Following a brief but highly praised stint as the Governor of New Jersey from 1910-1912, Wilson became the surprise Democrat nominee for president in 1912. The 1912 Presidential Election was incredibly unique; the Republican incumbent, William Howard Taft, narrowly secured his party's nomination after being challenged for it by former president Theodore Roosevelt. After which, Roosevelt decided he would run anyway and with his supporters formed the Progressive Party. In the fifty years prior, Democrats had won the presidency only twice, the split in the GOP, made Wilson's candidacy far more viable than originally assumed.