1908 United States presidential election

thumb|189x189px|[[Theodore Roosevelt, the incumbent president in 1908, whose second and only full term expired on March 4, 1909]]

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 1908. Republican Party nominee William Howard Taft defeated threetime Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan. Incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt honored his promise not to seek a third term (for him, a second full term), and persuaded his close friend, Taft, to become his successor. With Roosevelt's support, Taft won the presidential nomination at the 1908 Republican National Convention on the first ballot. The Democratic Party nominated Bryan, who had been defeated twice previously, in 1896 and 1900, by Republican William McKinley.

Bryan, part of the more liberal or progressive wing of the Democratic Party, ran a campaign against the nation's business elite. Despite this, he suffered the worst loss of his three presidential campaigns in his percentage of both the popular vote and electoral vote. Taft won 51.6% of the popular vote and carried most states outside of the Solid South. Taft's triumph gave Republicans their fourth consecutive presidential election victory. The Republican Party lost the presidency four years later to the Democrats, due to a party split between Taft and Roosevelt. Two third-party candidates, Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party and Eugene W. Chafin of the Prohibition Party, each took over 1% of the popular vote. This would also be the last election before Arizona and New Mexico gained statehood on January 6 and February 14, 1912.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Nominees

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#E81B23; width:200px;"| William Howard Taft|

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#E81B23; width:200px;"| James S. Sherman|

|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#FFD0D7;"

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for President

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for Vice President

| center|200x200px

| 42nd U.S. Secretary of War (1904–1908)

| U.S. Representative for New York's 27th (1903–1909)

| colspan=2 |300px

Candidates

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"

|- †

| colspan="8" style="text-align:center; width:1500px; font-size:120%; color:white; background:;"|Candidates in this section are sorted by delegates won

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|William H. Taft

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Philander C. Knox

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|Charles E. Hughes

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|Joseph G. Cannon

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Charles W. Fairbanks

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|Robert M. La Follette

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|Joseph B. Foraker

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Leslie M. Shaw

|center|124x124px

|center|120x120px

|- style="text-align:center"

|42nd U.S. Secretary of War from Ohio (1904–1908)

|44th U.S. Attorney General from Pennsylvania (1901–1904)

|36th Governor of New York (1907–1910)

|35th House Speaker from Illinois (1903–1911)

|26th U.S. Vice President from Indiana (1905–1909)

|U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (1906–1925)

|U.S. Senator from Ohio (1897–1909)

|43rd U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from Iowa (1902–1907)

|- style="text-align:center"

|Delegates: 549

|Delegates: 67

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

| colspan="3" | Presidential ballot

| Candidate

| 1st

| Unanimous

!William Howard Taft !!702!!980

!Philander C. Knox !!68!!-

!Charles Evans Hughes !!67!!-

!Joseph Gurney Cannon !!58!!-

!Charles W. Fairbanks !!40!!-

!Robert M. La Follette !!25!!-

!Joseph B. Foraker !!16!!-

!Theodore Roosevelt !!3!!-

!Not Voting !!1!!-

Representative James S. Sherman from New York received the vice-presidential nomination.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

| colspan="3" | Vice-presidential ballot

| Candidate

| 1st

| Unanimous

!James S. Sherman !!816!!980

!Franklin Murphy !!77!!-

!Curtis Guild, Jr. !!75!!-

!George L. Sheldon !!10!!-

!Charles W. Fairbanks !!1!!-

!Not Voting !!1!!-

Democratic Party nomination

Nominees

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#3333FF; width:200px;"| William Jennings Bryan|

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#3333FF; width:200px;"| John W. Kern|

| style="width:3em; font-size:100%; color:#000; background:#C8EBFF; width:200px;"|for President

| style="width:3em; font-size:100%; color:#000; background:#C8EBFF; width:200px;"|for Vice President

| center|200x200px

| U.S. Representative for Nebraska's 1st congressional district (1891–1895)

| Indiana State Senator (1893–1897)

| colspan=2 |Campaign

| colspan=2 |400px

Candidates

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"

|- †

| colspan="9" style="text-align:center; width:750px; font-size:120%; color:white; background:;"|Candidates in this section are sorted by delegates won

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|William J. Bryan

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|John A. Johnson

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|George Gray

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Jesse R. Grant

|center|120x120px

|- style="text-align:center"

|U.S. Representative for Nebraska's 1st district (1891–1895)

|16th Governor of Minnesota (1905–1909)

|Federal Appeals Judge from Delaware (1899–1914)

|Engineer and businessman from California

|- style="text-align:center"

|Delegates: 549

|Delegates: 25

Bryan left the choice of vice-president to the delegates. John W. Kern from Indiana was unanimously declared the candidate for vice-president without a formal ballot after the names of Charles A. Towne, Archibald McNeil, and Clark Howell were withdrawn from consideration. Kern was a former state senator (1893-1897) and two-time gubernatorial candidate (1900 and 1904).

In response to nomination of Bryan and Kern, The New York Times disparagingly pointed out that the Democratic national ticket was consistent because "a man twice defeated for the Presidency was at the head of it, and a man twice defeated for governor of his state was at the tail of it." Two months later, Nebraska Democrats decided in their state convention to end fusion with the Populists, but they changed their mind after an all-night conference. In the midterm elections the party only offered 10 candidates for House, and the Kansas People's Party officially disbanded in December when that state party's leader announced that he was joining the Republicans.

By late 1907, many Populists were hoping that Thomas Watson would agree to run for president again. The previous three years had been unusual for Watson. He gave a speech to a gathering of farmers in Greensborough, Georgia and while preparing for supper, the house where he was staying was burned. In mid-1906, Watson called on Georgia Populists to vote for Hoke Smith for governor in the Democratic primary, which fueled speculation that Watson was thinking of returning to the Democrats. In early 1907, Watson started a network of Populist-leaning publications to keep the party's principles alive; Tibbles was chosen to serve as the chief editor. One month later, someone fired shots into the Watsons' house in Augusta. He had an altercation with an African-American porter on a train; when the porter said that he was unable to increase the train's speed, Watson hit the man in the face with the cap of his cane.

The People's Party National Committee met on November 26, 1907, to make preparations for the 1908 national convention. National chairman James Ferriss indicated that Thomas Watson was the front runner for the nomination, saying that the party hoped to forge an alliance with one or more of the other minor parties, including possibly the Independence League or the Prohibitionists. In early 1908, however, at least one member of the national committee believed that Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin would win the Populist nomination.

On the first day of the convention, the delegation from Nebraska worked to adjourn the convention; they had already decided to support Bryan if he became the Democratic nominee. They managed to delay the official organization of the convention all day. One of their delegates, A.M. Walling of Nebraska, told the New York Times "we shall bolt if the convention attempts to nominate Thomas E. Watson, or any one else. We are not alone, for we have assurances that Minnesota, Georgia, and possibly Michigan and Kansas will walk out when we do".

The convention was organized on the second day and completed all its relevant business. Watson supporters chose George A. Honnecker of New Jersey to serve as the permanent chairman, defeating the Bryan supporters' choice, Jacob Coxey. The platform called for inflation of the currency, public ownership of railroads, telephones, and telegraphs, labor legislation, and a ban on futures gambling. When the time for nominations began, a schism took place; Watson's name was placed in nomination, and the Nebraska delegation bolted. They were followed by T.J. Weighan, the sole delegate from Minnesota. Watson was then nominated for president; his running mate was Samuel Williams of Indiana.

Socialist Party nomination

Nominees

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#CD3700; width:200px;"| Eugene V. Debs|

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#CD3700; width:200px;"| Ben Hanford|

|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#ff6b35;"

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for President

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for Vice President

| center|200x200px

|State Representative from Indiana (1885–1887)

|Printer and Labor Organizer from New York

| colspan=2 |Campaign

| colspan=2 |300px

Candidates

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"

|- †

| colspan="5" style="text-align:center; width:938px; font-size:120%; color:white; background:;"|Candidates in this section are sorted by convention vote

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Eugene V. Debs

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|James F. Carey

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|Carl D. Thompson

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|Algie M. Simons

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Max S. Hayes

|center|120x120px

|- style="text-align:center"

|Former State Senator from Indiana (1885–1889)

|Former State Representative from Massachusetts (1899–1903)

|State Representative from Wisconsin (1906–1908)

|Former Editor of the International Socialist Review from Illinois (1900–1908)

|Editor of the Cleveland Citizen from Ohio (1891–1940)

|- style="text-align:center"

|Delegates: 159

|Delegates: 16

|Delegates: 14

|Delegates: 9

|Delegates: 0

|- style="text-align:center"

| This was the first time that a candidate besides Debs had been nominated for the Socialist presidential nomination.

Lincoln Steffens initially believed that Debs was not suitable for the presidency, but later told Brand Whitlock, the mayor of Toledo, Ohio, to vote for Debs after Steffens interviewed Debs and Berger. Haywood fundraised for the purchase of a train, which had over 200,000 contributors, that was later named the Red Special. Debs' train left on August 30, 1908, and traveled over 9,000 miles and gave 187 speeches over twenty-five days. Twenty-two million copies of Appeal to Reason were distributed during the campaign and the newspaper gained 50,000 subscribers. An attempt was made to depose Leon from his position of editor of the Party's papers in favor of a more moderate candidate, for fear that Leon's writings were alienating voters who might otherwise be sympathetic to their cause. The report was overwhelmingly voted down after Leon spoke in defense of his conduct as the Party's editor, with a rival report being adopted praising his leadership. When it came time for the nominations, Leon personally nominated Martin Preston of Nevada, who was currently serving a twenty-five-year sentence for the murder of Anton Silva. While noting that Preston was only 32 at the time, Leon remarked that "it was for the working people to elect Preston, and if he was elected he would be seated". Preston's nomination was ratified unanimously, with Donald Munro of Virginia winning in a contest against Arthur S. Dower of Texas for the vice presidential nomination. The nominations were later formalized at Cooper Union following the close of the convention.

Only days later, however, Martin Preston replied in a telegram that he could not accept the Presidential nomination, a declination that had not been expected nor prepared for. August Gillhaus of New York was later nominated in Preston's stead.

Prohibition Party nomination

Nominees

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|65px|center|link=Prohibition Party<big>1908 Prohibition Party ticket</big>

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#FF00FF; width:200px;"| Eugene W. Chafin|

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#FF00FF; width:200px;"| Aaron S. Watkins|

|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#ffa3ff;"

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for President

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for Vice President

| center|200x200px

|Attorney at Law from Illinois

|Professor and Methodist Minister from Ohio

| colspan=2 |Campaign

| colspan=2 |300px

The Prohibition Party met in Columbus, Ohio, on July 14 and 15 to nominate its presidential ticket. Eugene Chafin was nominated on the third ballot in an open contest. When the runner-up for the Presidential nomination William Palmore, a Methodist Minister from Missouri and Editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate, declined his nomination for the Vice Presidency, the convention hurriedly allowed for a new set of nominations and another ballot. Aaron Watkins of Ohio would win a majority on the first ballot.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ Convention vote

| colspan=5 | President

| colspan=4 | Vice President

| Candidate

| 1st

| 2nd

| 3rd

| Unanimous

| Candidate

| Unanimous

| 1st

| Unanimous

! √ Eugene W. Chafin

! 195

! 376

! 636

! 1,087

! √ Aaron S. Watkins

! -

! ?

! 1,087

! William A. Palmore

! 273

! 418

! 415

! -

! William A. Palmore

! 1,087

! -

! Alfred L. Manierre

! 159

! 121

! 4

! -

! T. B. Demaree

! -

! ?

! -

! Daniel R. Sheen

! 124

! 157

! 12

! -

! Charles S. Holler

! -

! ?

! -

! Joseph P. Tracy

! 105

! 81

! 7

! -

! Frederick F. Wheeler

! 72

! 73

! -

! Oliver W. Stewart

! 61

! 47

! -

! James B. Cranfill

! 28

! -

! George R. Stewart

! 7

! -

! Charles Scanlon

! 1

! -

Independence Party nomination

Nominees

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|<big>1908 Independence Party ticket</big>

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#FFC14E; width:200px;"| Thomas L. Hisgen|

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#FFC14E; width:200px;"| John Temple Graves|

|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#ffe1a9;"

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for President

| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|for Vice President

| center|200x200px

|CEO of Hisgen Brothers from Massachusetts (1888–1927)

|Newspaper Editor from Georgia

Candidates

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"

|- †

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; width:1125px; font-size:120%; color:white; background:;"|Candidates in this section are sorted by highest convention vote

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Thomas L. Hisgen

! scope="col" style="width:9em; font-size:120%;"|John Temple Graves

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Milford W. Howard

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|Reuben R. Lyon

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|William R. Hearst

! scope="col" style="width:3em; font-size:120%;"|William J. Bryan

|center|120x120px

|- style="text-align:center"

|CEO of Hisgen Brothers from Massachusetts (1888–1927)

|Newspaper editor from Georgia

|Former U.S. Representative for Alabama's 7th district (1895–1899)

|Attorney at Law from New York

|Former U.S. Representative for New York's 11th district (1903–1907)

|Former U.S. Representative for Nebraska's 1st district (1891–1895)

|- style="text-align:center"

|Delegates: 831

|Delegates: 213

|Delegates: 200

|Delegates: 71 : Before 2nd ballot

|Delegates: 49

|Delegates: 0

|- style="text-align:center"

General election

Campaign

thumb|left|The balding "Boy Orator of the [[Platte Center, Nebraska|Platte" delivers a speech.]]

thumb|242x242px|[[Theodore Roosevelt, the incumbent president in 1908, whose term expired on March 4, 1909]]

With the Free Silver issue no longer dominant, Bryan campaigned on a progressive platform attacking "government by privilege." His campaign slogan, "Shall the People Rule?", was featured on numerous posters and campaign memorabilia. However, Taft undercut Bryan's liberal support by accepting some of his reformist ideas, and Roosevelt's progressive policies blurred the distinctions between the parties. Republicans also used the slogan "Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan anytime", a sarcastic reference to Bryan's two failed previous presidential campaigns.

The Socialist candidate, Eugene Debs, embarked on an ambitious whistle-stop tour aboard a train nicknamed the Red Special, giving speeches regarding the Socialist cause across the country. The exertion of the tour exhausted Debs, and at certain points his brother Theodore - who bore a great resemblance to Eugene - substituted for him to allow the candidate to rest.

Businessmen continued to support the Republican Party, and Bryan failed to secure the support of labor. As a result, Bryan ended up with the worst of his three defeats in the national popular vote. He lost almost all the northern states to Taft and the popular vote by 8 percentage points.

This would be Bryan's last campaign for the presidency, although he would remain a popular figure within the Democratic Party and in 1912 would play a key role in securing the presidential nomination for Woodrow Wilson. Charles W. Bryan, William's brother, would become the (losing) Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1924. Bryan's 162 electoral votes from this election, combined with his 155 and 176 electoral votes from 1900 and 1896 respectively, make him the person with the most electoral votes never to be president.

Results

right|thumb|400px|Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of red are for Taft (Republican), shades of blue are for Bryan (Democratic), shades of green are for "Other(s)" (Non-Democratic/Non-Republican), grey indicates zero recorded votes, and white indicates territories not elevated to statehood.

thumb|right|175px|Roosevelt handing over his policies to his political protégé, William H. Taft.

Turnout in the election was 65.7%, with 29.8% of the voting age population participating in the election. Forty-six states participated, as Oklahoma had joined the Union less than a year prior to the ballot. Bryan won forty-eight counties in the new state of Oklahoma. The most important increase in the number of counties carried by Bryan was in the West South Central section, in part due to the vote of newly admitted Oklahoma.

Of the 2,858 counties making returns, Taft won in 1,494 (52.27%) while Bryan carried 1,355 (47.41%). Nine (0.31%) counties recorded more votes cast for "Other(s)" than either of the two main party candidates, whilst twenty-eight counties (0.97%) recorded zero votes due to being inhabited either by Native Americans who would not gain full citizenship for sixteen years, or by disenfranchised southern African-Americans. Taft had a majority in 1,325 counties, while Bryan had a majority in 1,204 counties.

By carrying 1,355 counties, Bryan won more counties than he had in 1900 (1,340), but he did not reach or surpass the number of counties he had won in 1896 (1,559). Bryan won more counties than McKinley in 1896, but failed to carry more counties than the Republican candidate in 1900 or 1904. Compared with his strength in previous elections, however, Bryan carried 69 counties in 1908 which had not been Democratic in either 1896 or 1900.

Bryan increased the area carried by Democrats in every part of the country except New England and the South. He doubled the number of Democratic counties in Wisconsin and won more counties in Indiana than were carried by plurality vote by the Democrats in any election in the Fourth Party System except 1912. He made decided gains in Missouri and in his home state of Nebraska,

As of 2024, this is the most recent of only two elections in which Kansas and Nebraska did not vote for the same candidate, the most recent in which Nebraska voted differently from both Kansas and North Dakota, and the most recent in which a Republican won the presidency without winning Nebraska. Bryan was the fifth of eight presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, the others being Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump. Of these, Jackson, Cleveland, and Roosevelt also won the popular vote in at least three elections. Clay and Bryan are the only two candidates to have lost three presidential elections.

The 162 electoral votes received by Bryan, added to the 155 electoral votes he received in 1900, and the 176 electoral votes he received in 1896, gave him the most total electoral votes received by any candidate who was never elected to the office of president (493), and the sixth largest number of electoral votes received by any candidate behind Andrew Jackson's 496, Ulysses S. Grant's 500, Herbert Hoover's 503, George W. Bush's 557, William McKinley's 563, George H. W. Bush's 594, Grover Cleveland's 664, Barack Obama's 697, Woodrow Wilson's 712, Bill Clinton's 749, Donald Trump's 848, Dwight Eisenhower's 899, Ronald Reagan's 1,015, Richard Nixon's 1,040 and Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1,876 total electoral votes.

File: United States Electoral College 1908.svg

Source (Popular Vote):

Source (Electoral Vote):

Geography of results

650px|thumb|left

File:1908 United States presidential election results map by county.svg|Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

</gallery>

Cartographic gallery

File:PresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Map of presidential election results by county

File:RepublicanPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Map of Republican presidential election results by county

File:DemocraticPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.png|Map of Democratic presidential election results by county

File:OtherPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Map of "other" presidential election results by county

File:CartogramPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of presidential election results by county

File:CartogramRepublicanPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county

File:CartogramDemocraticPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county

File:CartogramOtherPresidentialCounty1908Colorbrewer.gif|Cartogram of "other" presidential election results by county

File:Debs1908PercentageByState.svg|State Level Performance for Eugene Debs' Presidential Campaign, 1908 (Socialist Party)

</gallery>

Results by state

Source:

{|class="wikitable"

|States/districts won by Bryan/Kern

|States/districts won by Taft/Sherman

|}<div style="overflow:auto">

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"

! colspan=2 |

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| William Howard Taft Republican

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| William Jennings Bryan Democratic

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| Eugene V. Debs Socialist

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| Eugene Chafin Prohibition

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| Thomas Hisgen Independence

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| Thomas Watson People's

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"| August Gillhaus Socialist Labor

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Margin

! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| State Total

! align=center | State

! style="text-align:center; font-size: 60%" data-sort-type="number" | electoral votes