TR Seeks to Win the GOP

Roosevelt’s task – to deny a sitting President the nomination of his own party – was a daunting one even for someone of Roosevelt’s political talent and personal charisma. Roosevelt did not doubt his popularity among the rank-and-file of the Republican Party. However, under the party rules as they stood in 1912, this fact had little to do with the actual process of obtaining the nomination. Only a handful of states chose their delegates to the national convention in open primaries; in most states, delegates were chosen by the party apparatus at state or local conventions. And Taft, as titular head of the party and distributor of

Federal patronage, continued to control the party apparatus. Roosevelt was well aware that his only chance was to win the handful of open primaries so convincingly that the party would be forced to abandon Taft as unelectable. Taft was equally aware that he needed to lock up delegates quickly in order to convince party leaders that the Roosevelt movement was doomed before it reached the convention. The result was an unusually fierce pre-convention campaign and internecine warfare between competing factions of the Republican Party.

In some states, party warfare was literal. Fistfights between Roosevelt and Taft delegations broke out at party meetings around the country. District conventions in Missouri grew so contentious that at one of them many delegates carried baseball bats. In Michigan, fighting broke out when a Taft delegate tackled a Roosevelt delegate, Jim Thorpe style, right on the convention platform. In Arkansas, fighting started at one county convention when a Roosevelt supporter (who was being denied entry to the convention hall) brained a Taft supporter with a tomato can. The Oklahoma state convention grew so tense that observers expected a gunfight to break out at any moment. In many states, whichever side failed to carry the state convention (sometimes failing fair and square, sometimes defrauded, sometimes physically locked out) organized a rump convention and sent a contesting delegation to Chicago. In the South, where Taft controlled the party apparatus through federal patronage, Roosevelt supporters with federal jobs were fired wholesale and state conventions were held as early as possible to prevent Roosevelt from organizing opposition.

In the few states with direct primary elections, both candidates campaigned rigorously. Taft, who under ordinary circumstances would stay in Washington and appear presidential, was forced to stump the country against one of the most aggressive campaigners in the nation’s history. In addition to his sense of personal betrayal and the general conservatism of his temperament, Taft was genuinely infuriated by the notions of judicial referendum and recall. Much of his campaigning focused on their dangers.

The Ohio primary on May 21 was considered particularly important by both sides. Ohio was a swing state in national electoral politics, and therefore an important barometer of a candidate’s popularity. It was also Taft’s home state, and few more embarrassing scenarios existed in American politics than a sitting President losing his own state delegation. Roosevelt was enormously popular in Ohio, which was in the process of rewriting its state constitution and therefore in the process of considering many of the progressive reforms Roosevelt endorsed. The Colonel’s speech calling for judicial recall had been given in front of the Ohio Constitutional Convention in February. Roosevelt also had very good organization in the state. Both candidates and dozens of their surrogates crisscrossed the state in special campaign trains. The rhetoric began to get personal and a bit silly. At a speech in Cambridge, Taft referred to Roosevelt as, among other things, an "egotist" and "demagogue"; the following day Roosevelt called the President a "puzzlewit" and a "fathead." As if this were not enough entertainment, Robert LaFollette arrived in the state for a few days of campaigning and attacked them both. The results of all this were highly embarrassing for Taft: Roosevelt pulled 165,809 votes in the Ohio primary, Taft 118,362, LaFollette 15,570.

Nor was this defeat isolated. As early as April 9, when Roosevelt won the Illinois primary with a 2-1 margin, Republicans free to vote directly had chosen Roosevelt. They did so all spring. Taft won only one open primary, in Massachusetts, and that very narrowly. LaFollette won primaries in his home state of Wisconsin and in South Dakota. Roosevelt won all nine others, five of them in electorally important states: Illinois, Ohio, California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.

It was not enough, however, to deny Taft the nomination before the convention. Roosevelt held 432 secure delegates on the eve of the convention, Taft 326, La Follette 41. 254 delegates were contested. It was the job of the Republican National Committee – controlled by Taft – to adjudicate delegate disputes. Barring organizational collapse or unforeseen convention heroics inspired by the magnetism of Roosevelt’s personality, the nomination was still Taft’s to lose. No convention that nominated Taft under these circumstances, however, was likely to be peaceful or sedate. It was more likely to shred the party. Such were the conditions under which Republicans traveled to Chicago in June.

The events of the Republican Convention would proved dramatic.

[ Ohio 1912 Republican Primary ]