United States presidential election in New York, 1912

United States presidential election in New York, 1912
New York (state)
November 5, 1912

 
Nominee Woodrow Wilson William H. Taft Theodore Roosevelt
Party Democratic Republican Progressive
Home state New Jersey Ohio New York
Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Nicholas M. Butler
(replacing James S. Sherman)
Hiram Johnson
Electoral vote 45 0 0
Popular vote 655,573 455,487 390,093
Percentage 41.27% 28.68% 24.56%

County Results
  Wilson—50-60%
  Wilson—40-50%
  Wilson—<40%
  Taft—<40%
  Taft—40-50%

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. New York 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 being 12.60%. Debs came in fourth with 3.99%. In terms of margin, New York was about 2% more Republican than the nation.

New York in this era 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.

Prior to 1912, New York had not given its electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1892. Wilson would lose New York State four years later in the midst of his re-election 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 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.

Wilson won many counties in New York which were in that era considered Republican bastions, although all of them were won with pluralities of less than 50% of the vote and some with less than 40%. 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. 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.

United States presidential election in New York, 1912[1]
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

See also

References

  1. "1912 Presidential Election Results - New York". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 2013-07-27.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.