns. "Other(s)", mostly Roosevelt, won a plurality in 772 counties and a majority in 305 counties. Most of them in Pennsylvania (48), Illinois (33), Michigan (68), Minnesota (75), Iowa (49), South Dakota (54), Nebraska (32), Kansas (51), Washington (38), and California (44). Debs carried four counties: Lake and Beltrami in Minnesota, Burke in North Dakota, and Crawford in Kansas. These are the only counties ever to vote for the Socialist presidential nominee. Taft won a plurality in only 232 counties and a majority in only 35. In addition to South Dakota and California, where there was no Taft ticket, Taft carried no counties in Maine, New Jersey, Minnesota, Nevada, Arizona, and seven "Solid South" states. Nine counties did not record any votes due to either black disenfranchisement or being inhabited only by Native Americans, who would not gain full citizenship for 12 more years. File:United States Electoral College 1912.svg Woodrow Wilson Democratic New Jersey 6,296,284 41.84% 435 Thomas R. Marshall Indiana Theodore Roosevelt Progressive New York 4,122,721 27.40% 88 Hiram Johnson California William Howard Taft (incumbent) Republican Ohio 3,486,242 23.17% 8 Nicholas Murray Butler New York Eugene V. Debs Socialist Indiana 901,551 5.99% 0 Emil Seidel Wisconsin Eugene W. Chafin Prohibition Arizona 208,156 1.38% 0 Aaron S. Watkins Ohio Arthur E. Reimer Socialist Labor Massachusetts 29,324 0.19% 0 August Gillhaus New York 4,556 0.03% 15,048,834 531 266 Popular vote 600px 410px Wilson Democratic Party (US) 41.84 Roosevelt Progressive Party (US, 1912) 27.40 Taft Republican Party (US) 23.17 Debs #CD3700 5.99 Others #777777 1.60 Electoral vote 600px 410px Wilson Democratic Party (US) 81.92 Roosevelt Progressive Party (US, 1912) 16.57 Taft Republican Party (US) 1.51Source (Popular Vote): 1912 July 28, 2005Source (Electoral Vote): 1912 July 31, 2005 Results by state States/districts won by Wilson/MarshallStates/districts won by Roosevelt/JohnsonStates/districts won by Taft/Butler Woodrow WilsonDemocratic Theodore RooseveltProgressive "Bull Moose" William H. TaftRepublican Eugene V. DebsSocialist Eugene ChafinProhibition Arthur ReimerSocialist Labor Margin State Total State electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % #Alabama 12 82,438 69.89 12 22,680 19.23 - 9,807 8.31 - 3,029 2.57 - - - - - - - 59,758 50.66 117,959 ALArizona 3 10,324 43.52 3 6,949 29.29 - 3,021 12.74 - 3,163 13.33 - 265 1.12 - - - - 3,375 14.23 23,722 AZArkansas 9 68,814 55.01 9 21,644 17.30 - 25,585 20.45 - 8,153 6.52 - 908 0.73 - - - - 43,229 34.55 125,104 ARCalifornia 13 283,436 41.81 2 283,610 41.83 11 3,914 0.58 - 79,201 11.68 - 23,366 3.45 - - - - -174 -0.03 673,527 CAColorado 6 114,232 42.80 6 72,306 27.09 - 58,386 21.88 - 16,418 6.15 - 5,063 1.90 - 475 0.18 - 41,926 15.71 266,880 COConnecticut 7 74,561 39.16 7 34,129 17.92 - 68,324 35.88 - 10,056 5.28 - 2,068 1.09 - 1,260 0.66 - 6,237 3.28 190,398 CTDelaware 3 22,631 46.48 3 8,886 18.25 - 15,998 32.85 - 556 1.14 - 623 1.28 - - - - 6,633 13.62 48,694 DEFlorida 6 35,343 69.52 6 4,555 8.96 - 4,279 8.42 - 4,806 9.45 - 1,854 3.65 - - - - 30,537 60.07 50,837 FLGeorgia 14 93,087 76.63 14 21,985 18.10 - 5,191 4.27 - 1,058 0.87 - 149 0.12 - - - - 71,102 58.53 121,470 GAIdaho 4 33,921 32.08 4 25,527 24.14 - 32,810 31.02 - 11,960 11.31 - 1,536 1.45 - - - - 1,111 1.05 105,754 IDIllinois 29 405,048 35.34 29 386,478 33.72 - 253,593 22.13 - 81,278 7.09 - 15,710 1.37 - 4,066 0.35 - 18,570 1.62 1,146,173 ILIndiana 15 281,890 43.07 15 162,007 24.75 - 151,267 23.11 - 36,931 5.64 - 19,249 2.94 - 3,130 0.48 - 119,883 18.32 654,474 INIowa 13 185,325 37.64 13 161,819 32.87 - 119,805 24.33 - 16,967 3.45 - 8,440 1.71 - - - - 23,506 4.77 492,356 IAKansas 10 143,663 39.30 10 120,210 32.88 - 74,845 20.47 - 26,779 7.33 - - - - - - - 23,453 6.42 365,497 KSKentucky 13 219,484 48.48 13 101,766 22.48 - 115,510 25.52 - 11,646 2.57 - 3,253 0.72 - 1,055 0.23 - 103,974 22.97 452,714 KYLouisiana 10 60,871 76.81 10 9,283 11.71 - 3,833 4.84 - 5,261 6.64 - - - - - - - 51,588 65.10 79,248 LAMaine 6 51,113 39.43 6 48,495 37.41 - 26,545 20.48 - 2,541 1.96 - 946 0.73 - - - - 2,618 2.02 129,640 MEMaryland 8 112,674 48.57 8 57,789 24.91 - 54,956 23.69 - 3,996 1.72 - 2,244 0.97 - 322 0.14 - 54,885 23.66 231,981 MDMassachusetts 18 173,408 35.53 18 142,228 29.14 - 155,948 31.95 - 12,616 2.58 - 2,754 0.56 - 1,102 0.23 - 17,460 3.58 488,056 MAMichigan 15 150,751 27.36 - 214,584 38.95 15 152,244 27.63 - 23,211 4.21 - 8,934 1.62 - 1,252 0.23 - -62,340 -11.31 550,976 MIMinnesota 12 106,426 31.84 - 125,856 37.66 12 64,334 19.25 - 27,505 8.23 - 7,886 2.36 - 2,212 0.66 - -19,430 -5.81 334,219 MNMississippi 10 57,324 88.90 10 3,549 5.50 - 1,560 2.42 - 2,050 3.18 - - - - - - - 53,775 83.39 64,483 MSMissouri 18 330,746 47.35 18 124,375 17.80 - 207,821 29.75 - 28,466 4.07 - 5,380 0.77 - 1,778 0.25 - 122,925 17.60 698,566 MOMontana 4 27,941 35.00 4 22,456 28.13 - 18,512 23.19 - 10,885 13.64 - 32 0.04 - - - - 5,485 6.87 79,826 MTNebraska 8 109,008 43.69 8 72,681 29.13 - 54,226 21.74 - 10,185 4.08 - 3,383 1.36 - - - - 36,327 14.56 249,483 NENevada 3 7,986 39.70 3 5,620 27.94 - 3,196 15.89 - 3,313 16.47 - - - - - - - 2,366 11.76 20,115 NVNew Hampshire 4 34,724 39.48 4 17,794 20.23 - 32,927 37.43 - 1,981 2.25 - 535 0.61 - - - - 1,797 2.04 87,961 NHNew Jersey 14 178,289 41.20 14 145,410 33.60 - 88,835 20.53 - 15,948 3.69 - 2,936 0.68 - 1,321 0.31 - 32,879 7.60 432,739 NJNew Mexico 3 20,437 41.39 3 8,347 16.90 - 17,733 35.91 - 2,859 5.79 - - - - - - - 2,704 5.48 49,376 NMNew York 45 655,573 41.27 45 390,093 24.56 - 455,487 28.68 - 63,434 3.99 - 19,455 1.22 - 4,273 0.27 - 200,086 12.60 1,588,315 NYNorth Carolina 12 144,407 59.24 12 69,135 28.36 - 29,129 11.95 - 987 0.40 - 118 0.05 - - - - 75,272 30.88 243,776 NCNorth Dakota 5 29,555 34.14 5 25,726 29.71 - 23,090 26.67 - 6,966 8.05 - 1,243 1.44 - - - - 3,829 4.42 86,580 NDOhio 24 424,834 40.96 24 229,807 22.16 - 278,168 26.82 - 90,144 8.69 - 11,511 1.11 - 2,630 0.25 - 146,666 14.14 1,037,094 OHOklahoma 10 119,156 46.95 10 - - - 90,786 35.77 - 41,674 16.42 - 2,185 0.86 - - - - 28,370 11.18 253,801 OKOregon 5 47,064 34.34 5 37,600 27.44 - 34,673 25.30 - 13,343 9.74 - 4,360 3.18 - - - - 9,464 6.91 137,040 ORPennsylvania 38 395,637 32.49 - 444,894 36.53 38 273,360 22.45 - 83,614 6.87 - 19,525 1.60 - 706 0.06 - -49,257 -4.04 1,217,736 PARhode Island 5 30,412 39.04 5 16,878 21.67 - 27,703 35.56 - 2,049 2.63 - 616 0.79 - 236 0.30 - 2,709 3.48 77,894 RISouth Carolina 9 48,357 95.94 9 1,293 2.57 - 536 1.06 - 164 0.33 - - - - - - - 47,064 93.37 50,350 SCSouth Dakota 5 48,942 42.07 - 58,811 50.56 5 - - - 4,662 4.01 - 3,910 3.36 - - - - -9,869 -8.48 116,325 SDTennessee 12 133,021 52.80 12 54,041 21.45 - 60,475 24.00 - 3,564 1.41 - 832 0.33 - - - - 72,546 28.80 251,933 TNTexas 20 221,589 72.73 20 28,853 8.86 - 26,755 9.45 - 25,743 8.25 - 1,738 0.57 - 442 0.14 - 192,736 63.17 305,120 TXUtah 4 36,579 32.55 - 24,174 21.51 - 42,100 37.46 4 9,023 8.03 - - - - 510 0.45 - -5,521 -4.91 112,386 UTVermont 4 15,354 24.43 - 22,132 35.22 - 23,332 37.13 4 928 1.48 - 1,095 1.74 - - - - -1,200 -1.91 62,841 VTVirginia 12 90,332 65.95 12 21,776 15.90 - 23,288 17.00 - 820 0.60 - 709 0.52 - 50 0.04 - 67,044 48.95 136,975 VAWashington 7 86,840 26.90 - 113,698 35.22 7 70,445 21.82 - 40,134 12.43 - 9,810 3.04 - 1,872 0.58 - -26,858 -8.32 322,799 WAWest Virginia 8 113,197 42.11 8 79,112 29.43 - 56,754 21.11 - 15,248 5.67 - 4,517 1.68 - - - - 34,085 12.68 268,828 WVWisconsin 13 164,230 41.06 13 62,448 15.61 - 130,596 32.65 - 33,476 8.37 - 8,584 2.15 - 632 0.16 - 33,634 8.41 399,966 WIWyoming 3 15,310 36.20 3 9,232 21.83 - 14,560 34.42 - 2,760 6.53 - 434 1.03 - - - - 750 1.77 42,296 WY TOTALS: 531 6,296,284 41.84 435 4,122,721 27.40 88 3,486,242 23.17 8 901,551 5.99 - 208,156 1.38 - 29,324 0.19 - 2,173,563 14.44 15,044,278 US States that flipped from Republican to Democratic Connecticut Delaware Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Maine Maryland (popular vote) Massachusetts Missouri Montana New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Dakota Ohio Oregon Rhode Island West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming States that flipped from Republican to Progressive California Michigan Minnesota Pennsylvania South Dakota Washington Close states Margin of victory less than 1% (13 electoral votes): California, 0.03% (174 votes) Margin of victory less than 5% (142 electoral votes): Idaho, 1.05% (1,111 votes) Illinois, 1.62% (18,570 votes) Wyoming, 1.77% (750 votes) Vermont, 1.91% (1,200 votes) Maine, 2.02% (2,618 votes) New Hampshire, 2.04% (1,797 votes) Connecticut, 3.28% (6,237 votes) Rhode Island, 3.48% (2,709 votes) Massachusetts, 3.58% (17,460 votes) Pennsylvania, 4.04% (49,257 votes) North Dakota, 4.42% (3,829 votes) Iowa, 4.77% (23,506 votes) Utah, 4.91% (5,521 votes) Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (73 electoral votes): New Mexico, 5.48% (2,704 votes) Minnesota, 5.81% (19,430 votes) Kansas, 6.42% (23,453 votes) Montana, 6.87% (5,485 votes) Oregon, 6.91% (9,464 votes) New Jersey, 7.60% (32,879 votes) Washington, 8.32% (26,858 votes) Wisconsin, 8.41% (33,634 votes) South Dakota, 8.48% (9,869 votes) Tipping point state: New York, 12.6% (200,086 votes) (for a Wilson victory) Ohio, 18.9% (146,666 votes) (for a Roosevelt victory) New Hampshire, 37.2% (32,743 votes) (for a Taft victory) County statistics Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic) Greenville County, South Carolina 100% Marlboro County, South Carolina 100% Hampton County, South Carolina 100% Jasper County, South Carolina 100% Reagan County, Texas 100%Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Progressive) Scott County, Tennessee 75.15% Campbell County, South Dakota 74.93% Avery County, North Carolina 72.69% Hutchinson County, South Dakota 67.84% Hamlin County, South Dakota 66.79%Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican) Zapata County, Texas 80.89% Valencia County, New Mexico 77.25% Kane County, Utah 75.40% Clinton County, Kentucky 64.79% Huerfano County, Colorado 63.36%Counties with the Highest Percent of Vote (Socialist; incomplete) Lake County, Minnesota 36.81% Crawford County, Kansas 35.28% Marshall County, Oklahoma 34.94% McCurtain County, Oklahoma 31.83% Okfuskee County, Oklahoma 30.90%''' Maps Results in major cities August 2020 thumb|300px|Roosevelt, hurting from his defeats, reviews his wounded lieutenants Munsey, Perkins and Dixon. From The Evening Star (Washington DC) Dec 10, 1912 Results of various cities within the top 100 municipalities by the 1910 United States census. +CitySTWilsonTaftRooseveltDebsOthersTotalsSan FranciscoCA48,9536538,61012,3541,166101,148OaklandCA11,210014,2211,54952527,505DenverCO26,6908,15525,1542,75076463,513BridgeportCT5,8704,6253,6541,51128415,944HartfordCT7,4816,3962,46784925817,451New HavenCT8,9467,2913,2521,69644221,627WaterburyCT4,4403,2611,67578721210,375Des MoinesIA6,0053,6696,432ChicagoIL124,29771,030150,29053,7432,806402,166Ft. WayneIN4,8921,8962,793IndianapolisIN18,3068,7229,693New OrleansLA26,4339045,692BostonMA43,06521,42721,5331,81842888,271CambridgeMA6,6673,3623,4031926813,692Fall RiverMA5,1604,2243,45321925613,312LowellMA5,4593,0343,7831708212,528LynnMA4,5954,1444,76458317814,264LawrenceMA3,7651,9522,550518888,873HolyokeMA2,9971,6801,873249576,856BrocktonMA2,7401,5484,332756479,423New BedfordMA3,2904,1771,9056269810,096SomervilleMA4,0623,7574,0721767812,145SpringfieldMA4,3755,1673,1615555813,316WorcesterMA6,04910,5324,81823014021,769BaltimoreMD48,03015,59733,6791,76325399,322PortlandME4,2422,7763,3051975810,578Kansas CityMO26,9544,64620,8941,47046554,429St. LouisMO58,84546,50924,7469,1591,068140,327ManchesterNH4,5024,0222,1655203511,244BayonneNJ3,7171,1842,552CamdenNJ6,8955,5174,707ElizabethNJ5,1391,9003,953Jersey CityNJ21,0694,07011,986NewarkNJ14,03110,78019,721HobokenNJ5,0839752,341PatersonNJ7,4373,0077,223TrentonNJ5,1463,8984,753PassaicNJ1,7159991,952BuffaloNY26,19214,43320,769New York CityNY312,426126,582188,89633,2392,730663,873RochesterNY13,43012,23011,1022,59363639,991YonkersNY5,5334,0564,5363544914,528CincinnatiOH31,22130,5889,9706,52040178,700AllentownPA4,6271,2243,4756865910,071EriePA3,4072,3781,8981,4641409,287PhiladelphiaPA66,30891,94482,9639,784691251,690PittsburghPA17,35214,65825,3948,49853466,436ReadingPA6,1301,6576,7192,8008317,389ScrantonPA6,1931,8177,97156421416,759Wilkes-BarrePA2,9051,1783,951219478,300EriePA3,4072,3781,8981,4641409,287JohnstownPA2,6099593,310189997,166HarrisburghPA3,9713,2054,71845112012,465Salt Lake CityUT7,4888,9646,5872,498NorfolkVA3,53919545133104,228RichmondVA5,63640548391126,627MilwaukeeWI24,50115,0925,12717,70851162,939 See also 1912 United States House of Representatives elections 1912–13 United States Senate elections History of the United States (1865–1918) Progressive Era Bull Moose Party 1912 Populist National Convention Notes References Works cited Abramson Paul Aldrich John Rohde David Change and Continuity in the 1992 Elections CQ Press 1995 0871878399 Sherman Richard The Republican Party and Black America From McKinley to Hoover 1896-1933 University of Virginia Press 1973 0813904676 Further reading right Booknotes interview with James Chace on 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs, August 29, 2004, C-SPAN Presentation by Chace on 1912, May 12, 2004, C-SPAN "Election of 1912" in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ed. Coming to Power: Critical Presidential Elections in American History (1972) pp. 264–296. online Anders, O. Fritiof. "The Swedish-American Press in the Election of 1912" Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly (1963) 14#3 pp. 103–126 Broderick, Francis L. Progressivism at risk: Electing a president in 1912 (Praeger, 1989). James Chace James Chace 2004 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs – The Election That Changed the Country Simon and Schuster New York 0-7432-0394-1 https://archive.org/details/1912wilsonroosev00chac Cooper John Milton Jr. John M. Cooper (historian) The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt 1983 Belknap Press Cambridge 0-674-94751-7 Cowan, Geoffrey. Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary (2016). Delahaye Claire The New Nationalism and Progressive Issues: The Break with Taft and the 1912 Campaign A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt Ricard Serge 2011 452–67 https://www.questia.com/library/120083904/a-companion-to-theodore-roosevelt https://web.archive.org/web/20201214050242/https://www.questia.com/library/120083904/a-companion-to-theodore-roosevelt December 14, 2020 Questia subscription Malden, MA dead Wiley-Blackwell DeWitt, Benjamin P. The Progressive Movement: A Non-Partisan, Comprehensive Discussion of Current Tendencies in American Politics. (1915). Flehinger, Brett. The 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003). Gable, John A. The Bullmoose Years: Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party. (Kennikat Press, 1978). Gould, Lewis L. Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics (2009). j.ctv2rsfczd. Gould, Lewis L. "Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Disputed Delegates in 1912: Texas as a Test Case." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 80.1 (1976): 33–56 30238426. Hahn, Harlan. "The Republican Party Convention of 1912 and the Role of Herbert S. Hadley in National Politics." Missouri Historical Review 59.4 (1965): 407–423. Taft was willing to compromise with Missouri governor Herbert S. Hadley as presidential nominee; TR said no. Istre, Logan S. "Bench over Ballot: The Fight for Judicial Supremacy and the New Constitutional Politics, 1910–1916." The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 20, no. 1 (2021): 2-23. doi:10.1017/S1537781420000079. The American Socialist Movement, 1897–1912 Kipnis Ira 1952 Columbia University Press New York Kraig, Robert Alexander. "The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State." Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2000): 363–395. 41940243. Link Arthur S. Arthur S. Link Wilson: Volume 1, The Road to the White House 1956 Milkis, Sidney M., and Daniel J. Tichenor. "'Direct Democracy' and Social Justice: The Progressive Party Campaign of 1912." Studies in American Political Development 8#2 (1994): 282–340. 10.1017/S0898588X00001267. Milkis, Sidney M. Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2009. H. Wayne Morgan 1962 Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President Syracuse University Press https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=7935245 September 17, 2017 February 1, 2009 Questia subscription https://web.archive.org/web/20090201032242/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=7935245 dead Mowry George E. George E. Mowry Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement 1946 Madison Wisconsin University Press online Mowry, George E. "The Election of 1912" in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred L Israel, eds., History of American Presidential Elections: 1789–1968 (1971) 3: 2135–2427. online Mowry, George E. The Era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America. (Harper and Row, 1962) online. Ness, Immanuel, and James Ciment, eds. The Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America (3 vol. 2000). O'Mara, Margaret. Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections That Shaped the Twentieth Century (2015), compares 1912, 1932, 1968, 1992 in terms of social, economic, and political history Painter, Carl, "The Progressive Party In Indiana," Indiana Magazine of History, 16#3 (1920), pp. 173–283. 27785944. Pinchot, Amos. History of the Progressive Party, 1912–1916. Introduction by Helene Maxwell Hooker. (New York University Press, 1958). Sarasohn, David. The Party of Reform: Democrats in the Progressive Era (UP of Mississippi, 1989), pp. 119–154. Schambra, William. "The Election of 1912 and the Origins of Constitutional Conservatism." in Toward an American Conservatism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 95–119. Selmi, Patrick. "Jane Addams and the Progressive Party Campaign for President in 1912." Journal of Progressive Human Services 22.2 (2011): 160–190. 10.1080/10428232.2010.540705. Startt, James D. "Wilson's Election Campaign of 1912 and the Press." in Woodrow Wilson and the Press: Prelude to the Presidency (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) pp. 197–228. Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (U of North Carolina Press, 2003) pp. 200–220. Unger, Nancy C. "The 'Political Suicide' of Robert M. La Follette: Public Disaster, Private Catharsis" Psychohistory Review 21#2 (1993) pp. 187–220 online on his disastrous speech of February 2, 1912. Warner, Robert M. "Chase S. Osborn and the Presidential Campaign of 1912." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 46.1 (1959): 19–45. 1892386. Wilensky Norman N. Conservatives in the Progressive Era: The Taft Republicans of 1912 1965 Gainesville University of Florida Press Primary sources Bryan, William Jennings. A Tale of Two Conventions: Being an Account of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of June, 1912, with an Outline of the Progressive National Convention of August in the Same Year (Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1912). online Chester, Edward W. A guide to political platforms (1977) online Pinchot, Amos. What's the Matter with America: The Meaning of the Progressive Movement and the Rise of the New Party (Amos Pinchot, 1912). Republican campaign text-book 1912 (1912) online Roosevelt, Theodore. Theodore Roosevelt's Confession of Faith Before the Progressive National Convention, August 6, 1912 (Progressive Party, 1912) online. Roosevelt, Theodore. Bull Moose on the Stump: The 1912 Campaign Speeches of Theodore Roosevelt Ed. by Lewis L. Gould. (UP of Kansas, 2008). Wilson Woodrow A Crossroads of Freedom, the 1912 Campaign Speeches John Wells Davidson 1956 online Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840–1964'' (1965) online 1840–1956 External links Presidential Election of 1912: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress editorial cartoons https://web.archive.org/web/20200215010223/http://theodore-roosevelt.com/toonsbytopic1912election.html February 15, 2020 Sound recording of TR speech 1912 popular vote by counties 1912 State-by-state Popular vote The Election of 1912 https://web.archive.org/web/20130920181127/http://www.american-presidents.org/2006/08/election-of-1912.html September 20, 2013 Election of 1912 in Counting the Votes Theodore Roosevelt Speech Edison Recordings Campaign – 1912, audio recording William Taft Edison Recordings Campaign – 1912, audio recording Woodrow Wilson Edison Campaign Recordings – 1912 audio recording 1912 Electoral Vote Tally Category:Theodore Roosevelt Category:Woodrow Wilson Category:William Howard Taft Category:Eugene V. Debs Category:Thomas R. Marshall Category:James S. Sherman Category:Presidency of Woodrow Wilson Category:Presidency of William Howard Taft Category:November 1912 in the United States