1912 Republican Party presidential primaries

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1912 Republican Party presidential primaries

March 19 to June 4, 1912 1916 →

Candidate William Howard Taft Theodore Roosevelt Robert M. La Follette Home state Ohio New York Wisconsin Delegate count 71 (566 at convention) 281 (466 at convention) 36 (36 at convention) Contests won 2 9 2 Popular vote 800,441 1,183,238 327,357 Percentage 34.6% 51.1% 14.2%

Results by state   Taft   Roosevelt   La Follette   No Primary

Previous Republican nominee William Howard Taft Republican nominee William Howard Taft

From March 19 to June 4, 1912, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 1912 United States presidential election. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was chosen as the party's nominee through a series of primaries and caucuses culminating in the 1912 Republican National Convention.^[1]

Candidates[]

Nominee[]

• 

  President
  William Howard Taft

Withdrew during Convention[]

• 

  Former President
  Theodore Roosevelt
  from New York
• 

  Senator
  Robert M. La Follette
  from Wisconsin
• 

  Senator
  Albert B. Cummins
  from Iowa

Campaign[]

Background[]

William Howard Taft was unable to bridge the divide between the conservative Old Guard and the progressive faction of the Republican Party. The Democratic Party gained a majority in the United States House of Representatives for the first time since the 1894 elections in the 1910 elections. Large amounts of the Old Guard in the house lost reelection in the 1910 election while the progressive Republicans retained their seats. In April 1911, fifty-one progressive Republicans in the United States Congress, forty-one in the house and ten in the United States Senate, made a list of demands at the opening of Congress' special session for committee assignments. These demands were rejected and Senator Robert M. La Follette was denied a seat on the Interstate Commerce committee.^[2]

Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich had been the main targets of the progressive Republicans in 1909 and 1910, but their focus shifted towards Taft in 1911 as the presidential election was coming. Cannon had been removed from his position on the Rules Committee by a coalition of progressive Republicans and Democrats in 1910. Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver stated that "With Pinchot knocked out and Aldrich put in command, I think you can hear a roar in East Africa" and Henry Justin Allen called for Roosevelt to run in the 1912 election as Taft would lose.^[2][3]

The off-year elections of 1909 were to a large degree fought on local issues relating to reform, and they were mostly a draw between the two parties. In New York State, Governor Charles Evans Hughes asked the legislature to pass a bill providing for primary elections for each state office except for that of presidential electors. The proposal for primaries became the major issue in the state legislative elections, in which the Democrats gained five seats. Gubernatorial races were retained by the Republicans in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, though in the latter state bolting reformers almost delivered the race to the Democrats. Reformers won control of the mayoralty of Indianapolis, but "machine" candidates won in New York City, Buffalo, Albany, and Cincinnati.

Governor Charles Evans Hughes had attempted to have legislation creating a presidential primary passed in New York since he took office in 1907, but was unsuccessful. Hughes asked for help from Roosevelt in 1910, but the legislation failed despite Roosevelt's appeal to the state legislature. Roosevelt felt that he was insulted by the failure of the legislation and ran to be temporary chair of the New York Republican Party's state convention. Vice President James S. Sherman, who had opposed the primary legislation, ran against Roosevelt with the support of the Old Guard, but was defeated by a vote of 567 to 445, with none of the delegates missing or abstaining.^[4]

Campaign[]

Roosevelt was hesitant to run for the nomination against Taft as he believed that Taft's control over the political machinery of the party would give him victory. Pinchot proposed in a letter to William Allen White that either La Follette or Senator Albert B. Cummins should be the progressive candidate against Taft and White also believed that former Senator Albert J. Beveridge could run. However, Beveridge had been out of office for a year and Cummins declined to run despite receiving an offer of support from La Follette.^[2]

The National Progressive Republican League was founded in January 1911, in La Follette's house by eight senators, sixteen representatives, and nineteen other people. Senators Joseph L. Bristow, Moses E. Clapp, George W. Norris, and Pinchot were charter members of the organizations and Senator Jonathan Bourne Jr. served as its president. La Follette asked for Roosevelt to join the organization and to formally declare that he would not run, but both requests were ignored. The organization was regarded as a vehicle for a La Follette presidential campaign despite it declaring that it would only publicize progressive principles. La Follette started to work on creating a campaign organization in early 1911, and declared his candidacy in June. However, Bristow, who was an ally of La Follette, stated that he had no chance of winning the nomination.^[4][2]

Roosevelt wrote to a friend in December 1911, in which he stated that "Taft is very weak, but LaFollette has not developed real strength east of the Mississippi River". Roosevelt wrote to Frank Munsey on January 16, 1912, stating that he would not run for the presidency. The governors of Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and West Virginia sent a letter to Roosevelt on February 10, stating that there were large amounts of voters who would support his campaign. Roosevelt announced his presidential campaign in a public letter to Frank Knox, the chair of the Michigan Republican Party, on February 24. Nine governors endorsed Taft following Roosevelt's announcement while Francis E. McGovern supported La Follette.^[5][4]

Pinchot, Medill McCormick, and other Republicans switched their support from La Follette to Roosevelt. Norris told progressives in Nebraska to continue their support of La Follette, but to avoid a fight with Roosevelt delegates while other Republicans allowed free delegates to support either Roosevelt or La Follette. Senator Coe I. Crawford told La Follette to stop his attacks against Roosevelt as it would allow Taft to win the South Dakotan primary. Norris and Bristow ended their support for La Follette as his campaign fell in support and criticized La Follette for his attacks against Roosevelt.^[2]

Roosevelt's campaign propose that unofficial primaries should be held in addition to the primaries already held by California, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Taft's campaign opposed the usage of unofficial primaries as it would be impossible to recall the calls made for state conventions and instead hold primaries. However, the Taft campaign's statements caused Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota to pass legislation creating presidential primaries.^[2]

During the last two months of 1911, Progressive Republican leaders questioned how to proceed for the spring primaries. La Follette was gaining endorsements from progressives around the nation, but he was perceived to be too radical for the party. One by one, leading progressives began to come out for President Roosevelt. On November 21, Roosevelt's name was officially entered into a primary, that of Nebraska. Roosevelt finally announced on December 23 that he would accept the nomination if granted to him, but that he would not campaign for it. In February 1912, Roosevelt officially began his campaign for the nomination.

The jockeying by Taft, Roosevelt, and La Follette began in state conventions and continued through the primary season. By the time of the first presidential preference primary, held in North Dakota on March 19, Taft was leading in the delegate count with 127 to 10 for his challengers. These delegates had been chosen in conventions. Voters who braved the cold rain in North Dakota on primary day handed the first official presidential primary to La Follette. The campaign there was almost exclusively a Roosevelt vs. La Follette race; La Follette ended up with 57% to 40% for Roosevelt and 3% for Taft. Roosevelt asserted that loss was due to Democrats who voted for La Follette to embarrass his candidacy. President Taft's first major victory came in New York's primary on March 26. Just before the vote, the New York Times reported that Taft had won 134 out of the 170 delegates chosen nationwide. New York Republicans voted overwhelmingly for Taft, by roughly a 2-to-1 margin; New York City gave Taft nearly 70% of the vote there. It was a stunning repudiation of Roosevelt in his home state and his second loss in the first two presidential primaries.

Roosevelt changed his strategy following his New York debacle. He issued an ultimatum to Republicans on March 28 to nominate him, or he would run as an independent. With local conventions being held nearly on a daily basis, Roosevelt was falling further behind in the delegate counts. La Follette scored another major victory on April 2 when he won his home state of Wisconsin. He defeated Taft by a 73–26% margin; Roosevelt missed the filing deadline but received some write-in votes. Roosevelt's fortunes began to change with the Illinois primary on April 9. In his first primary victory, Roosevelt won 61% of the vote to Taft 29% and La Follette 10%. Roosevelt won every county, though Taft won some Congressional Districts in Chicago.

In the two weeks following the Illinois primary, Roosevelt won three states. He defeated Taft by a 60-40% margin in Pennsylvania on April 13. Nebraska and Oregon voted on April 19, going to Roosevelt with 59% and 40% respectively. Taft ended the month with a 50–48% win in Massachusetts. However, due to the Massachusetts ballot offering a presidential preference separate from the delegate vote, Roosevelt won more delegates even though he placed second. By the end of the month, Roosevelt was leading in delegates chosen in primaries with 179 to 108 for Taft and 36 for La Follette. Due to the fact that just 14 states held primaries, Taft had 428 delegates overall while Roosevelt had 204 and La Follette had 36.

A big turn of events occurred on June 17, 1912. The Chicago Tribune sent out a newspaper with a column on the Republican primary titled, "10 From South Desert Taft for Roosevelt". In this column the writer explains that five Mississippi delegates and five Georgia delegates announced that they would not be supporting Taft in this second presidential election, but instead would switch their support to Theodore Roosevelt. All ten of the delegates signed a statement that they were deserting the Taft movement and supporting Roosevelt. The Taft campaign marked up the southern states and their delegates in anticipation of a big southern win. This changed when the five Georgia delegates, Clark, Grier, J.H. Boone, J. C. Styles, J. Eugene Peterson, and S. S. Mincey switched to supporting Roosevelt along with the five Mississippi delegates Charles Banks, W.P. Locker, Perry W. Howard, Daniel W. Gerry, and Wesly Crayton.^[6]

Theodore Roosevelt also attacked President Taft in the Chicago Tribune on June 17, 1912 with his own column. In the column Roosevelt wrote about the differences in delegates that Taft and he had. He stated that the delegates Taft had were from territories or states that had never cast a Republican electoral vote or were controlled by federal patronage. Roosevelt summed up Taft's delegates as, "one-eighth of his delegates represent a real sentiment for him and seven-eighths represent nothing whatever but the use of patronage in his interest in certain Democratic states". Roosevelt made it clear that Taft had turned the Republican Party for the worst and that he had no chance of winning the election.^[7]

Five states voted in the final four weeks of the primary season, and Roosevelt won all five states. He won Maryland 53–47 over Taft. In California, Roosevelt received 55% to Taft's 27% and La Follette's 18%. The major shock of the primary season was Roosevelt's 55–40% defeat of Taft in his home state of Ohio on May 21. One week later, Roosevelt won New Jersey, 56–41%. The primary season wrapped up with South Dakota, where Roosevelt won with 55%.

Convention[]

388 delegates were selected through the primaries and Roosevelt won 281 received, 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.^[4][8]

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 carpetbaggers left, 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.^[4]

Herbert S. Hadley served as Roosevelt's floor manager at the convention. Hadley made a motion for 74 of Taft's delegates to be replaced by 72 delegates after the reading of the convention call, but his motion was ruled out of order. Elihu Root, a supporter of Taft, was selected to chair the convention after winning 558 votes against McGovern's 501 votes. Root was accused of having won through the rotten boroughs of the southern delegations as every northern state, except for four, voted for McGovern.^[4] Hadley was later proposed as a compromise candidate, but that attempt was unsuccessful. James Eli Watson and other conservative Republicans considered Hadley's candidacy, but William Barnes Jr., Boies Penrose, and Root opposed it as losing the convention would result in the destruction of the Old Guard's political machine.^[2]

Warren G. Harding presented Taft's name for the nomination. Taft won the nomination while 344 of Roosevelt's delegates abstained from the vote. 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. Later that day supporters of Roosevelt met in the Chicago Orchestra Hall and nominated him as an independent candidate for president which Roosevelt accepted although he requested a formal convention. Roosevelt initially considered not running as a third-party candidate until George Walbridge Perkins and Frank Munsey offered their financial support. Roosevelt and his supporters formed the Progressive Party and Hiram Johnson was selected as his vice-presidential running mate.^[4]

Results[]

• Note: In states with asterisk, votes were for delegates pledged to support their candidate, not to the candidate itself.

Results in major cities (by the top 100 cities in the 1910 Census)[]

See also[]

• 1912 Democratic Party presidential primaries

References[]