Theodore Roosevelt dominated the election of 1912. When Roosevelt had left the White House in 1908 he was confident that President Taft would be a worthy successor who would continue his policies. The progressives in the party cried foul claiming that Taft had moved to the right and abandoned Roosevelt’s progressive’s policies. Roosevelt was at first reluctant to run, but eventually agreed. He competed with Taft for the nomination and won 9 out of the ten primaries by large margins. His platform was new nationalism, which included social welfare, direct democracy and federal regulation of business. The party was controlled by Taft loyalists who steamrolled the convention insuring that Taft was nominated on the first ballot.

Roosevelt went on to start a new Progressive party to continue his run for the Presidency. The Democrats were now facing a split Republican Party and thus if they picked right they were almost assured the nomination. William Jennings Bryon declined to run, but worked very hard behind the scene to ensure that a progressive was nominated and in the end he supported Wilson who was nominated on the 46th ballot.

Early in the campaign Taft realized that he no chance of winning and made no campaign appearance. Roosevelt and Wilson campaigned vigorously, until Roosevelt was almost killed by an assassin on the evening of October 15th. He was shot in the chest, but insisted on finishing his speech. The bullet was lodged in his rib close to his lung. All of the campaigns took a break while Roosevelt recovered. In the end Wilson won by a landslide.

Participation of Eligible Voters: 61.6%