1912
The 1912 U.S. presidential election was won by Woodrow Wilson (Democratic) with 435 of 531 electoral votes, defeating Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive). Electoral-vote margin: 347 (435 to 88). Popular-vote margin: 14.4 percentage points. Turnout was 59.0%. The cycle falls in the Progressive Era of American electoral history.
Open the what-if calculator → — flip states and re-count. A toy, not history.
A split party changes the map
Democrat Woodrow Wilson won in a landslide as Roosevelt's 'Bull Moose' Progressive Party split the Republican vote with incumbent Taft. Roosevelt, dissatisfied with Taft's conservatism, launched an independent campaign after losing the Republican nomination, finishing second in both popular and electoral votes — the best third-party performance in US history. Wilson won only 41.8% of the popular vote but carried 40 states. Eugene Debs, running as a Socialist, won 6% of the vote.
Progressive reform; trust-busting; tariff; Republican Party civil war
Roosevelt's 27.4% and 88 EV remain the best third-party performance in U.S. history
This summary was drafted with AI tools and has not yet been checked sentence by sentence. The vote table and the National Archives note on this page come from named sources; where they differ from the summary, rely on them. Tell us about an error.
Republican Party candidate Taft, and Vice Presidential running mate James S. Sherman, received 8 electoral votes each, but Sherman died just before the election. After the election, before the meeting of the electors, Nicholas Butler was selected to receive the electoral votes from Utah and Vermont that would have gone to Sherman.
National Archives, Electoral College results for 1912, archives.gov, read October 3, 2026. Quoted as published.
States · 48 reporting
State results · 1912
- California Roosevelt by 174 · 0.03 pts
- Idaho Wilson by 1,111 · 1.1 pts
- Illinois Wilson by 18,570 · 1.6 pts
- Wyoming Wilson by 750 · 1.8 pts
- Vermont Taft by 1,235 · 2.0 pts
New YorkWilson won it by 12.6 points; its electoral votes took the total to 277, past the 266 needed.
Line up the states the winner carried from widest margin to narrowest and add up their electoral votes: the tipping point is the state that takes the total past a majority.
Scroll the table sideways for every column.
| State | Electoral votes | Woodrow Wilson Dem | Theodore Roosevelt Prog | William Howard Taft Rep | Eugene V. Debs Soc | Also named | Margin | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 12 EV | 82,439 69.9% | 22,689 19.2% | 9,731 8.3% | 3,029 2.6% | None | 59,750 50.7 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Arizona | 3 EV | 10,324 43.5% | 6,949 29.3% | 3,021 12.7% | 3,163 13.3% | Eugene W. Chafin 265 · 1.1% | 3,375 14.2 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Arkansas | 9 EV | 68,838 55.6% | 21,673 17.5% | 24,297 19.6% | 8,153 6.6% | None | 44,541 36.0 pts | Wilson Dem |
| California1 | 13 EV Roosevelt 11, Wilson 2 | 283,4361 42.1% | 283,6101 42.1% | Not named | 79,2011 11.8% | Eugene W. Chafin 23,366 · 3.5%1 | 174 0.03 pts | Roosevelt Prog |
| Colorado | 6 EV | 114,223 42.8% | 72,306 27.1% | 58,386 21.9% | 16,418 6.2% | Eugene W. Chafin 5,063 · 1.9% | 41,917 15.7 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Connecticut | 7 EV | 74,561 39.2% | 34,129 17.9% | 68,324 35.9% | 10,056 5.3% | Eugene W. Chafin 2,068 · 1.1% | 6,237 3.3 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Delaware | 3 EV | 22,631 46.5% | 8,886 18.2% | 15,998 32.9% | 556 1.1% | Eugene W. Chafin 623 · 1.3% | 6,633 13.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Florida | 6 EV | 36,417 70.2% | 4,535 8.7% | 4,279 8.2% | 4,806 9.3% | Eugene W. Chafin 1,854 · 3.6% | 31,611 60.9 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Georgia2 | 14 EV | 93,1712 76.7% | 22,0102 18.1% | 5,1902 4.3% | Not named | None | 71,161 58.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Idaho | 4 EV | 33,921 32.1% | 25,527 24.1% | 32,810 31.0% | 11,960 11.3% | Eugene W. Chafin 1,537 · 1.5% | 1,111 1.1 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Illinois3 | 29 EV | 405,0483 35.3% | 386,4783 33.7% | 253,6133 22.1% | 81,2783 7.1% | Eugene W. Chafin 15,710 · 1.4%3 | 18,570 1.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Indiana | 15 EV | 281,890 43.1% | 162,007 24.8% | 151,267 23.1% | 36,931 5.6% | Eugene W. Chafin 19,249 · 2.9% | 119,883 18.3 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Iowa4 | 13 EV | 185,3254 37.6% | 161,8194 32.9% | 119,8054 24.3% | 16,9674 3.4% | Eugene W. Chafin 8,440 · 1.7%4 | 23,506 4.8 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Kansas | 10 EV | 143,670 39.3% | 120,123 32.9% | 74,844 20.5% | 26,807 7.3% | None | 23,547 6.4 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Kentucky | 13 EV | 219,584 48.4% | 102,766 22.7% | 115,512 25.5% | 11,647 2.6% | None | 104,072 22.9 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Louisiana | 10 EV | 60,966 76.8% | 9,323 11.7% | 3,834 4.8% | 5,249 6.6% | None | 51,643 65.1 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Maine | 6 EV | 51,113 39.4% | 48,493 37.4% | 26,545 20.5% | 2,541 2.0% | None | 2,620 2.0 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Maryland | 8 EV | 112,674 48.6% | 57,786 24.9% | 54,956 23.7% | 3,996 1.7% | None | 54,888 23.7 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Massachusetts | 18 EV | 173,408 35.5% | 142,228 29.1% | 155,948 32.0% | 12,616 2.6% | None | 17,460 3.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Michigan5 | 15 EV | 150,7515 27.4% | 214,5845 38.9% | 152,2445 27.6% | 23,2115 4.2% | Eugene W. Chafin 8,934 · 1.6%5 | 62,340 11.3 pts | Roosevelt Prog |
| Minnesota | 12 EV | 106,426 31.8% | 125,856 37.7% | 64,334 19.2% | 27,505 8.2% | Eugene W. Chafin 7,886 · 2.4% | 19,430 5.8 pts | Roosevelt Prog |
| Mississippi | 10 EV | 57,164 88.9% | 3,627 5.6% | 1,511 2.3% | 2,017 3.1% | None | 53,537 83.2 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Missouri | 18 EV | 330,746 47.3% | 124,371 17.8% | 207,821 29.7% | 28,466 4.1% | None | 122,925 17.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Montana6 | 4 EV | 27,9416 35.0% | 22,4566 28.1% | 18,5126 23.2% | 10,8856 13.6% | None | 5,485 6.9 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Nebraska | 8 EV | 109,008 43.7% | 72,689 29.1% | 54,216 21.7% | 10,185 4.1% | Eugene W. Chafin 3,383 · 1.4% | 36,319 14.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Nevada | 3 EV | 7,986 39.7% | 5,620 27.9% | 3,196 15.9% | 3,313 16.5% | None | 2,366 11.8 pts | Wilson Dem |
| New Hampshire | 4 EV | 34,724 39.5% | 17,794 20.2% | 32,927 37.4% | 1,981 2.3% | None | 1,797 2.0 pts | Wilson Dem |
| New Jersey | 14 EV | 178,289 41.2% | 145,410 33.6% | 88,835 20.5% | 15,801 3.7% | None | 32,879 7.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| New Mexico | 3 EV | 20,437 41.4% | 8,347 16.9% | 17,733 35.9% | 2,859 5.8% | None | 2,704 5.5 pts | Wilson Dem |
| New York | 45 EV | 655,475 41.3% | 390,021 24.6% | 455,428 28.7% | 63,381 4.0% | Eugene W. Chafin 19,427 · 1.2% | 200,047 12.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| North Carolina | 12 EV | 144,507 59.2% | 69,130 28.3% | 29,139 11.9% | Not named | None | 75,377 30.9 pts | Wilson Dem |
| North Dakota | 5 EV | 29,555 34.1% | 25,726 29.7% | 23,090 26.7% | 6,966 8.0% | Eugene W. Chafin 1,243 · 1.4% | 3,829 4.4 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Ohio | 24 EV | 423,152 40.9% | 229,327 22.2% | 277,066 26.8% | 89,930 8.7% | Eugene W. Chafin 11,459 · 1.1% | 146,086 14.1 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Oklahoma7 | 10 EV | 119,1567 46.8% | Not named | 90,7867 35.7% | 42,2627 16.6% | None | 28,370 11.2 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Oregon | 5 EV | 47,064 34.3% | 37,600 27.4% | 34,673 25.3% | 13,343 9.7% | Eugene W. Chafin 4,360 · 3.2% | 9,464 6.9 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Pennsylvania8 | 38 EV | 395,6198 32.4% | 447,4268 36.7% | 273,3058 22.4% | 83,1648 6.8% | Eugene W. Chafin 19,533 · 1.6%8 | 51,807 4.2 pts | Roosevelt Prog |
| Rhode Island9 | 5 EV | 30,1429 38.7% | 16,8789 21.7% | 27,7039 35.6% | 2,0499 2.6% | None | 2,439 3.1 pts | Wilson Dem |
| South Carolina | 9 EV | 48,355 96.0% | 1,293 2.6% | 536 1.1% | Not named | None | 47,062 93.5 pts | Wilson Dem |
| South Dakota10 | 5 EV | 48,94210 42.1% | 58,81110 50.6% | Not named | 4,66210 4.0% | Eugene W. Chafin 3,910 · 3.4%10 | 9,869 8.5 pts | Roosevelt Prog |
| Tennessee | 12 EV | 130,335 52.6% | 53,725 21.7% | 59,444 24.0% | 3,492 1.4% | None | 70,891 28.6 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Texas | 20 EV | 221,589 72.6% | 26,755 8.8% | 28,853 9.5% | 25,743 8.4% | None | 192,736 63.2 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Utah | 4 EV | 36,579 32.5% | 24,174 21.5% | 42,100 37.5% | 9,023 8.0% | None | 5,521 4.9 pts | Taft Rep |
| Vermont | 4 EV | 15,350 24.4% | 22,070 35.1% | 23,305 37.1% | 928 1.5% | Eugene W. Chafin 1,154 · 1.8% | 1,235 2.0 pts | Taft Rep |
| Virginia | 12 EV | 90,332 65.9% | 21,777 15.9% | 23,288 17.0% | Not named | None | 67,044 48.9 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Washington | 7 EV | 86,840 26.9% | 113,698 35.2% | 70,445 21.8% | 40,134 12.4% | Eugene W. Chafin 9,810 · 3.0% | 26,858 8.3 pts | Roosevelt Prog |
| West Virginia | 8 EV | 113,197 42.1% | 79,112 29.4% | 56,754 21.1% | 15,248 5.7% | Eugene W. Chafin 4,517 · 1.7% | 34,085 12.7 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Wisconsin | 13 EV | 164,409 41.4% | 58,661 14.8% | 130,878 32.9% | 34,168 8.6% | Eugene W. Chafin 8,467 · 2.1% | 33,531 8.4 pts | Wilson Dem |
| Wyoming | 3 EV | 15,310 36.2% | 9,232 21.8% | 14,560 34.4% | 2,760 6.5% | Eugene W. Chafin 434 · 1.0% | 750 1.8 pts | Wilson Dem |
Shares are of each state’s total vote for president. “Not named”: the figures do not give that candidate a line of their own in that state — for example under 1% of the vote, not on the ballot there, or counted on an unnamed line (see the state’s note). Margin is the leader’s lead over the second-placed candidate.
Notes on the figures
- California Roosevelt's Progressives held the Republican line in California; Taft was not on the ballot, and his figure is write-in votes.
- Georgia The official table's state total (121,533) is 1 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Illinois The official table prints a state total of 1,146,103, which does not agree with its own figures (they add up to 1,146,193); their sum is used.
- Iowa The official table prints a state total of 492,326, which does not agree with its own figures (they add up to 492,356); their sum is used.
- Michigan The official table prints a state total of 550,776, which does not agree with its own figures (they add up to 550,976); their sum is used.
- Montana The official table's state total (79,910) is 84 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Oklahoma Roosevelt had no electors on the Oklahoma ballot.
- Pennsylvania The official table's state total (1,220,201) is 450 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Rhode Island The official table's state total (77,894) is 270 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- South Dakota Roosevelt's Progressives held the Republican line in South Dakota; Taft was not on the ballot.
SourceThe World Almanac and Encyclopedia 1914 . How these figures were compiled
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