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The 1912 United States presidential election was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, who ran under the banner of the new Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party unseated incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft and defeated Democratic challenger Governor Woodrow Wilson.

Roosevelt served as president from 1901 to 1909 as a Republican, and Taft succeeded him with his support. However, Taft's actions as president displeased Roosevelt, and Roosevelt 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, who shockingly declined the nomination, citing how Roosevelt is a "true fighter for the working class", helping to pave the way for Theodore Roosevelt's upset win.

The general election was bitterly contested by Roosevelt, Wilson, and Taft. 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. With little chance of victory, Taft conducted a subdued campaign based on his platform of conservatism.

Roosevelt took advantage of Taft's declining popularity, winning 40 states and a large majority of the electoral vote with just 41.8% of the popular vote, the lowest support for any President after 1860. Wilson was the first Democrat to win a presidential election since 1892 and one of just two Democratic presidents to serve between 1861 (the American Civil War) and 1932 (the onset of the Great Depression). Roosevelt finished second with 88 electoral votes and 27% of the popular vote. Taft carried 23% of the national vote and won two states, Vermont and Utah. He was the first Republican to lose the Northern states. With Wilson's decisive victory, he became the first presidential candidate to receive over 400 electoral votes in a presidential election.

Background
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. 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
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. 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.

Cracks in the party began to show when Taft supported the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1909. The Act favored the industrial Northeast and angered the Northwest and South, where demand was strong for tariff reductions. 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.

Taft also fought against Roosevelt's antitrust policy. While Roosevelt believed some monopolies should be preserved, 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. By 1910, the split within the party was deep, and Roosevelt and Taft turned against one another despite their personal friendship. 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. 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. James E. Campbell writes that one cause may have been a large number of progressive voters choosing third-party candidates over conservative Republicans. Nevertheless, Roosevelt continued to reject calls to run for president into the year 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." 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."

Delegate selection
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, twelve states held Republican primaries.

Senator Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette won two of the first four primaries (North Dakota and his home state of Wisconsin), but 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.

However, on March 28, Roosevelt issued an ultimatum: if Republicans did not nominate him, he would run as an independent. Beginning with a runaway victory in Illinois on April 9, Roosevelt won nine of the last ten presidential primaries (including Taft's home state of Ohio), losing only Massachusetts.

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
The Republican Convention convened in Chicago from June 18 to 22. In the weeks leading up to the convention, many delegates remained uncommitted to a candidate, but by the time the convention formally opened, Taft had won the support of almost every unbound delegate. Roosevelt accused Taft of stealing votes and attempted to have delegates from Arizona, California, Texas, and Washington — all states supporting Taft — removed from the convention, but he was unsuccessful. The delegates chose Taft supporter Elihu Root to serve as chairman of the convention, a move that signaled that Taft was likely to win the nomination.

Roosevelt broke with tradition and attended the convention, where he was welcomed with great support from voters. 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. 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." 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.

Not since the 1884 election had there been a major schism in the Republican Party, when the Mugwump faction repudiated nominee James G. Blaine and broke with the party. The schism, in which Roosevelt had nearly participated after fighting Blaine's nomination, was a major factor in Blaine's loss to Grover Cleveland.

Other major candidates
The Democratic 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.

Clark's chances were hurt when Tammany Hall, the powerful New York City Democratic political machine, threw its support behind him. The Tammany endorsement caused William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic presidential candidate and leader of the party's progressives, to turn against Clark. Bryan shifted his support to reformist Governor of New Jersey Woodrow Wilson and decried Clark as the candidate of Wall Street. Wilson had consistently finished second in balloting.

Wilson had nearly given up hope and was almost freed his delegates to vote for another candidate. Instead, Bryan's defection from Clark to Wilson led many other delegates to do the same. Wilson gradually gained strength while Clark's support dwindled, and Wilson finally received the nomination on the 46th ballot.

Thomas R. Marshall, the Governor of Indiana who had swung Indiana's votes to Wilson, was named Wilson's running mate.

Progressive Party nomination


Progressives reconvened in Chicago and endorsed the formation of a national Progressive Party. The party was funded by publisher Frank Munsey and businessman George Walbridge Perkins, who served as executive secretary. At their convention on August 5, the new party chose Roosevelt as its presidential nominee and Governor Hiram Johnson from California as his vice presidential running mate.

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. 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."

Most progressive politicians remained in the Republican Party.

Socialist Party nomination
Socialist candidates:


 * Eugene V. Debs, former State Senator from Indiana
 * Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
 * Charles Edward Russell, journalist from Iowa

The Socialist Party of America was a highly factionalized coalition of local parties based in industrial cities and rooted in ethnic, especially German and Finnish, communities. It had some support in formerly Populist rural and mining areas in the West, especially Oklahoma. By 1912, the party claimed more than a thousand locally elected officials in 33 states and 160 cities, especially the Midwest. Eugene V. Debs had run for president in 1900, 1904, and 1908, primarily to encourage the local effort, and he did so again in 1912 with little challenge to his nomination.

The party was divided into two main factions. The conservative faction led by Congressman Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee promoted pragmatic democratic reform, fought corruption, and opposed immigration as both a wage suppressant and drain on public resources. The radical faction sought to overthrow capitalism, tried to infiltrate labor unions, and sought to cooperate with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies"). It supported immigration to increase ranks for the war on capitalism. With few exceptions, the party had weak or nonexistent links to local labor unions.

Many of these issues had been debated at the First National Congress of the Socialist Party in 1910 and again at the 1912 national convention in Indianapolis. At the convention, the radicals won an early test by seating IWW leader Bill Haywood on the Executive Committee and passed a resolution favoring industrial unionism. Conservatives responded by amending the party constitution to expel any who favored industrial sabotage or syndicalism (both positions of the IWW) and who refused to participate in American elections. The convention adopted a conservative platform calling for the cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, and the abolition of the Senate and the presidential veto.

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
The 1912 presidential campaign was bitterly contested.

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. 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."

Wilson supported a policy called "The New Freedom". This policy was based mostly on individualism instead of a strong government. Though Wilson's rhetoric paid homage to the traditional skepticism of government and "collectivism" in the Democratic Party, after his election he would embrace some of the progressive reforms which Roosevelt campaigned on. Taft 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. Many of the nation's pro-Republican newspapers depicted Roosevelt as an egotist running only to spoil Taft's chances and feed his vanity.

The Socialists had little funding. Debs' campaign spent only $66,000, mostly on 3.5 million leaflets and travel to locally organized rallies. His 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 insisted that Democrats, Progressives, and Republicans alike were financed by the trusts and 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."

Attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt
At a campaign stop in Milwaukee on October 14, John Flammang 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. Schrank had been stalking Roosevelt. He was demented and said the ghost of President McKinley ordered him to kill Roosevelt to prevent a third term.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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. He 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.

Death of Vice President Sherman
On October 30, 1912, Vice President James S. Sherman died, leaving Taft without a running mate less than a week before the election. Nicholas M. Butler, president of Columbia University, was hastily chosen to replace Sherman as the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

Results
On November 5, Wilson captured the presidency handily by carrying a record 40 states.

As of, this is the only presidential election since 1860 in which either 4 candidates received more than 5% of the popular vote or a third-party candidate outperformed a Republican or Democrat in the general election. 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 or Democrat, matched by Alf Landon's 1936 campaign.

Electoral results
Source (Popular Vote):

Source (Electoral Vote):

Statistical analysis
Wilson's raw vote total was less than William Jennings Bryan totaled in any of his three campaigns. In only two regions, New England and the Pacific, was Wilson's vote greater than the greatest Bryan vote.

Results by state
The 1912 election was the first to include all 48 of the current contiguous United States. Few states were carried by any candidate with a majority of the popular vote. Wilson won a majority in the eleven 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 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, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

Close states
Margin of victory less than 1% (13 electoral votes):


 * 1) California, 0.03% (174 votes)

Margin of victory less than 5% (142 electoral votes):


 * 1) Idaho, 1.05% (1,111 votes)
 * 2) Illinois, 1.62% (18,570 votes)
 * 3) Wyoming, 1.77% (750 votes)
 * 4) Vermont, 1.91% (1,200 votes)
 * 5) Maine, 2.02% (2,618 votes)
 * 6) New Hampshire, 2.04% (1,797 votes)
 * 7) Connecticut, 3.28% (6,237 votes)
 * 8) Rhode Island, 3.48% (2,709 votes)
 * 9) Massachusetts, 3.58% (17,460 votes)
 * 10) Pennsylvania, 4.04% (49,257 votes)
 * 11) North Dakota, 4.42% (3,829 votes)
 * 12) Iowa, 4.77% (23,506 votes)
 * 13) Utah, 4.91% (5,521 votes)

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (73 electoral votes):


 * 1) New Mexico, 5.48% (2,704 votes)
 * 2) Minnesota, 5.81% (19,430 votes)
 * 3) Kansas, 6.42% (23,453 votes)
 * 4) Montana, 6.87% (5,485 votes)
 * 5) Oregon, 6.91% (9,464 votes)
 * 6) New Jersey, 7.60% (32,879 votes)
 * 7) Washington, 8.32% (26,858 votes)
 * 8) Wisconsin, 8.41% (33,634 votes)
 * 9) South Dakota, 8.48% (9,869 votes)

Tipping point state:


 * 1) New York, 12.6% (200,086 votes) (for a Taft victory)
 * 2) Ohio, 18.9% (146,666 votes) (for a Roosevelt victory)

By county
In a plurality of 1,396 counties, no candidate obtained a majority.

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 twelve more years.

As of, 1912 remains the last election in which the key Indiana counties of Hamilton and Hendricks, along with Walworth County, Wisconsin, Pulaski and Laurel Counties in Kentucky and Hawkins County, Tennessee have given a plurality to the Democratic candidate.

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)


 * 1) Greenville County, South Carolina 100.00%
 * 2) Marlboro County, South Carolina 100.00%
 * 3) Hampton County, South Carolina 100.00%
 * 4) Jasper County, South Carolina 100.00%
 * 5) Reagan County, Texas 100.00%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Progressive)


 * 1) Scott County, Tennessee 75.15%
 * 2) Campbell County, South Dakota 74.93%
 * 3) Avery County, North Carolina 72.69%
 * 4) Hutchinson County, South Dakota 67.84%
 * 5) Hamlin County, South Dakota 66.79%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)


 * 1) Zapata County, Texas 80.89%
 * 2) Valencia County, New Mexico 77.25%
 * 3) Kane County, Utah 75.40%
 * 4) Clinton County, Kentucky 64.79%
 * 5) Huerfano County, Colorado 63.36%

Counties with the Highest Percent of Vote (Socialist; incomplete)


 * 1) Lake County, Minnesota 36.81%
 * 2) Crawford County, Kansas 35.28%
 * 3) Marshall County, Oklahoma 34.94%
 * 4) McCurtain County, Oklahoma 31.83%
 * 5) Okfuskee County, Oklahoma 30.90%

By city (incomplete)
Results of various cities within the top 100 municipalities by the 1910 United States Census.