1912 United States presidential election in Utah

The 1912 United States presidential election in Utah was held on November 5, 1912 as part of the 1912 United States presidential election. State voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Main article: 1912 United States presidential election

1912 United States presidential election in Utah

November 5, 1912

Nominee William H. Taft Woodrow Wilson Party Republican Democratic Home state Ohio New Jersey Running mate Nicholas M. Butler (replacing James S. Sherman) Thomas R. Marshall Electoral vote 4 0 Popular vote 42,013 36,579 Percentage 37.42% 32.58%   Nominee Theodore Roosevelt Eugene V. Debs Party Progressive Socialist Home state New York Indiana Running mate Hiram Johnson Emil Seidel Electoral vote 0 0 Popular vote 24,174 8,999 Percentage 21.53% 8.02%

County Results Taft   30-40%   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Wilson   30-40%   40-50%   50-60% Roosevelt   30-40%

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

Background

After being overwhelmingly carried by William Jennings Bryan in its first presidential election from its statehood year of 1896, Utah was to vote Republican by increasing margins in the following three elections, with only Washington County in the Dixie region voting Democratic in 1904 and 1908. By 1909, there were just two Democrats in the state legislature – a number fewer than any other state except Michigan during the middle 1900s and 1920s.

However, during William Howard Taft's presidency, his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt became bitterly opposed to his policies on foreign affairs and the opening of public lands to private concerns.[1] and thus decided to run in Republican primaries. Roosevelt's personal popularity and a powerful speaking tour was sufficient for him to "steamroll" through primaries, but Taft was able to prevail as the Republican nominee through traditional machine and party tactics.[2] Reformers bolted the Republicans and formed the "Progressive" or "Bull Moose" Party with Roosevelt as standard-bearer. Taft – already unpopular with the public and not enjoying being President[3] – decided to run, not in expectation of being re-elected but rather to preserve the GOP apparatus for future conservative action.[4]

Because Taft made no efforts to campaign, he lost easily in most states; however, in Utah, a powerful political machine under long-serving senator and Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot had been developed to counter the anti-Mormon "American Party", which had become the effective opposition to the Republicans in local elections and had elected mayors in Salt Lake City.[1] Combined with a very prosperous rural economy in both the farming and mining sectors, this produced strong loyalty among local Mormon communities to Taft,[5] who was also supported by the local Mormon and non-Mormon press. Those supporting Roosevelt were viewed as "insincere" and as "office-seekers", although latterly such press criticism was toned down.[1]

Taft was thus able to hold the state, with the maintenance of tariffs being critical for the 52 percent of Utahans who were farmers in 1912. Wilson and Roosevelt were most successful in the remote, less Mormon areas east of the Wasatch Mountains, and in some urban areas with more progressive tendencies. Socialist Eugene Debs, in the most successful of his five presidential campaigns, obtained eight percent of the vote but did much better than this in some mining areas.

Utah became one of the only two states to vote for Taft in 1912, the other being Vermont, and with 37.46% of the popular vote made the state his strongest victory in the election.[6]

Results

1912 United States presidential election in Utah[7][lower-alpha 1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	William Howard Taft	42,013	37.42%	4
	Democratic	Woodrow Wilson	36,579	32.58%	0
	Progressive	Theodore Roosevelt	24,174	21.53%	0
	Socialist	Eugene V. Debs	8,999	8.02%	0
	Socialist Labor	Arthur E. Reimer	510	0.45%	0
Totals			112,275	100.00%	4

Results by county

County	William Howard Taft Republican		Thomas Woodrow Wilson Democratic		Theodore Roosevelt Progressive		Eugene Victor Debs Socialist		Arthur Elmer Reimer Socialist Labor		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Beaver	672	39.79%	602	35.64%	307	18.18%	106	6.28%	2	0.12%	70	4.15%	1,689
Box Elder	1,648	40.58%	1,402	34.52%	936	23.05%	75	1.85%	0	0.00%	246	6.06%	4,061
Cache	2,821	37.91%	3,296	44.29%	1,173	15.76%	132	1.77%	20	0.27%	-475	-6.38%	7,442
Carbon	783	35.67%	514	23.42%	541	24.65%	350	15.95%	7	0.32%	242[lower-alpha 2]	11.02%	2,195
Davis	1,283	44.15%	1,142	39.30%	460	15.83%	20	0.69%	1	0.03%	141	4.85%	2,906
Emery	762	37.10%	760	37.00%	336	16.36%	190	9.25%	6	0.29%	2	0.10%	2,054
Garfield	673	62.60%	249	23.16%	128	11.91%	23	2.14%	2	0.19%	424	39.44%	1,075
Grand	190	33.63%	212	37.52%	118	20.88%	45	7.96%	0	0.00%	-22	-3.89%	565
Iron	690	49.57%	544	39.08%	63	4.53%	94	6.75%	1	0.07%	146	10.49%	1,392
Juab	1,167	35.27%	985	29.77%	344	10.40%	803	24.27%	10	0.30%	182	5.50%	3,309
Kane	429	75.40%	115	20.21%	20	3.51%	5	0.88%	0	0.00%	314	55.19%	569
Millard	970	41.08%	865	36.64%	397	16.81%	124	5.25%	5	0.21%	105	4.44%	2,361
Morgan	318	36.64%	233	26.84%	273	31.45%	44	5.07%	0	0.00%	45[lower-alpha 2]	5.19%	868
Piute	206	37.52%	110	20.04%	146	26.59%	87	15.85%	0	0.00%	60[lower-alpha 2]	10.93%	549
Rich	328	48.88%	238	35.47%	100	14.90%	5	0.75%	0	0.00%	90	13.41%	671
Salt Lake	12,691	35.10%	10,468	28.95%	8,899	24.61%	3,792	10.49%	308	0.85%	2,223	6.15%	36,158
San Juan	145	37.08%	146	37.34%	96	24.55%	4	1.02%	0	0.00%	-1	-0.26%	391
Sanpete	2,489	42.00%	1,984	33.48%	1,272	21.46%	171	2.89%	10	0.17%	505	8.52%	5,926
Sevier	1,451	41.90%	915	26.42%	807	23.30%	286	8.26%	4	0.12%	536	15.48%	3,463
Summit	1,294	44.13%	983	33.53%	425	14.50%	226	7.71%	4	0.14%	311	10.60%	2,932
Tooele	950	44.25%	646	30.09%	261	12.16%	282	13.13%	8	0.37%	304	14.16%	2,147
Uintah	544	28.36%	566	29.51%	641	33.42%	165	8.60%	2	0.10%	-75[lower-alpha 3]	-3.91%	1,918
Utah	4,175	35.38%	4,636	39.29%	2,295	19.45%	666	5.64%	27	0.23%	-461	-3.91%	11,799
Wasatch	1,191	41.41%	957	33.28%	432	15.02%	288	10.01%	8	0.28%	234	8.13%	2,876
Washington	712	43.60%	842	51.56%	72	4.41%	6	0.37%	1	0.06%	-130	-7.96%	1,633
Wayne	283	52.12%	183	33.70%	24	4.42%	53	9.76%	0	0.00%	100	18.42%	543
Weber	3,148	29.19%	2,986	27.69%	3,608	33.46%	957	8.88%	84	0.78%	-460[lower-alpha 2]	-4.27%	10,783
Totals	42,013	37.42%	36,579	32.58%	24,174	21.53%	8,999	8.02%	510	0.45%	5,434	4.84%	112,275

See also

• United States presidential elections in Utah
• 1912 United States presidential election in Vermont - President William Howard Taft's other sole win in 1912

References

1. Wahlquist, C. Austin; ‘The 1912 Presidential Election in Utah’ (A Thesis Presented to the Department of History, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah)
2. Kraig, Robert Alexander; 'The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State', Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Fall 2000), pp.. 365-366
3. Conlin, Joseph R.; The American Past: A Survey of American History, Volume II: Since 1865, Volume 2, p. 607 ISBN 113394664X
4. Craig; 'The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundation of the Liberal State', p. 368
5. See Sarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305
6. "1912 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
7. "Presidential Election of 1912 – Map by Counties (.xlsx file for €15)". Géoelections. Archived from the original on 2018-06-13. Retrieved 2017-06-06.

Notes

1. There are some differences between these figures and those given in Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections for both the state as a whole and counties. Notably, Leip's figures have both Emery County and San Juan County as tied.
2. In the county where Roosevelt ran second ahead of Wilson, margin given is Taft vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Taft percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.
3. In this county where Taft ran third behind both Wilson and Roosevelt, margin given is Wilson vote minus Roosevelt vote and eprcentage margin Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.