1912 United States Presidential Election

1912 United States Presidential Election

1908 Presidential Election - 1916 Presidential Election

## Background

The **1912 United States Presidential Election** was the 32nd quadrennial Presidential election, and was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. It followed rising tensions among both political parties, albeit more so within the Republican Party, as a result of President Elmer Burkett's new laws establishing a multitude of new taxes and business regulations. This election also directly coincides with the North American War, where President Burkett decided to annex several states of Mexico as a result of disorder near their border coming from the Mexican Revolution. Democrats criticized the war as imperialism, while Republicans were generally supportive of it, albeit some criticized Burkett's actions in leading it.

## Candidates

**DEMOCRAT PARTY -**

Declared:

John Bampfylde (Senator of New York 1905-)

Woodrow Wilson (Governor of New Jersey 1911-)

James Bampfylde (President from 1905-1909, Senator from New York 1899-1905 and Former Ambassodor to the Dominion of New Zealand)

**REPUBLICAN PARTY -**

Declared:

Prometheus Von Spaar, 1904 Presidential Candidate

Elmer Burkett (President from 1909-)

## Primaries

**-Dem Primaries**

1912 Democratic PrimariesWoodrow WilsonJohn Bampfylde
The 1912 Democratic Primaries saw a very close contest between New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson and New York Senator John Bampfylde, who was the son of former President James Bampfylde. Although Bampfylde had greater name recognition thanks to his father, Wilson was a prominent critic of President Burkett and led a strong campaign for "New Freedom", ending monopolies, creating a competitive business sector and ending imperialism, which had earned him the support of enough delegates to be nominated. Thomas Marshall was nominated by the Democrats for Vice President.
**-GOP Primaries**

1912 Republican PrimariesPrometheus Von SpaarElmer J. BurkettDespite creating and passing several laws, President Burkett became controversial among the Republican Party, namely for creating multiple new taxes and heavy business regulation. He managed to retrieve some of this support thanks to the North American War, but a long stalemate in Baja California caused his approval to dip. This, among other things, led to the Republicans rejecting the incumbent President in favor of Prometheus Von Spaar. This was a massive upset, and many Burkett supporters took it upon themselves to raid the RNC, and prevent Von Spaar's nomination. Burkett ended up sending the national guard to control the conflict, though he has since claimed that they were false flag raiders set up by the RNC. Burkett sharply criticized the RNC, as there were rumors that party bosses had rejected Burkett delegates from being certified. Burkett ended up leaving the Republican Party and joined the Progressive Party. The Republicans nominated the incumbent Vice President Joseph Gurney Cannon for the Vice Presidency.
**-Progressive Primaries**

Elmer J. BurkettAfter leaving the Republican Party, Elmer Burkett joined the small and lesser known Progressive Party to run as their nominee for President. After making a surprise appearance on the final night of the 1912 Progressive National Convention, he was nominated as the Progressive Party's candidate for president. He would then go on to campaign for vigorous progressive reforms, as well as winning the North American War. Burkett would select George W, Perkins as his running mate for the Vice Presidency.
**-United America Party**

Donald Andrews / Donald Andrew Trump sometime in 1890After President James Bampfylde's loss in 1908, Vice President Donald Andrews or Donald Andrew Trump, a former Republican, left the Democratic Party and formed his own party known as the United America Party. After learning that John Bampfylde would not be nominated by the Democrats, Andrews would announce his own campaign for President based on a Bampfyldian style liberalism.

## Results

 Woodrow Wilson
 Elmer Burkett
 Donald Andrew

1912 Initial ResultsPrometheus Von SpaarWoodrow WilsonElmer J. BurkettDonald Andrew1912 was an incredibly chaotic election year, with four major candidates running in the race, splitting the two parties votes fairly evenly. Although it was expected that Burkett or Wilson would obtain a plurality in the election, Von Spaar would end up beating out Burkett and tying in electoral votes with Wilson, mostly due to his strong performance in New England and doing better than expected in large Republican mid western leaning states such as Ohio and Illinois. As a candidate must receive a majority of electors to become President, no one secured the necessary amount of electoral votes on election day, which meant that unless a candidate gave their electors to another and that would achieve a majority, the election would go to the House delegations with the top three candidates, which would be Wilson, Von Spaar and Burkett. Donald Andrew would delegate his electors to Woodrow Wilson, however this would only give him 265 electoral votes, which wouldn't be enough for a majority. It was widely believed that if the election went to House delegations, Wilson would win due to Republican votes splitting amongst Von Spaar and Burkett. To stop this from happening, Burkett and Von Spaar would engage in negotiations for the allocations of any electoral votes. In the end, Burkett announced that he would allocate his electors to Prometheus Von Spaar, which would give him the majority necessary to become President.