United States presidential election, 1908

United States presidential election, 1908
	Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Bryan/Kern, Red denotes those won by Taft/Sherman. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election; Theodore Roosevelt; Republican	Elected President; William Howard Taft; Republican

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The United States presidential election of 1908 was held on November 3, 1908. Popular incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt, honoring a promise not to seek a third term, persuaded the Republican Party to nominate William Howard Taft, his close friend and Secretary of War, to become his successor. Having badly lost the 1904 election with a conservative candidate, the Democratic Party turned to two-time nominee William Jennings Bryan, who had been defeated in 1896 and 1900 by Republican William McKinley. Despite his two previous defeats, Bryan remained extremely popular among the more liberal and populist elements of the Democratic Party. Despite running a vigorous campaign against the nation's business elite, Bryan suffered the worst loss in his three presidential campaigns, and Taft won by a comfortable margin.

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1908 Republican National Convention

Republican candidates:

Joseph Gurney Cannon, Speaker of the House from Illinois
Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice President from Indiana
Joseph B. Foraker, Senator from Ohio
Charles Evans Hughes, Governor of New York
Philander C. Knox, Senator from Pennsylvania
Robert M. La Follette, Sr., Senator from Wisconsin
L. M. Shaw, former Secretary of the Treasury from Iowa
William Howard Taft, Secretary of War from Ohio

[edit] Candidates gallery

Secretary of War William Howard Taft of Ohio
Senator Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania
Governor Charles Evans Hughes of New York
Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon of Illinois
Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana
Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Sr. of Wisconsin
Senator Joseph B. Foraker of Ohio
Former Secretary of the Treasury L. M. Shaw of Iowa

Taft/Sherman campaign poster

The Republican nomination contest marked the introduction of the presidential preference primary. The idea of the primary to nominate candidates was sponsored by anti-machine politicians such as New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Senator Albert B. Cummins. The first state to hold a presidential primary to select delegates to a national convention was Florida in 1904, when Democratic Party voters held a primary among uninstructed candidates for delegate. Early in 1908, the only two Republican contenders running nationwide campaigns for the presidential nomination were Secretary of War William Howard Taft and Governor Joseph B. Foraker, both of Ohio. In the nomination contest, four states held primaries to select national convention delegates. In Ohio, the state Republican Party held a primary on February 11. Candidates pledged to Taft were printed on the ballot in a Taft column, and candidates pledged to Foraker were printed in a column under his name. Taft won a resounding victory in Ohio. The three states holding primaries to select delegates without the preference component were split: California chose a slate of delegates that supported Taft; Wisconsin elected a slate that supported Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Pennsylvania elected a slate that supported its Senator Philander C. Knox.

The 1908 Republican Convention was held in Chicago from June 16 to June 19. William Howard Taft was nominated with 702 votes to 68 for Knox, 67 for Hughes, 58 for Cannon, 40 for Fairbanks, 25 for LaFollette, 16 for Foraker, 3 for President Roosevelt, and one abstention.^[1]

William Howard Taft	702
Presidential Ballot
Philander C. Knox	68
Charles Evans Hughes	67
Joseph Gurney Cannon	58
Charles W. Fairbanks	40
Robert M. LaFollette, Sr.	25
Theodore Roosevelt	3
Absention	1

Representative James S. Sherman of New York received the vice-presidential nomination.

James S. Sherman	702
Vice Presidential Ballot
Edward F. Murphy	77
Curtis Guild, Jr.	75
George L. Sheldon	10
Charles W. Fairbanks	1

[edit] Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1908 Democratic National Convention

Democratic candidates:

William Jennings Bryan, former U.S. representative and 1896 and 1900 presidential nominee from Nebraska
George Gray, former U.S. senator from Delaware
John Albert Johnson, Governor of Minnesota

[edit] Candidates gallery

Former Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska
Former Senator George Gray of Delaware
Governor John Albert Johnson of Minnesota

The 1908 Democratic Convention was held in Denver from July 7 to July 10. Despite a challenge by Minnesota governor John Albert Johnson, two-time previous nominee William Jennings Bryan quickly won the overwhelming support of his party.

The Balloting
Presidential Ballot		Vice Presidential Ballot
William Jennings Bryan	892.5	John W. Kern	1002
George Gray	50.5
John Albert Johnson	46

Source: US President - D Convention. Our Campaigns. (March 10, 2011).

[edit] General election

[edit] Campaign

The aging and balding "Boy Orator of the Platte" gives a speech during his 1908 run for the presidency.

Taft-Sherman postcard with U.S. Capitol

With the Free Silver issue no longer dominant, Bryan campaigned on a progressive platform attacking "government by privilege". His campaign slogan, "Shall the People Rule?", was featured on numerous posters and campaign memorabilia. However, Taft undercut Bryan's liberal support by accepting some of his reformist ideas, and Roosevelt's progressive policies blurred the distinctions between the parties. Republicans also used the slogan "Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan anytime," a sarcastic reference to Bryan's two failed previous presidential campaigns. Businessmen continued to support the Republican Party, and Bryan failed to secure the support of labor. As a result, Bryan ended up with the worst of his three defeats in the national popular vote, losing almost all the Northern states to Taft and losing the popular vote by eight percentage points. This would be Bryan's last campaign for the presidency; however, he would remain a popular figure within the Democratic Party and in 1912 would play a key role in securing the presidential nomination for Woodrow Wilson.

Roosevelt handing over his policies to his political protégé, William H. Taft.

[edit] Results

(46 States participated, as Oklahoma had joined the Union the year before)

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Count	Pct	Electoral vote	Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote
William Howard Taft	Republican	Ohio	7,678,395	51.6%	321	James S. Sherman	New York	321
William Jennings Bryan	Democratic	Nebraska	6,408,984	43.0%	162	John W. Kern	Indiana	162
Eugene V. Debs	Socialist	Indiana	420,793	2.8%	0	Benjamin Hanford	New York	0
Eugene W. Chafin	Prohibition	Illinois	254,087	1.7%	0	Aaron S. Watkins	Ohio	0
Thomas L. Hisgen	Independence	Massachusetts	82,571	0.6%	0	John Temple Graves	Georgia	0
Thomas E. Watson	Populist	Georgia	28,822	0.2%	0	Samuel Williams	Indiana	0
Other			15,550	0.1%	—	Other		—
Total			14,889,261	100%	483			483
Needed to win					242			242