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1912 United States presidential election

The 1912 United States presidential election was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. Democratic Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey unseated incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft while defeating former President Theodore Roosevelt (who ran under the banner of the new Progressive/"Bull Moose" Party) and Socialist Party nominee Eugene V. Debs.[1]

531 members of the Electoral College
266 electoral votes needed to win

58.8% Decrease 6.6 pp

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. 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. 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 US presidential elections. This is the most recent presidential election since 1876 in which the Democratic ticket has consisted of sitting governors.

Results by state

Results by state

Map of presidential election results by county

Map of presidential election results by county

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Wilson

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Wilson

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Taft

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Taft

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Debs

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Debs

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for all others including Debs

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for all others including Debs

A continuous cartogram of the 1912 United States presidential election

A continuous cartogram of the 1912 United States presidential election

Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for Wilson

Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for Wilson

Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for Taft

Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for Taft

Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for all others

Cartogram shaded according to percentage of the vote for all others

1912 United States House of Representatives elections

1912–13 United States Senate elections

History of the United States (1865–1918)

Progressive Era

Progressive Party (United States, 1912)

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).

(2004). 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs – The Election That Changed the Country. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0394-1.

Chace, James

(1983). The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Cambridge: Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-94751-7.

Cooper, John Milton Jr.

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," in Serge Ricard, ed., A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt (2011) pp. 452–67. Archived December 14, 2020, at the Wayback Machine

online

DeWitt, Benjamin P. . (1915).

The Progressive Movement: A Non-Partisan, Comprehensive Discussion of Current Tendencies in American Politics

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).

Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics (2009). JSTOR 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 JSTOR 30238426.

Gould, Lewis L.

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 as presidential nominee; TR said no.

Herbert S. Hadley

Istre, Logan S. "" The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 20, no. 1 (2021): 2-23. doi:10.1017/S1537781420000079.

Bench over Ballot: The Fight for Judicial Supremacy and the New Constitutional Politics, 1910–1916.

Kipnis, Ira (1952). The American Socialist Movement, 1897–1912. New York: Columbia University Press.

Kraig, Robert Alexander. "The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State." Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2000): 363–395.  41940243.

JSTOR

(1956). Wilson: Volume 1, The Road to the White House.

Link, Arthur S.

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.

doi

Milkis, Sidney M. Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2009.

Morgan, H. Wayne (1962). . Syracuse University Press.

Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President

(1946). Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement. Madison: Wisconsin University Press. online

Mowry, George E.

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," , 16#3 (1920), pp. 173–283. JSTOR 27785944.

Indiana Magazine of History

. History of the Progressive Party, 1912–1916. Introduction by Helene Maxwell Hooker. (New York University Press, 1958).

Pinchot, Amos

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.

doi

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 on his disastrous speech of February 2, 1912.

online

Warner, Robert M. "Chase S. Osborn and the Presidential Campaign of 1912." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 46.1 (1959): 19–45.  1892386.

JSTOR

Wilensky, Norman N. (1965). Conservatives in the Progressive Era: The Taft Republicans of 1912. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.

from the Library of Congress

Presidential Election of 1912: A Resource Guide

Archived February 15, 2020, at the Wayback Machine

editorial cartoons

Sound recording of TR speech

1912 popular vote by counties

1912 State-by-state Popular vote

Archived September 20, 2013, at the Wayback Machine

The Election of 1912

Election of 1912 in Counting the Votes

audio recording

Theodore Roosevelt Speech Edison Recordings Campaign – 1912

audio recording

William Taft Edison Recordings Campaign – 1912

audio recording

Woodrow Wilson Edison Campaign Recordings – 1912