1912 United States presidential election

, 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. 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 '' 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. 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. 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. Roosevelt distinguished "good trusts" from "bad trusts", for which he had been lambasted. 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. 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. 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. 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. James E. Campbell writes that one cause may have been a large number of progressive voters choosing third-party candidates over conservative Republicans. 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." 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." ==Nominations==

Republican Party nomination Other major candidates 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, 12 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. Socialist Party nomination Socialist candidates: • Eugene V. Debs, former Indiana state representative from Indiana • Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin • Charles Edward Russell, journalist from New York '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. 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 Reason's 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. 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. 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. ==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. 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. 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. 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 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: 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: Attempted assassination of Theodore Roosevelt 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. ==Results==

Turnout in the election was 59%, with 27.9% of the voting age population participating in the election. 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. The implementation of Jim Crow laws after the Reconstruction Era significantly reduced Black voter turnout. 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. Wilson's raw vote total and percentage was less than William Jennings Bryan's total 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. The 1912 election was the first to include all 48 of the current contiguous United States. 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. 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%. 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. 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 12 more years. Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote): Results by state States that flipped from Republican to Democratic • Connecticut • Delaware • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Maine • Maryland • 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 File:1912 Electoral Map.png|Results by state File:PresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Map of presidential election results by county File:1912 United States presidential election results map by county.svg|Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote File:DemocraticPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Wilson File:RepublicanPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Taft File:1912 Debs County Map.svg|Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Debs File:OtherPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for all others including Debs File:CartogramPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|A continuous cartogram of the 1912 United States presidential election File:CartogramDemocraticPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for Wilson File:CartogramRepublicanPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for Taft File:CartogramOtherPresidentialCounty1912Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for all others File:1912-us-election-by-state.svg|Results by state, shaded according to percentage of the vote according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote File:Debs1912PercentageByState.svg|State Level Performance for Eugene Debs' Presidential Campaign, 1912 (Socialist Party) ==Results in major cities==

Results of various cities within the top 100 municipalities by the 1910 United States census. ==See also==