“We Stand at Armageddon and Battle for the Lord:” The Election of 1912

The election of 1912 was an important and almost unprecedented discussion about the country's future. It showcased four impressive candidates who engaged in a remarkable debate about the future of American politics. Besides William Howard Taft, the incumbent Republican president, the campaign was joined by Eugene Debs, the labor leader from Indiana, who ran on the Socialist Party ticket; the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt, who bolted from the GOP and ran as the champion of the Progressive Party; and Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, who was elected president. All four candidates acknowledged that fundamental changes were occurring in the American political landscape, and each attempted to deliver the Progressive Era’s answer to the questions raised by the new industrial order that had grown up within the American constitutional system. That the 1912 election registered, and inspired, fundamental changes in American politics hopefully suggests the historical significance of the Progressive Party. Not only was it the driving force of this election, but it remains the most important third party to have appeared on the American political landscape in the 20th century.

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