Taft and Members of Supreme Court, Smithsonian

After being elected in 1904, TR vowed to only serve that term and then leave public office. Many Americans were surprised when, in the election of 1908, TR upheld that promise.  Even thought he was very popular, and the Republican party tried to nominate him, TR stayed out of the spotlight. He instead threw his support behind his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft. Taft promised to continue the progressive reforms that began with Roosevelt. This was enough to get him elected to our highest executive office.

The election of 1912 pitted Woodrow Wilson against two worthy opponents.  The first was incumbent William Howard Taft, the hand-picked successor of Teddy Roosevelt.  The second was Teddy Roosevelt.  Roosevelt re-entered politics fearing that Taft was too conservative.  Since the Republican party already had its candidate in Taft, Roosevelt ran as a Progressive (also know as the Bull Moose Party). Wilson ran on policies of lowering tariffs, breaking up monopolies, and supporting small businesses.  He won the electoral votes of 40 states, becoming our 28th president.

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BOOKS

Davis, Kenneth C., and Pedro Martin. Don’t Know Much about the Presidents. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.

DeGregorio, William A., and Aaron Jaffe. The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, Inc., 2017.

Kane, Joseph Nathan, and Janet Podell. Facts about the Presidents: A Compilation of Biographical and Historical Information. New York: H.W. Wilson, 2009.