The American Presidential Election of 1908

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The 31st episode in a very long series about the American presidential elections from 1788 to the present. In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt anoints William Howard Taft as his successor, but William Jennings Bryan argues he'd be a better Roosevelt than Taft.

The 31st Presidential election in American history took place on November 3, 1908. Throughout his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt had managed to gain fans from both the Republican and Democratic parties. His ideas were what we now call “progressive,” but by 1908 everybody seemed to want to be called “progressive.”

While Roosevelt didn’t get as much accomplished in his second term, he remained very popular. After the last election, he promised he would not run for a third term, and instead fully endorsed his close friend and the Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, to continue the progressive reforms that he had started. Even though Taft had much rather be on the Supreme Court than be President, he couldn’t turn Roosevelt down.

The Republican nomination process marked the first time a presidential preference primary happened, where delegates were chosen from multiple states. At the convention, most Republicans would do whatever Roosevelt recommended, and Taft was officially nominated. Although, Roosevelt seemed to get more cheers than he did. A lot of them really wanted Roosevelt to run again, after all. They nominated James Sherman, a U.S. Representative from New York, as Taft’s running mate.

Perhaps the main reason why William Jennings Bryan did not run for President in 1904 is because he agreed with Roosevelt on many issues. In fact, perhaps Roosevelt stole some of his ideas. Now that Roosevelt was out of the picture, Bryan actually argued he was the more logical successor to Roosevelt than Taft. Despite the fact that Bryan had lost the previous two times he ran, he remained very popular, and the Democratic Party went with him again. Third time’s a charm, right? The Democrats nominated John Kern, a former member of the Indiana Senate, as Bryan’s running mate.

While there were at least five third parties who tried for nationwide campaigns, the two biggest were the Socialist Party and the Prohibition Party, just like in 1904.

The Socialist Party nominated Eugene Debs again for President. Like Bryan, he had also lost twice before. Third time’s a charm, right? Just like in 1904, Ben Hanford, the printer based out of New York, was Debs’ running mate.

The Prohibition Party nominated Eugene Chafin, a lawyer originally from Wisconsin, for President, with Aaron Watkins, an education administrator, lawyer, and minister from Ohio, as his running mate.

This was another battle of the Williams. William Jennings Bryan ran another intense campaign filled with much traveling and speeches, but the Free Silver movement was no longer strong, so this time he spoke out against the special interests in Washington. His slogan was “Shall the People Rule?”

But like Roosevelt, William Howard Taft’s platform had many of the same solutions as Bryan.Taft’s campaign used the slogan “Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan anytime.” sarcastically referring to Bryan’s two past failed campaigns. Oh snap. Shady.
This would be the first presidential election Oklahoma could participate in as they were now a state.

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