"A MAJOR SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY"

DEMOCRATS RECLAIM WHITE HOUSE, IT'S WILSON IN A LANDSLIDE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 5, 1912, Woodrow Wilson*, Democratic nominee for President of the United States, was elected in a landslide over the Progressive Party's nominee, former President Theodore Roosevelt, and incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft.

The final tally was...

WILSON (D) 435    TR (P) 88    TAFT (R) 8

Governor Wilson carried 40 states including Massachusetts which for the first time in history was won by a Democrat. 

*Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in Staunton, Virginia & earned his PhD at Johns Hopkins University. (WW is the only POTUS to hold a doctorate degree).  TWW was governor of New Jersey before serving as POTUS 1913-1921. 

JFK+50 NOTE

A major split took place at the 1912 Republican National Convention with a bitterly contested nomination fight between President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt. 

A big issue in the GOP concerned government regulation.  Taft ultimately won the nomination calling TR a 'menace'.  Teddy bolted the party and was nominated by the Progressive Party (Bull Moose). 

SOURCE

"1912 Republican Convention," by Lewis L. Gould, August 2008, www.smithsonianmagazine.com/

 

 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson

Harris & Ewing Photo (1919)

Library of Congress

 

 

"IT TAKES MORE THAN ONE BULLET TO KILL A BULL MOOSE"

TEDDY ROOSEVELT SURVIVES GUNSHOT IN CHEST

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (JFK+50) On October 14, 1912, former POTUS and Progressive Party* presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt was shot while greeting the public in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel here in Milwaukee.

TR was shot in the chest as a 32-caliber bullet passed through his glasses case and folded manuscript which were in his breast pocket.  Despite the wound, the former president went on to speak for 90 minutes and at one point pulled the bloody 50 page manuscript from his pocket, held it up for the audience to see, and  said...

 "It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose."

Doctors determined the bullet did not penetrate either TR's heart or lung, and decided it would be better to not make an attempt to remove it.

TR, who had broken with Taft and the Republican Party, made only two more speeches during the 1912 campaign.  Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat, took advantage of the split in the Republican Party and won the Election of 1912.

*Progressive Party (1912) was formed by TR in the aftermath of his failure to win the Republican Party's nomination (won by WH Taft).  The party's platform, titled "A Contract With the People," called for the dissolution of an alleged alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.  The party's official mascot was the Bull Moose, & the party was often called the Bull Moose Party.

                          Bull Moose Party Symbol