Three's a Crowd: The 1912 election

Entering the 1912 political season, it appeared that Theodore Roosevelt was going to be able to wrestle away the Republican nomination from his successor, William H. Taft. However, many Republicans held the party line and backed Taft at the convention, winning the nomination to run again in the election. Roosevelt decided to join the Progressive Party and run as a third-party candidate, campaigning with Hiram Johnson under the Bull Moose banner. The Democrats realized they had a golden opportunity to win back the White House due to the split in the Republican party, nominating a Washington outsider, New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt became more famous when he was shot in October 1912 making a campaign speech but continued giving the speech while bleeding. Taft was pretty much never considered as having a shot at winning, and campaigned quietly. On election day, Wilson carried a huge majority in the electoral college, winning 40 states, but only 40% of the popular vote, due to the three-way split of votes. Taft won only two states, the poorest showing ever by an incumbent president. Roosevelt did slightly better, carrying 6 states and 28% of the vote. With Taft and Roosevelt's vote totals put together, Wilson would have been defeated, but the split in the Republican party allowed him to win in a landslide. Wilson's first term was eventful, and shortly after the beginning, war broke out in Europe, and it was a constant wonder in America if Wilson would draw the states into the war. Wilson's first wife, Ellen, also died during his first term, but he married later on in the term. Wilson also had some trouble with Mexico, after Pancho Villa raided towns in New Mexico, Wilson ordered his capture, but he was able to allude the American forces. The Federal Reserve was also created under Wilson, putting America back under a federal bank. Teddy Roosevelt strongly criticized Wilson's failure to build up the military in case of having to enter the war, but Wilson wanted peace on all fronts. As far as campaign items go for this election, some are common, and some are very scarce. Many of the Wilson buttons, like the ones pictured in this blog, are pretty common and often can be found for under $25 a piece. There are not a lot of Taft items from this election, and some of his items are hard to tell between 1908 and 1912. As for Teddy Roosevelt, almost any button or campaign item dealing with his 1912 run are rare, especially picture buttons. I have included a picture of a button from his 1912 campaign, but I do not own this item, I just thought it would be nice to include an item of his in this blog. A button like this would bring $2000-$3500 in a good auction. There are many Wilson items from this campaign, but it can be difficult to determine whether the item is 1912 or 1916, because he ran with the same vice president in both elections, Thomas R. Marshall. I also have several other items of Wilson's campaign, like sheet music and paper items, but I will do a blog on those items later. I also included a neat item I have from this election that is for all the candidates, a booklet that gives a brief biography of what all the candidates support, titled "Presidential Pointers." The 1912 election proved an end to Roosevelt's political career, although there was a chance he could get the 1916 nomination before eventually backing out. Roosevelt died in 1919 at a fairly young age, one of the most popular presidents in history. As for Taft, his career was not over, and in 1921, president Warren G. Harding nominated him to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a post he held until 1930.