Misplaced Pages

1912 United States presidential election in Tennessee

← 1908 November 5, 1912 1916 →

Nominee Woodrow Wilson William Howard Taft Theodore Roosevelt Party Democratic Republican Progressive Home state New Jersey Ohio New York Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Nicholas Murray Butler Hiram Johnson Electoral vote 12 0 0 Popular vote 133,021 60,475 54,041 Percentage 52.80% 24.00% 21.45%

County results Wilson   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Taft   30–40%   40–50%   50–60% Roosevelt   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%

President before election William Howard Taft Republican Elected President Woodrow Wilson Democratic

Elections in Tennessee
Federal government U.S. President 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Presidential primaries Democratic 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Republican 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 U.S. Senate 1796 1798 1803 1809 1823 1826 1829 1833 1835 1841 1844 1847 1851 1853 1858 1866 1867 1875 1877 1883 1887 1889 1893 1895 1899 1901 1905 1907 1911 1913 1916 1918 1922 1924 1928 1930 1934 1936 1940 1942 1946 1948 1952 1954 1958 1960 1964 1966 1970 1972 1976 1978 1982 1984 1988 1990 1994 1996 2000 2002 2006 2008 2012 2014 2018 2020 2024 2026 U.S. House 1796 1797 1799 1801 1803 1805 1807 1809 1811 1813 1815 1817 1819 1821 1823 1825 1827 1829 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1842 1843 1845 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1865 1867 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Special elections Senate 1797 1798 1799 1809 1811 1815 1817 1819 1821 1825 1829 1838 1839 1840 1843 1857 1877 1898 1905 1913 1930 1934 1938 1964 1994 House At-large 1797 1801 1st 1910 1961 2nd 1815 1891 1939 1964 1988 3rd 1939 4th 1837 1874 1875 5th 1814 1975 1988 6th 1939 7th 1932 1939 8th 1845 1958 1969 9th 1940
State government State elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Gubernatorial elections 1796 1797 1799 1801 1803 1805 1807 1809 1811 1813 1815 1817 1819 1821 1823 1825 1827 1829 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1843 1845 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1863 1865 1867 1869 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 State Senate elections 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 House of Representatives elections 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
Ballot measures 2006 Amendment 1 2014 Amendment 1 2022 Amendment 1 Amendment 3 Nashville measures Nashville Charter Amendment 1 Let's Move Nashville
Local elections Hamilton County mayoral elections 2018 2022 Chattanooga mayoral elections 2013 2017 2021 2025 Knox County mayoral elections 2010 2014 2018 2022 Knoxville mayoral elections 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 Shelby County mayoral elections 2010 2014 2018 2022 Memphis mayoral elections 2011 2015 2019 2023 Clarksville Mayoral elections 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Jackson Mayoral elections 2015 2019 2023 Murfreesboro Mayoral elections 2014 2018 2022 Nashville Mayoral elections 2007 2011 2015 2018 (sp) 2019 2023
Government
v t e

The 1912 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 5, 1912, as part of the 1912 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose twelve representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

For over a century after the Civil War, Tennessee was divided according to political loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the five West Tennessee Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne voted Republican – generally by landslide margins – as they saw the Democratic Party as the “war party” who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight. Contrariwise, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state's secession was equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction. After the disfranchisement of the state's African-American population by a poll tax was largely complete in the 1890s, the Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united, although unlike the Deep South Republicans would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support.

In the early 1910s, the state Democratic Party was divided over the issue of prohibition. One faction, known as the “Independent Democrats,” wanted the state's Four Mile Law (which banned the sale of liquor within four miles of any school) to apply statewide, while the other faction, known as the “Regular Democrats,” wanted the state's larger cities to be exempt from this law. In 1910, the Independent Democrats fled the party and formed a coalition, known as the “Fusionists,” with Republicans, helping to elect Governor Ben W. Hooper, although the Republicans did not gain at other levels.

With the national Republican Party deeply split, divisions between the dominant eastern wing and the “black-and-tan” western wing of the state Republican Party were opened up as Theodore Roosevelt and governor of California Hiram Johnson planned “lily-whitism” for the South with the “Bull Moose” party after Roosevelt broke from the GOP. The “black-and-tan” wing being revitalised by Memphis banker and businessman Robert R. Church Jr. remained loyal to incumbent President William Howard Taft (R–Ohio), and running mate Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler, though it had many fewer votes due to disenfranchisement.

Pollsters always conceded Tennessee to Democratic nominees Princeton University President Woodrow Wilson and governor of Indiana Thomas R. Marshall.

Results

Results by county

Analysis

In the end Wilson achieved just under 53 percent of the popular vote, a figure very similar to that which Democrats had achieved in Tennessee over the previous four elections. Despite the appeal of Roosevelt's lily-white policy in the many emerging sundown towns or counties of East Tennessee, the “Bull Moose” candidate finished third in the state, 2.55 percentage points behind incumbent President Taft.

As of 2024, this is the last presidential election in which Hawkins County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, as well as the last election in which Blount County, Washington County, Sevier County, Carter County, Jefferson County, Henderson County, Grainger County, Scott County, Unicoi County, and Johnson County did not vote for the Republican candidate.

See also

• 1912 Tennessee gubernatorial election
• United States presidential elections in Tennessee

Notes

1. Prohibition votes were not separated by county but listed only as a statewide total.
2. ^ In this county where Roosevelt ran ahead of Taft, margin given is Wilson vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.
3. ^ In this county where Wilson ran third behind both Taft and Roosevelt, margin given is Taft vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Taft percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.

References

1. Wright, John K. (October 1932). "Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps". Geographical Review. 22 (4): 666–672. Bibcode:1932GeoRv..22..666W. doi:10.2307/208821. JSTOR 208821.
2. Key (Jr.), Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York, 1949), pp. 282-283
3. Lyons, William; Scheb (II), John M.; Stair, Billy (2001). Government and Politics in Tennessee. Univ. of Tennessee Press. pp. 183–184. ISBN 1572331410.
4. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
5. Grantham, Dewey W. (Fall 1995). "Tennessee and Twentieth-Century American Politics". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 54 (3): 210–229.
6. Langsdon, Phillip (2000). Tennessee: A Political History. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillsboro Press. pp. 287–295.
7. Link, Arthur S. (January 1947). "The Negro as a Factor in the Campaign of 1912". The Journal of Negro History. 32 (1). The University of Chicago Press: 81–99. doi:10.2307/2715292. JSTOR 2715292.
8. Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffrey A. (March 19, 2020). Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. Cambridge University Press. p. 292. ISBN 978-1107158436.
9. "Taft Shows Increasing Strength in a Number of Sections and May "Nose Out" the Colonel for Second Place". The Cincinnati Enquirer. October 20, 1912. p. 19.
10. David Leip. "1912 Presidential General Election Results – Tennessee". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas.
11. "1912 Presidential Election Popular Vote". Géoelections. (.xlsx file for €15)
12. "Popular Vote for Eugene V. Debs, 1912". Géoelections. (.xlsx file for €15)
13. ^ "1912 Presidential Election Results – Tennessee".
14. Loewen, James A. Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. pp. 72–74. ISBN 0743294483.
15. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016

v t e State and district results of the 1912 United States presidential election
Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

• 1912 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Tennessee
• 1912 Tennessee elections