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The U.S. presidential election of 1912 was fought among three major candidates, two of whom had previously served as President. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican party with the support of the conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to get the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created a new Progressive Party (nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party”). It nominated Roosevelt and ran slates for other offices in major states. Democrat Woodrow Wilson, was nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious convention, thanks to the support of William Jennings Bryan. He defeated both Taft and Roosevelt in the general election, winning a vast majority in the Electoral College with only 42% of the popular vote, and initiating the only period between 1892 and 1932 when a Democrat was elected President. Wilson was the second of only two Democrats to be elected President between 1856 and 1932.

Background

President Theodore Roosevelt had declined to run for reelection in 1908, following the long-established tradition that Presidents were to leave office after two terms. He had tapped William Howard Taft as his successor, and Taft had gone on to win the election of 1908. During Taft's administration, a rift grew between Roosevelt and Taft. It was caused both by Roosevelt's ambition to return to the Presidency and by a rift within the Republican Party itself. The Republican Party was split into two wings: the progressives supported government regulation and conservation and evinced a strong willingness to work with organized labor, while the conservatives were more skeptical of all three. Taft became identified with the conservative wing while Roosevelt became identified with the progressive wing. By the time the election of 1912 rolled around, there was a serious danger that the Republican Party would split.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

By this point in United States history, some states had begun running primary elections to determine some of their delegates. Primary elections were one of the good government reforms pushed by the Progressive movement, so the primary elections were all held in progressive states. Roosevelt won all but one of these Republican primaries, including Taft's home state of Ohio.

The Republican Convention was held in Chicago from June 8 to June 22. Unfortunately for Roosevelt, Taft had started much earlier in rounding up delegates, and the delegates chosen by primary election were a minority. In a decisive move, Taft's people purchased support of the corrupt politicians who represented the shadow Republican party in southern states. (These states always voted Democratic in presidential elections, but their delegates had over 300 votes at the Republican National convention.) Taft's managers, led by Elihu Root—once Roosevelt's top ally—beat back challenges to their southern delegations; Taft now had more delegates than Roosevelt. Roosevelt's people had made similar purchases in the South in 1904, but this time Roosevelt called foul. Not since 1872 had there been a major schism in the Republican party; Roosevelt himself, in the 1884, had refused to bolt the ticket even though he distrusted candidate James G. Blaine. Now, with the Democrats holding about 45% of the national vote, any schism would be fatal. Roosevelt's only hope at the convention was to form a "stop-Taft" alliance with LaFollette, but Roosevelt had alienated LaFollette, and the alliance could not form.

Unable to tolerate the personal humiliation he suffered at the hands of Taft and the Old Guard, and refusing to entertain the possibility of a compromise candidate, Roosevelt struck back hard. On the evening of June 22, 1912, Roosevelt asked his supporters to leave the Convention. Roosevelt maintained that President Taft had allowed fraudulent seating of delegates in order to capture the presidential nomination from progressive forces within the Party. Thus, with the support of convention chairman Elihu Root, Taft's supporters outvoted Roosevelt's men, and the convention renominated incumbents William Howard Taft and James S. Sherman, making Sherman the first Vice President since Richard M. Johnson to be nominated for reelection.

Progressive Party nomination

Republican progressives reconvened in Chicago's Orchestra Hall and endorsed the formation of a national progressive party. When formally launched later that summer, the new Progressive Party chose Roosevelt as its presidential nominee. Questioned by reporters, Roosevelt said he felt as strong as a “bull moose”. Thenceforth known as the “Bull Moose Party”, the Progressives promised to increase federal regulation and protect the welfare of ordinary people.

The party was funded by publisher Frank A. Munsey and its executive secretary George Perkins, a former employee of banker J. P. Morgan and the harvester trust. Perkins blocked an anti-trust plank, shocking reformers who saw Roosevelt as a true trust-buster.

Democratic Party nomination

The Democratic Convention was held in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2. After a long deadlock, former Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan threw his support to Woodrow Wilson in order to defeat Missouri Representative Champ Clark. Wilson received the nomination on the 46th ballot.

Socialist Party nomination

The Socialist Party of America was a coalition of local parties based in industrial cities and usually was rooted in ethnic communities, especially German and Finnish. By 1912, they claimed more than a thousand locally elected officials in 33 states and 160 cities, especially the Midwest. Eugene Debs had run for President in 1900, 1904, and 1908, primarily to encourage the local effort, and he did so again in 1912.

The party was factionalized. The conservatives, led by Victor Berger of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, promoted progressive causes of efficiency and an end to corruption. The radicals wanted to overthrow capitalism, tried to infiltrate labor unions, and sought to cooperate with the Industrial Workers of the World. With few exceptions the party had weak or nonexistent links to local labor unions. Immigration was an issue—the radicals saw immigrants as fodder for the war with capitalism, while conservatives complained that they lowered wage rates and absorbed too many city resources. Many of these issues had been debated at the First National Congress of the Socialist Party in 1910, and they were debated again at the national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1912. At the latter, the radicals won an early test by seating Bill Haywood on the Executive Committee, by sending encouragement to western “Wobblies”, and by a resolution seeming to favor industrial unionism. The conservatives counterattacked by amending the party constitution to expel any socialists who favored industrial sabotage or syndicalism (that is, the IWW), and who refused to participate in American elections. They adopted a conservative platform calling for cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, abolition of the Senate and the presidential veto, and a long list of progressive reforms that the Democratic party was known for. Debs did not attend—he saw his mission as keeping the disparate units together in the hope that someday a common goal would be found.

General election

Campaign

The 1912 presidential campaign was bitterly contested. Vice President James S. Sherman died in office on October 30, 1912, less than a week before the election, leaving Taft without a running mate. With the Republican Party divided, Wilson captured the presidency handily on November 5.

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, especially, watching and chastising bad corporations and overruling federal and state judges who made unprogressive decisions. Wilson called for "The New Freedom", which emphasized individualism rather than the powerful national government that Roosevelt was promoting. Taft, knowing he had no chance to win, campaigned quietly, emphasizing the superior role of judges over the demagogy of elected officials. The departure of the more extreme progressives left the conservatives even more firmly in control of the Republican Party, and many of the Old Guard leaders even distrusted Taft as too progressive for their taste, especially on matters of antitrust and tariffs. Much of the Republican effort was designed to discredit Roosevelt as a dangerous radical, but people knew Roosevelt too well to buy that argument. The result was the weakest Republican effort in history. Roosevelt's strong third-party candidacy resulted in the only instance in the 20th century of a third party candidate receiving more votes than one of the major party candidates: although he failed to become chief executive again, Roosevelt succeeded in his vendetta against Taft, who received just twenty-three percent of the popular vote compared to Roosevelt's twenty-seven percent. Winning only eight electoral votes, Taft suffered the worst defeat than any other President defeated for reelection.

Nicholas Butler was selected to receive the electoral votes from Utah and Vermont that would have gone to Sherman.

Source: Library of Congress

Socialist campaign
The Socialists had little money—Debs' campaign cost only $66,000, mostly for 3.5 million leaflets and travel to rallies organized by local groups. His biggest event was a speech to 15,000 in New York City. The crowd sang “La Marseillaise” and “The Internationale” as Emil Seidel, the vice presidential candidate, 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 said that only the socialists represented labor. He condemned “Injunction Bill Taft” and ridiculed Roosevelt as “a charlatan, mountebank, and fraud, and his Progressive promises and pledges as the mouthings of a low and utterly unprincipled self seeker and demagogue.” Debs insisted that the Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans alike were financed by the trusts. Party newspapers spread the word—there were five English-language and eight foreign-language dailies along with 262 English and 36 foreign language weeklies.

Results

Source (Popular Vote):

Source (Electoral Vote):


State by state results

  • |*2
  • |*11
!align=left|Colorado


Woodrow Wilson Theodore Roosevelt William Taft Eugene V. Debs
electoral
votes 		State count % electoral
votes 		count % electoral
votes 		count % electoral
votes 		count % electoral
votes
12 Alabama 82,438 69.9 12 22,680 19.2 9,807 8.3 3,029 2.6
3 Arizona 10,324 44.0 3 6,949 29.6 3,021 12.9 3,163 13.5
9 Arkansas 68,814 55.4 9 21,644 17.4 25,585 20.6 8,153 6.6
13 California 283,436 43.6 283,610 43.6 3,914 0.6 79,201 12.2
6 114,232 43.7 6 72,306 27.7 58,386 22.3 16,418 6.3
7 Connecticut 74,561 39.9 7 34,129 18.2 68,324 36.5 10,056 5.4
3 Delaware 22,631 47.1 3 8,886 18.5 15,998 33.3 556 1.2
6 Florida 35,343 72.2 6 4,555 9.3 4,279 8.7 4,806 9.8
14 Georgia 93,087 76.7 14 21,985 18.1 5,191 4.3 1,058 0.9
4 Idaho 33,921 32.5 4 25,527 24.5 32,810 31.5 11,960 11.5
29 Illinois 405,048 36.0 29 386,478 34.3 253,593 22.5 81,278 7.2
15 Indiana 281,890 44.6 15 162,007 25.6 151,267 23.9 36,931 5.8
13 Iowa 185,325 38.3 13 161,819 33.4 119,805 24.8 16,967 3.5
10 Kansas 143,663 39.3 10 120,210 32.9 74,845 20.5 26,779 7.3
13 Kentucky 219,484 48.9 13 101,766 22.7 115,510 25.8 11,646 2.6
10 Louisiana 60,871 76.8 10 9,283 11.7 3,833 4.8 5,261 6.6
6 Maine 51,113 39.7 6 48,495 37.7 26,545 20.6 2,541 2.0
8 Maryland 112,674 49.1 8 57,789 25.2 54,956 24.0 3,996 1.7
18 Massachusetts 173,408 35.8 18 142,228 29.4 155,948 32.2 12,616 2.6
15 Michigan 150,751 27.9 214,584 39.7 15 152,244 28.2 23,211 4.3
12 Minnesota 106,426 32.8 125,856 38.8 12 64,334 19.8 27,505 8.5
10 Mississippi 57,324 88.9 10 3,549 5.5 1,560 2.4 2,050 3.2
18 Missouri 330,746 47.8 18 124,375 18.0 207,821 30.1 28,466 4.1
4 Montana 27,941 35.0 4 22,456 28.1 18,512 23.2 10,885 13.6
8 Nebraska 109,008 44.3 8 72,681 29.5 54,226 22.0 10,185 4.1
3 Nevada 7,986 39.7 3 5,620 27.9 3,196 15.9 3,313 16.5
4 New Hampshire 34,724 39.7 4 17,794 20.4 32,927 37.7 1,981 2.3
14 New Jersey 178,289 41.6 14 145,410 33.9 88,835 20.7 15,948 3.7
3 New Mexico 20,437 41.3 3 8,347 16.9 17,733 35.9 2,859 5.8
45 New York 655,573 41.9 45 390,093 24.9 455,487 29.1 63,434 4.1
12 North Carolina 144,407 59.3 12 69,135 28.4 29,129 12.0 987 0.4
5 North Dakota 29,555 34.6 5 25,726 30.1 23,090 27.1 6,966 8.2
24 Ohio 424,834 41.5 24 229,807 22.5 278,168 27.2 90,144 8.8
10 Oklahoma 119,156 47.4 10 not on ballot 90,786 36.1 41,674 16.6
5 Oregon 47,064 35.5 5 37,600 28.3 34,673 26.1 13,343 10.1
38 Pennsylvania 395,637 33.0 444,894 37.2 38 273,360 22.8 83,614 7.0
5 Rhode Island 30,412 39.5 5 16,878 21.9 27,703 36.0 2,049 2.7
9 South Carolina 48,357 96.0 9 1,293 2.6 536 1.1 164 0.3
5 South Dakota 48,942 43.5 58,811 52.3 5 not on ballot 4,662 4.1
12 Tennessee 133,021 53.0 12 54,041 21.5 60,475 24.1 3,564 1.4
20 Texas 221,589 73.1 20 28,853 9.5 26,755 8.8 25,743 8.5
4 Utah 36,579 32.7 24,174 21.6 42,100 37.6 4 9,023 8.1
4 Vermont 15,354 24.9 22,132 35.8 23,332 37.8 4 928 1.5
12 Virginia 90,332 66.3 12 21,776 16.0 23,288 17.1 820 0.6
7 Washington 86,840 27.9 113,698 36.5 7 70,445 22.6 40,134 12.9
8 West Virginia 113,097 42.8 8 79,112 29.9 56,754 21.5 15,248 5.8
13 Wisconsin 164,230 42.0 13 62,448 16.0 130,596 33.4 33,476 8.6
3 Wyoming 15,310 36.6 3 9,232 22.1 14,560 34.8 2,760 6.6

count % electoral
votes 		count % electoral
votes 		count % electoral
votes 		count % electoral
votes
531Totals: 6,296,18442.5435 4,122,72127.8 88 3,486,24223.5 8 901,551 6.1 0
percentages in this table do not take into account other candidates

Source: Leip, David. 1912 Presidential Election Data by State. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 31, 2005).


Consequences

Despite an impressive showing in 1912, the Bull Moose Party failed to establish itself as a viable third party in 1914. It vanished in 1916 with most members following Roosevelt back into the Republican party. However, the Taft conservatives controlled the party and its platform after 1912.

See also

References

Primary sources

External links

Navigation

United States presidential elections | 1912 elections

Elezioni Presidenziali degli Stati Uniti del 1912

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "United States presidential election, 1912".

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