With Roosevelt refusing to be their candidate, the Progressive Party quickly fell into disarray; there was a temporary shout led by former Representative
Victor Murdock of Kansas for a ticket consisting of three-time Democratic presidential nominee
William Jennings Bryan and industrialist
Henry Ford but it amounted to little. Some like National Committeeman
Harold L. Ickes refused to consider endorsing Hughes, and there was some talk of nominating another for the presidency in Roosevelt's stead, such as Hiram Johnson or
Gifford Pinchot. However those discussed refused to consider the notion, and by this point some leaders like
Henry Justin Allen had started to follow Roosevelt's lead and endorsed the Republican ticket, and various state parties such as those in Iowa and Maine began to disband. Finally, when the Progressive Party National Committee met in Chicago on June 26, those in attendance begrudgingly endorsed Hughes; even those like Ickes who had vehemently refused to consider granting an endorsement to Hughes began to recognize that without Roosevelt the party had no electoral staying power. There had been a weak attempt to replace Roosevelt on the ticket with the former Kansas Representative
Victor Murdock, but the motion was defeated 31 to 15.
Candidates gallery File:T Roosevelt.jpg| File:VictorMurdock.jpg| File:Hiram Johnson.jpg| File:Gifford Pinchot 3c03915u.jpg| Most of its members would return to the Republican Party, although a substantial minority supported Wilson for his efforts in keeping the United States out of
World War I. Roosevelt had turned down the Progressive presidential nomination for both personal and political reasons; he had become convinced that running for president on a third-party ticket again would merely give the election to the Democrats, a result he loathed to make possible, since he had developed a strong dislike for President Wilson. He also believed Wilson was allowing
Germany and other warring nations in
Europe to "bully" and intimidate the United States. The Roosevelt-Parker ticket did manage to get on the ballot in several states. ==See also==