1912 United States presidential election in New York

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1912 United States presidential election in New York
Flag of New York (1909–2020).svg
← 1908 November 5, 1912 1916 →
Turnout72.1%[1] Decrease 7.6 pp
  Woodrow Wilson-H&E.jpg Unsuccessful 1912.jpg Unsuccessful 1912 2.jpg
Nominee Woodrow Wilson William Howard Taft Theodore Roosevelt
Party Democratic Republican Progressive
Home state New Jersey Ohio New York
Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Nicholas M. Butler Hiram Johnson
Electoral vote 45 0 0
Popular vote 655,573 455,487 390,093
Percentage 41.27% 28.68% 24.56%

New York Presidential Election Results 1912.svg
County Results

President before election

William Howard Taft
Republican

Elected President

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

The 1912 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 5, 1912. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1912 United States presidential election. Voters chose 45 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

New York was won by the Democratic nominees, New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson and his running mate, Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall. Opposing him were the Republican nominees, incumbent President William Howard Taft and Vice President James S. Sherman, and the Progressive Party candidates, former President Theodore Roosevelt and his running mate California Governor Hiram Johnson. Also in the running was the Socialist Party candidate, Eugene V. Debs, who ran with Emil Seidel.

Wilson won New York with a plurality of 41.27% of the vote, Taft came in second, with 28.68%, and Roosevelt came in third, with 24.56%. Wilson's margin over Taft was thus 12.60%, whilst Debs came in fourth, with 3.99%. In terms of margin, New York was about 2% more Republican than the nation.

New York during the Fourth Party System was usually a Republican state in presidential elections. However the strong third party run by former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt as the Bull Moose Party candidate against the incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft split the Republican vote, enabling Woodrow Wilson as the Democratic candidate to win New York State's electoral votes in 1912 with a plurality of only 41% of the vote. Were Taft and Roosevelt voters united behind a single Republican candidate, they would have taken a combined majority of over 53% of the vote. This was the only presidential election during the Fourth Party System that New York voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.

Prior to 1912, New York had not given its electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate since Grover Cleveland in 1892. Wilson would lose New York State four years later in the midst of his re-election against Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, and the state would not vote Democratic again until 1932.

Although Theodore Roosevelt finished strong for a third-party candidate with 24.56% of the vote, New York was not amongst his strongest states. New York’s Republican Party organisation[2] and traditional Republican voters proved to be mostly loyal to President Taft as the official Republican nominee. While Roosevelt came in second place nationally ahead of Taft, in New York, Taft beat Roosevelt and finished second behind Wilson. Roosevelt also failed to win a single county in New York State, and was the last candidate to claim an electoral vote without winning any county in his home state until Mitt Romney one hundred years later.[a]

Wilson won many counties in New York which have been Republican bastions for most of history. However, every upstate county won by Wilson was won with a plurality of less than fifty percent of the vote and some with less than forty percent. Wilson won pluralities in several suburban counties surrounding New York City and in Long Island, as well as several in upstate New York, that would not vote Democratic again until Lyndon Johnson swept the state in the 1964 Democratic landslide: Johnson alone has since won Putnam[3] and Steuben Counties.[4] The only county in the state in which Wilson won a majority was the New York City borough of Staten Island.

Despite Wilson’s relatively strong showing on the county map, upstate New York nevertheless remained one of the most loyally Republican regions in the nation in the 1912 election, and the majority of counties in the region still favored Taft. Taft’s most significant wins in the state were his victories in Albany County, home to the state capital of Albany, and Onondaga County, home to the city of Syracuse, while most of his victories came from the many rural counties upstate.

Results[]

1912 United States presidential election in New York[5]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Woodrow Wilson 655,573 41.27% 45
Republican William Howard Taft 455,487 28.68% 0
Progressive Theodore Roosevelt 390,093 24.56% 0
Socialist Eugene V. Debs 63,434 3.99% 0
Prohibition Eugene W. Chafin 19,455 1.22% 0
Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer 4,273 0.27% 0
Totals 1,588,315 100.0% 45

Results by county[]

County Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Democratic
William Howard Taft
Republican
Theodore Roosevelt
Progressive
Eugene Victor Debs[6]
Socialist
Eugene Wilder Chafin[6]
Prohibition
Arthur Elmer Reimer[6]
Socialist Labor
Margin Total votes cast[7]
# % # % # % # % # % # % # %
Albany 17,235 40.30% 20,418 47.74% 4,487 10.49% 625 1.46% 198 0.46% 52 0.12% -3,183 -7.44% 42,765
Allegany 2,777 29.57% 3,668 39.05% 2,664 28.36% 283 3.01% 449 4.78% 23 0.24% -891 -9.49% 9,392
Broome 6,533 37.50% 7,949 45.62% 2,586 14.84% 355 2.04% 798 4.58% 31 0.18% -1,416 -8.13% 17,423
Cattaraugus 4,886 35.40% 4,820 34.93% 3,487 25.27% 608 4.41% 537 3.89% 25 0.18% 66 0.48% 13,801
Cayuga 4,691 34.92% 5,788 43.09% 2,428 18.07% 526 3.92% 291 2.17% 53 0.39% -1,097 -8.17% 13,433
Chautauqua 4,954 23.84% 7,899 38.01% 6,577 31.64% 1,354 6.51% 947 4.56% 113 0.54% 1,322[b] 6.36% 20,784
Chemung 6,008 48.19% 3,317 26.60% 2,733 21.92% 410 3.29% 494 3.96% 23 0.18% 2,691 21.58% 12,468
Chenango 3,341 36.75% 4,043 44.47% 1,609 17.70% 98 1.08% 366 4.03% 9 0.10% -702 -7.72% 9,091
Clinton 3,323 39.16% 3,903 46.00% 1,207 14.23% 52 0.61% 215 2.53% 23 0.27% -580 -6.84% 8,485
Columbia 4,599 47.24% 3,741 38.42% 1,318 13.54% 78 0.80% 90 0.92% 15 0.15% 858 8.81% 9,736
Cortland 2,283 32.89% 2,959 42.63% 1,629 23.47% 70 1.01% 446 6.43% 12 0.17% -676 -9.74% 6,941
Delaware 4,511 39.34% 4,731 41.26% 1,895 16.53% 329 2.87% 255 2.22% 12 0.10% -220 -1.92% 11,466
Dutchess 8,871 44.10% 8,916 44.32% 2,126 10.57% 204 1.01% 282 1.40% 26 0.13% -45 -0.22% 20,117
Erie 33,518 39.98% 19,185 22.88% 26,353 31.43% 4,779 5.70% 680 0.81% 598 0.71% 7,165[c] 8.55% 83,835
Essex 2,070 29.63% 3,127 44.77% 1,720 24.62% 68 0.97% 78 1.12% 12 0.17% -1,057 -15.13% 6,985
Franklin 2,711 33.56% 3,930 48.65% 1,363 16.87% 74 0.92% 298 3.69% 17 0.21% -1,219 -15.09% 8,078
Fulton 2,550 26.82% 3,741 39.35% 2,173 22.86% 1,043 10.97% 270 2.84% 69 0.73% -1,191 -12.53% 9,507
Genesee 2,656 33.08% 3,231 40.24% 2,061 25.67% 81 1.01% 225 2.80% 10 0.12% -575 -7.16% 8,029
Greene 3,647 50.17% 2,711 37.30% 818 11.25% 93 1.28% 195 2.68% 7 0.10% 936 12.88% 7,269
Hamilton 493 44.14% 454 40.64% 163 14.59% 7 0.63% 18 1.61% 0 0.00% 39 3.49% 1,117
Herkimer 5,122 38.30% 4,665 34.88% 3,129 23.39% 459 3.43% 163 1.22% 42 0.31% 457 3.42% 13,375
Jefferson 6,054 35.71% 6,692 39.48% 3,603 21.26% 602 3.55% 635 3.75% 38 0.22% -638 -3.76% 16,951
Kings 109,748 45.05% 51,239 21.03% 71,173 29.21% 11,459 4.70% 476 0.20% 568 0.23% 38,575[c] 15.83% 243,619
Lewis 2,339 39.34% 2,064 34.71% 1,512 25.43% 31 0.52% 139 2.34% 8 0.13% 275 4.62% 5,946
Livingston 3,203 36.54% 3,726 42.51% 1,786 20.37% 51 0.58% 200 2.28% 7 0.08% -523 -5.97% 8,766
Madison 3,164 32.78% 3,490 36.15% 2,709 28.06% 290 3.00% 245 2.54% 32 0.33% -326 -3.38% 9,653
Monroe 17,863 33.96% 16,880 32.09% 14,919 28.36% 2,943 5.59% 705 1.34% 267 0.51% 983 1.87% 52,605
Montgomery 4,508 38.04% 5,040 42.53% 1,894 15.98% 408 3.44% 121 1.02% 28 0.24% -532 -4.49% 11,850
Nassau 7,073 38.45% 4,608 25.05% 6,563 35.68% 150 0.82% 142 0.77% 10 0.05% 510[c] 2.77% 18,394
New York 166,157 47.97% 63,107 18.22% 98,985 28.58% 18,124 5.23% 352 0.10% 930 0.27% 67,172[c] 19.39% 346,373
Niagara 7,647 41.73% 5,654 30.86% 4,256 23.23% 766 4.18% 427 2.33% 58 0.32% 1,993 10.88% 18,323
Oneida 12,182 36.89% 11,245 34.05% 8,332 25.23% 1,267 3.84% 454 1.37% 196 0.59% 937 2.84% 33,026
Onondaga 15,827 35.05% 16,202 35.88% 10,694 23.68% 2,430 5.38% 602 1.33% 162 0.36% -375 -0.83% 45,153
Ontario 4,734 39.20% 4,897 40.55% 2,278 18.87% 166 1.37% 191 1.58% 13 0.11% -163 -1.35% 12,075
Orange 9,404 39.72% 10,364 43.78% 3,509 14.82% 398 1.68% 281 1.19% 70 0.30% -960 -4.05% 23,675
Orleans 2,448 35.29% 2,983 43.01% 1,432 20.65% 73 1.05% 268 3.86% 8 0.12% -535 -7.71% 6,936
Oswego 5,256 34.24% 5,996 39.06% 3,950 25.73% 149 0.97% 627 4.08% 25 0.16% -740 -4.82% 15,351
Otsego 5,338 43.41% 5,138 41.78% 1,696 13.79% 125 1.02% 335 2.72% 9 0.07% 200 1.63% 12,297
Putnam 1,321 41.41% 1,267 39.72% 593 18.59% 9 0.28% 20 0.63% 2 0.06% 54 1.69% 3,190
Queens 28,076 50.52% 9,201 16.56% 14,967 26.93% 3,329 5.99% 108 0.19% 117 0.21% 13,109[c] 23.59% 55,573
Rensselaer 11,684 43.07% 10,853 40.00% 3,735 13.77% 859 3.17% 262 0.97% 98 0.36% 831 3.06% 27,131
Richmond 8,445 54.21% 3,035 19.48% 3,771 24.21% 327 2.10% 145 0.93% 34 0.22% 4,674[c] 30.00% 15,578
Rockland 4,241 47.43% 2,221 24.84% 2,302 25.74% 178 1.99% 87 0.97% 19 0.21% 1,939[c] 21.68% 8,942
Saratoga 5,329 29.13% 8,404 45.94% 4,221 23.07% 341 1.86% 362 1.98% 28 0.15% -3,075 -16.81% 18,295
Schenectady 5,296 30.48% 6,401 36.84% 2,220 12.78% 3,456 19.89% 245 1.41% 111 0.64% -1,105 -6.36% 17,373
Schoharie 5,345 40.35% 5,230 39.48% 2,640 19.93% 31 0.23% 272 2.05% 4 0.03% 115 0.87% 13,246
Schuyler 3,355 52.69% 2,391 37.55% 580 9.11% 41 0.64% 136 2.14% 2 0.03% 964 15.14% 6,367
Seneca 1,416 38.52% 1,649 44.86% 527 14.34% 84 2.29% 128 3.48% 8 0.22% -233 -6.34% 3,676
St. Lawrence 2,573 41.57% 2,336 37.74% 1,082 17.48% 198 3.20% 543 8.77% 26 0.42% 237 3.83% 6,189
Steuben 7,396 40.77% 5,986 33.00% 4,109 22.65% 649 3.58% 813 4.48% 27 0.15% 1,410 7.77% 18,140
Suffolk 7,878 40.82% 5,595 28.99% 5,484 28.41% 344 1.78% 319 1.65% 35 0.18% 2,283 11.83% 19,301
Sullivan 3,864 48.30% 3,039 37.99% 961 12.01% 136 1.70% 79 0.99% 13 0.16% 825 10.31% 8,000
Tioga 2,400 38.59% 2,642 42.48% 1,052 16.91% 126 2.03% 199 3.20% 13 0.21% -242 -3.89% 6,220
Tompkins 3,272 42.49% 2,237 29.05% 2,068 26.86% 123 1.60% 377 4.90% 26 0.34% 1,035 13.44% 7,700
Ulster 8,510 44.56% 7,485 39.19% 2,951 15.45% 151 0.79% 406 2.13% 23 0.12% 1,025 5.37% 19,097
Warren 2,802 35.83% 3,155 40.35% 1,608 20.56% 255 3.26% 127 1.62% 21 0.27% -353 -4.51% 7,820
Washington 3,555 32.46% 4,593 41.94% 2,605 23.79% 198 1.81% 255 2.33% 14 0.13% -1,038 -9.48% 10,951
Wayne 3,934 34.63% 4,770 41.99% 2,574 22.66% 82 0.72% 461 4.06% 8 0.07% -836 -7.36% 11,360
Westchester 21,160 39.63% 15,843 29.67% 15,051 28.19% 1,345 2.52% 289 0.54% 23 0.04% 5,317 9.96% 53,399
Wyoming 2,541 32.96% 2,838 36.81% 2,270 29.44% 61 0.79% 212 2.75% 7 0.09% -297 -3.85% 7,710
Yates 1,456 34.35% 1,795 42.34% 905 21.35% 83 1.96% 115 2.71% 13 0.31% -339 -8.00% 4,239
Totals 655,573 41.90% 455,487 29.11% 390,093 24.93% 63,434 4.05% 19,455 1.24% 4,273 0.27% 200,086 !12.79% 1,564,587

See also[]

  • United States presidential elections in New York
  • Presidency of William Howard Taft
  • Presidency of Woodrow Wilson

Notes[]

  1. ^ James B. Weaver, the Populist candidate in 1892, is the only other case since before the Civil War: he won five states but no county in his home state of Iowa.
  2. ^ In this county where Roosevelt ran second ahead of Wilson, the margin and percentage margin given are those between Taft and Roosevelt (Taft positive).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g In this county where Roosevelt ran second ahead of Taft, the margins given are those between Wilson and Roosevelt and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.

References[]

  1. ^ Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.
  2. ^ Robinson; Edgar Eugene; ‘Distribution of the Presidential Vote of 1912’; The American Journal of Sociology; 20(1) (1914); pp. 18-30
  3. ^ The Political Graveyard; Putnam County, New York
  4. ^ The Political Graveyard; Steuben County, New York
  5. ^ "1912 Presidential Election Results - New York". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 2013-07-27.
  6. ^ a b c Géoelections; 1912 Presidential Election Popular Vote for Eugene Debs (xlsx file for €15)
  7. ^ Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote 1896-1932, pp. 275-280 ISBN 9780804716963
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