Editing Woodrow Wilson (section)

== Presidential election of 1912 ==
{{Main|1912 United States presidential election}}

=== Democratic nomination ===
{{Main|1912 Democratic Party presidential primaries|1912 Democratic National Convention}}
Wilson became a prominent 1912 presidential contender immediately upon his election as [[Governor of New Jersey]] in 1910, and his clashes with state party bosses enhanced his reputation with the rising Progressive movement.<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 140–141</ref> In addition to progressives, Wilson enjoyed the support of Princeton alumni such as [[Cyrus McCormick Jr.]] and Southerners such as [[Walter Hines Page]], who believed that Wilson's status as a transplanted Southerner gave him broad appeal.<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 212–213</ref> Though Wilson's shift to the left won the admiration of many, it also created enemies such as [[George Brinton McClellan Harvey]], a former Wilson supporter who had close ties to [[Wall Street]].<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 224–225</ref> In July 1911, Wilson brought [[William Gibbs McAdoo]] and "Colonel" [[Edward M. House]] in to manage the campaign.<ref>Heckscher (1991), p. 238.</ref> Prior to the [[1912 Democratic National Convention]], Wilson made a special effort to win the approval of three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, whose followers had largely dominated the Democratic Party since the [[1896 United States presidential election|1896 presidential election]].<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 141–142</ref>

Speaker of the House [[Champ Clark]] of Missouri was viewed by many as the front-runner for the nomination, while House Majority Leader [[Oscar Underwood]] of Alabama also loomed as a challenger. Clark found support among the Bryan wing of the party, while Underwood appealed to the conservative [[Bourbon Democrat]]s, especially in the South.<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 149–150</ref> In the [[1912 Democratic Party presidential primaries]], Clark won several of the early contests, but Wilson finished strong with victories in Texas, the Northeast, and the Midwest.<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 229–230</ref> On the first presidential ballot of the Democratic convention, Clark won a plurality of delegates; his support continued to grow after the New York [[Tammany Hall]] machine swung behind him on the tenth ballot.<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 155–156</ref> Tammany's support backfired for Clark, as Bryan announced that he would not support any candidate that had Tammany's backing, and Clark began losing delegates on subsequent ballots.<ref>Berg (2013), p. 233</ref> Wilson gained the support of [[Roger Charles Sullivan]] and [[Thomas Taggart]] by promising the vice presidency to Governor [[Thomas R. Marshall]] of Indiana.<ref>Roger C. Sullivan and the Triumph of the Chicago Democratic Machine, 1908–1920. Chapter 5, Roger Sullivan and the 1912 Democratic Convention</ref> and several Southern delegations shifted their support from Underwood to Wilson. Wilson finally won two-thirds of the vote on the convention's 46th ballot, and Marshall became Wilson's running mate.<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 157–158</ref>

=== General election ===
[[File:ElectoralCollege1912.svg|thumb|The 1912 presidential electoral college map]]
In the 1912 general election, Wilson faced two major opponents: one-term Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, and former Republican President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], who ran a [[third party (United States)|third party]] campaign as the [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|"Bull Moose" Party]] nominee. The fourth candidate was [[Eugene V. Debs]] of the [[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party]]. Roosevelt had broken with his former party at the [[1912 Republican National Convention]] after Taft narrowly won re-nomination, and the split in the Republican Party made Democrats hopeful that they could win the presidency for the first time since the [[1892 United States presidential election|1892 presidential election]].<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 154–155</ref>

Roosevelt emerged as Wilson's main challenger, and Wilson and Roosevelt largely campaigned against each other despite sharing similarly progressive platforms that called for an interventionist central government.<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 166–167, 174–175</ref> Wilson directed campaign finance chairman [[Henry Morgenthau, Sr.|Henry Morgenthau]] not to accept contributions from corporations and to prioritize smaller donations from the widest possible quarters of the public.<ref>Heckscher (1991), pp. 254–255.</ref> During the election campaign, Wilson asserted that it was the task of government "to make those adjustments of life which will put every man in a position to claim his normal rights as a living, human being."<ref>Cooper (1983), p. 184</ref> With the help of legal scholar [[Louis Brandeis]], he developed his [[The New Freedom|New Freedom]] platform, focusing especially on breaking up trusts and lowering [[tariffs in United States history|tariff]] rates.<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 239–242</ref> Brandeis and Wilson rejected Roosevelt's proposal to establish a powerful [[bureaucracy]] charged with regulating large corporations, instead favoring the break-up of large corporations in order to create a level economic playing field.<ref>Ruiz (1989), pp. 169–171</ref>

Wilson engaged in a spirited campaign, criss-crossing the country to deliver numerous speeches.<ref>Berg (2013), pp. 237–244</ref> Ultimately, he took 42 percent of the popular vote and 435 of the 531 [[Electoral College (United States)|electoral votes]].<ref>Gould (2008), p. vii</ref> Roosevelt won most of the remaining electoral votes and 27.4 percent of the popular vote, one of the [[List of third party performances in United States elections|strongest third party performances]] in U.S. history. Taft won 23.2 percent of the popular vote but just 8 electoral votes, while Debs won 6 percent of the popular vote. In the concurrent [[1912 United States elections|congressional elections]], Democrats retained control of the [[United States House of Representatives|House]] and won a majority in the [[United States Senate|Senate]].<ref name="cooper173174">Cooper (2009), pp. 173–174</ref> Wilson's victory made him the first Southerner to win a presidential election since the Civil War, the first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland left office in 1897,<ref>Cooper (2009), pp. 154–155, 173–174</ref> and the first and only president to hold a Ph.D.<ref>Berg (2013), p. 8</ref>