why did wilson win the election of 1912

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How many votes did Wilson get?

On election day, Wilson received over 6 million votes, Roosevelt over 4 million, and Taft over 3 million. Wilson’s election made him only the second Democrat to win the presidency since the Civil War, a victory gained with only 42 percent of the popular vote. Despite being outpolled by the combined totals voting for Roosevelt and Taft, ...

Why did President Roosevelt and Taft split?

The split among Republicans occurred when former President Roosevelt challenged the nomination of his former Cabinet officer and hand-picked successor as president, William Howard Taft. Along with other more progressive Republican leaders, Roosevelt had split with Taft over his Administration’s policies, particularly the defense of business interests in maintaining high tariffs on imported goods and the failure to pursue Roosevelt’s conservation program in the West.

How many electoral votes did Taft get?

The incumbent Taft suffered a humiliating defeat, gaining only 8 electoral votes. Account by White House Usher Irwin H. Hoover of White House meeting of President Taft and President-Elect Woodrow Wilson prior to Wilson’s Inauguration on March 4, 1913.

What was the bull moose party?

When Taft was selected as the nominee, the progressive backers of Roosevelt marched out of the convention. They soon formed the Progressive Party, better known as the Bull Moose Party after Roosevelt’s boast that he “was as fit as a bull moose” to undertake another campaign. The Progressive platform supporting Rossevelt’s candidacy called for ...

How was Wilson aided in his presidential campaign?

Wilson was aided in his presidential campaign by the division among the Democrats at their nominating convention and by the subsequent split in the Republican Party at its convention between its progressive and conservative factions backing the respective candidacies of the incumbent President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt.

What was the name of the center that was used to elect Woodrow Wilson?

Woodrow Wilson and the Election of 1912 - Eagleton Center on the American Governor.

What was the New Freedom campaign?

Wilson campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states’ rights. Roosevelt’s typically energetic campaign attacked both Wilson and Taft, but his domestic program was similar to Wilson’s appeal to working class voters. In an August campaign speech in New York City, he said, “The principles for which we stand are the principles of fair play and a square deal for every man and every woman in the United States”; the “square deal” label to his campaign later was adapted by subsequent politicians (e.g. “New Deal”; “Fair Deal”). Taft became the first President to actively campaign on his own behalf while in office, but it soon became clear that the real contest was between Wilson and Roosevelt.

How many states did Taft win?

Taft carried 23% of the national vote and won two states, Vermont and Utah. He was the first Republican to lose the Northern states. Debs won no electoral votes but took 6% of the popular vote, which remains the highest ever for a Socialist candidate as of 2021.

What did the Progressives promise?

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."

What counties did Debs vote for?

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.

What states did the Debs run?

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, Bur ke in North Dakota, and Crawford in Kansas.

What was the Socialist Party?

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.

How many states did Wilson win in 2021?

On November 5, Wilson captured the presidency handily by carrying a record 40 states. As of 2021, 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.

What was the first election to include all 48 states?

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.

How many electoral votes did Woodrow Wilson get?

On election day, November 5, Roosevelt outpolled Taft but failed to win many Democratic progressives away from Wilson. Though Wilson captured only about 42 percent of the popular vote, he won 435 electoral votes.

What was the objective of the Bull Moose movement?

For Taft, his single objective in the 1912 campaign was to defeat Roosevelt. The real contest, however, was between Roosevelt and Wilson for control of the progressive majority.

What were the problems with Taft?

Taft faced a restless public and a split Republican Party. National progressivism was nearly at high tide, and a large group of Republican progressives, called “insurgents,” sat in both houses of Congress. These Republicans, like a majority of Americans, demanded such reforms as tariff reductions, an income tax, the direct election of senators, and even stricter railroad and corporation regulations. Taft, who thought of himself as a progressive, was more conservative philosophically and lacked the qualities of a dynamic popular leader. His troubles began when he called Congress into special session in 1909 to take up tariff reform. When the measure that emerged from Congress increased rates, Republican insurgents and a majority of Americans were outraged, but Taft signed the bill and called it the best tariff law the Republicans had ever enacted. Conflicts and misunderstandings over conservation and legislative procedure caused the rift between Taft Republicans and the insurgents to grow. By 1910 the Republican insurgents were clearly in the ascendancy in Congress. Taking control of the president’s railroad-regulation measure, they added new provisions that greatly increased the Interstate Commerce Commission’s authority. The following year they bitterly opposed Taft’s measure for tariff reciprocity with Canada; it passed with Democratic support in Congress, only to go down to defeat at the hands of the Canadian electorate.

How many electoral votes did Taft get?

Taft’s 8 electoral votes represented the worst performance by an incumbent seeking reelection. Wilson, born in Virginia, thus became the first Southern-born president elected since the American Civil War (1861–65). For the results of the previous election, see United States presidential election of 1908.

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When did Theodore Roosevelt become president?

Theodore Roosevelt first came to the presidency in 1901, following the assassination of William McKinley, but won election in his own right in 1904 and proved a very popular chief executive.

Who was the president of the Progressives in 1912?

For example, the progressives’ 1912 presidential campaign, with the celebrated former president Theodore Roosevelt as its standard bearer, was deeply divided over whether the reform movement should attack legally enforced racial segregation in the South ( see Jim Crow laws). In the end it did not, instead accepting the right…

How many votes did Wilson get in the election?

When the election returns were in, Wilson received just under 6.3 million votes while Roosevelt got 4.1 million. Taft, on the other hand, got around 3.5 million, and Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate, won just over 900,000. Wilson won 435 electoral votes, which gave him a comfortable margin of victory.

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What was the biggest factor contributing to Woodrow Wilson's election in 1912?

The biggest factor contributing to Woodrow Wilson's election in 1912 was the emergence of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive, or "Bull Moose" Party.

Which was more palatable to the American people: Roosevelt or Wilson?

Wilson's so-called New Freedom proved to be more palatable to the American people than Roosevelt's New Nationalism. Wilson believed that if big business were deprived of its artificial legal advantages such as trusts, then competition would flourish, diminishing the need for government intervention. Roosevelt, on the other hand, envisaged a more active role for government, seeing it as a trustee for the American people, controlling and supervising the economy in the public interest.

Was Wilson a progressive?

As well as benefitting from the split in the vote between the Republican Party and the Progressives, Wilson was better able to capture the public mood with its demand for more progressive policies. By comparison, the official Progressivist platform seemed much less progressive in certain respects than that put forward by the Democrats.

Overview

Nominations

Background

General election

Results

See also

Further reading

External links