Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 1908. Republican Party nominee William Howard Taft defeated threetime Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan. Incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt honored his promise not to seek a third term (for him, a second full term), and persuaded his close friend, Taft, to become his successor. With Roosevelt's support, Taft won the presidential nomination at the 1908 Republican National Convention on the first ballot. The Democratic Party nominated Bryan, who had been defeated twice previously, in 1896 and 1900, by Republican William McKinley.
Bryan, part of the more liberal or progressive wing of the Democratic Party, ran a campaign against the nation's business elite. Despite this, he suffered the worst loss of his three presidential campaigns in his percentage of both the popular vote and electoral vote. Taft won 51.6% of the popular vote and carried most states outside of the Solid South. Taft's triumph gave Republicans their fourth consecutive presidential election victory. The Republican Party lost the presidency four years later to the Democrats, due to a party split between Taft and Roosevelt. Two third-party candidates, Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party and Eugene W. Chafin of the Prohibition Party, each took over 1% of the popular vote. This would also be the last election before Arizona and New Mexico gained statehood on January 6 and February 14, 1912, respectively.
Nominations
Republican Party nomination
Candidates
The Republican nomination contest marked the introduction of the presidential preference primary. The idea of the primary to nominate candidates was sponsored by anti-machine politicians such as New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Iowa Governor Albert B. Cummins. The first state to hold a presidential primary to select delegates to a national convention was Florida in 1904, when Democratic Party voters held a primary among uninstructed candidates for delegate. Early in 1908, the only two Republican contenders running nationwide campaigns for the presidential nomination were Secretary of War William Howard Taft and Senator Joseph B. Foraker, both of Ohio. In the nomination contest, four states held primaries to select national convention delegates. In Ohio, the state Republican Party held a primary on February 11. Candidates pledged to Taft were printed on the ballot in a Taft column, and candidates pledged to Foraker were printed in a column under his name. Taft won a resounding victory in Ohio. The three states holding primaries to select delegates without the preference component were split: California chose a slate of delegates that supported Taft; Wisconsin elected a slate that supported Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Pennsylvania elected a slate that supported its Senator Philander C. Knox.
The 1908 Republican Convention was held in Chicago between June 16 and 19. William Howard Taft was nominated with 702 votes to 68 for Knox, 67 for Hughes, 58 for Cannon, 40 for Fairbanks, 25 for La Follette, 16 for Foraker, 3 for President Roosevelt, and one abstention.
Representative James S. Sherman from New York received the vice-presidential nomination.
Democratic Party nomination
Candidates
As the 1908 election approached, William Jennings Bryan was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bryan's most formidable challenger for the nomination was Minnesota Governor John Albert Johnson. Johnson's rags-to-riches story, honesty, reformist credentials, and ability to win in a heavily Republican state made him popular within the Democratic Party. In March, the Minnesota Democratic State Convention endorsed Johnson for president. By the end of June, however, Bryan had amassed more than the requisite two-thirds of the delegates needed for nomination.
The 1908 Democratic National Convention was held in Denver between July 7 and 10. Johnson, aware of the fact that Bryan's nomination was a foregone conclusion, released his delegates, thereby allowing Bryan to win the nomination on the first ballot.
Bryan left the choice of vice-president to the delegates. John W. Kern from Indiana was unanimously declared the candidate for vice-president without a formal ballot after the names of Charles A. Towne, Archibald McNeil, and Clark Howell were withdrawn from consideration. Kern was a former state senator (1893-1897) and two-time gubernatorial candidate (1900 and 1904).
In response to nomination of Bryan and Kern, The New York Times disparagingly pointed out that the Democratic national ticket was consistent because "a man twice defeated for the Presidency was at the head of it, and a man twice defeated for governor of his state was at the tail of it."
Third parties and independents
People's Party nomination
In 1904 the national People's Party (Populists) ticket fared fairly well. Its total was twice the party's total in the previous presidential election, and in ten states, it received over 1% of the vote. It also offered 47 candidates for the House of Representatives, though the only ones elected were cross-endorsed by one of the major parties. The party remained in fusion with either the Democrats or the Republicans in many states.
The following three years were a trying time for the party. When Democrats began to call for the nomination of Bryan in 1908, western Populist leader Thomas Tibbles announced that the People's Party would probably not support him since he had gone into the hands of the Eastern business interests. Two months later, Nebraska Democrats decided in their state convention to end fusion with the Populists, but they changed their mind after an all-night conference. In the midterm elections the party only offered 10 candidates for House, and the Kansas People's Party officially disbanded in December when that state party's leader announced that he was joining the Republicans.
By late 1907, many Populists were hoping that Thomas Watson would agree to run for president again. The previous three years had been unusual for Watson. He gave a speech to a gathering of farmers in Greensborough, Georgia and while preparing for supper, the house where he was staying was burned. In mid-1906, Watson called on Georgia Populists to vote for Hoke Smith for governor in the Democratic primary, which fueled speculation that Watson was thinking of returning to the Democrats. In early 1907, Watson started a network of Populist-leaning publications to keep the party's principles alive; Tibbles was chosen to serve as the chief editor. One month later, someone fired shots into the Watsons' house in Augusta. He had an altercation with an African-American porter on a train; when the porter said that he was unable to increase the train's speed, Watson hit the man in the face with the cap of his cane.
The People's Party National Committee met on November 26, 1907, to make preparations for the 1908 national convention. National chairman James Ferriss indicated that Thomas Watson was the front runner for the nomination, saying that the party hoped to forge an alliance with one or more of the other minor parties, including possibly the Independence League or the Prohibitionists. In early 1908, however, at least one member of the national committee believed that Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin would win the Populist nomination.
On the first day of the convention, the delegation from Nebraska worked to adjourn the convention; they had already decided to support Bryan if he became the Democratic nominee. They managed to delay the official organization of the convention all day. One of their delegates, A.M. Walling of Nebraska, told the New York Times "we shall bolt if the convention attempts to nominate Thomas E. Watson, or any one else. We are not alone, for we have assurances that Minnesota, Georgia, and possibly Michigan and Kansas will walk out when we do".
The convention was organized on the second day and completed all its relevant business. Watson supporters chose George A. Honnecker of New Jersey to serve as the permanent chairman, defeating the Bryan supporters' choice, Jacob Coxey. The platform called for inflation of the currency, public ownership of railroads, telephones, and telegraphs, labor legislation, and a ban on futures gambling. When the time for nominations began, a schism took place; Watson's name was placed in nomination, and the Nebraska delegation bolted. They were followed by T.J. Weighan, the sole delegate from Minnesota. Watson was then nominated for president; his running mate was Samuel Williams of Indiana.
The radical members of the party supported giving the nomination to Bill Haywood. Debs' health was in question until Ben Hanford, a member of the New York delegation, read a letter from Debs stating that he was in good health and would give his support to whoever won the nomination. Seymour Stedman, an opponent of Debs, proposed Algie Martin Simons, who had the support of the right wing in the party, for the nomination. Victor L. Berger proposed Carl D. Thompson for the nomination and it was seconded by Winfield R. Gaylord and Carolyn Lloyd Strobell. James F. Carey was nominated by Ida Crouch-Hazlett. Max S. Hayes nomination was seconded by Alfred Wagenknecht. Phillip H. Callery nominated Debs on May 14, 1908, and it was seconded by John Spargo and he won the nomination on the first ballot with 159 votes out of the 198 cast. A motion by Berger and Stedman to make the selection unanimous was approved. Carey's name was put up for the vice-presidential nomination by the Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Montana delegations, but he declined to run, and Caleb Lipscomb too declined. Hanford won the vice-presidential selection with 106 votes on the first ballot, which was later made unanimous. Debs' campaign was managed by J. Mahlon Barnes. This was the first time that a candidate besides Debs had been nominated for the Socialist presidential nomination.
Lincoln Steffens initially believed that Debs was not suitable for the presidency, but later told Brand Whitlock, the mayor of Toledo, Ohio, to vote for Debs after Steffens interviewed Debs and Berger. Haywood fundraised for the purchase of a train, which had over 200,000 contributors, that was later named the Red Special. Debs' train left on August 30, 1908, and traveled over 9,000 miles and gave 187 speeches over twenty-five days. Twenty-two million copies of Appeal to Reason were distributed during the campaign and the newspaper gained 50,000 subscribers.
Theodore Roosevelt believed that the Socialists would take progressive votes away from Taft and stated that Debs' speeches were "mere pieces of the literature of criminal violence". Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation of Labor and who had endorsed Bryan, criticized Debs, accusing him of receiving secret funding for his train from the Republicans. The Socialists published the names of every contributor to the train fund and the amount they donated, and also challenged Gompers to a debate, but he refused. Former President Grover Cleveland, and the Chicago Tribune, predicted that the Socialists would receive over one million votes.
Debs hoped to receive over a million votes, but only received 420,852 votes which was a 20,000 vote increase from the 1904 election. Debs stated that the reason for the small increase was due to Democrats who had supported him in 1904 over Parker had voted for Bryan and that those who remained were pure socialist votes.
The Socialist Labor Party met in New York City from July 2 to July 5 in Arlington Hall, St. Mark's Place. While increasingly dwarfed by the growing membership of the Socialist Party led by Eugene Debs and Bill Haywood, Daniel De Leon and his compatriots remained committed to maintaining their separate course, considering Debs and his platform to be "reactionary". An attempt was made to depose Leon from his position of editor of the Party's papers in favor of a more moderate candidate, for fear that Leon's writings were alienating voters who might otherwise be sympathetic to their cause. The report was overwhelmingly voted down after Leon spoke in defense of his conduct as the Party's editor, with a rival report being adopted praising his leadership. When it came time for the nominations, Leon personally nominated Martin Preston of Nevada, who was currently serving a twenty-five-year sentence for the murder of Anton Silva. While noting that Preston was only 32 at the time, Leon remarked that "it was for the working people to elect Preston, and if he was elected he would be seated". Preston's nomination was ratified unanimously, with Donald Munro of Virginia winning in a contest against Arthur S. Dower of Texas for the vice presidential nomination. The nominations were later formalized at Cooper Union following the close of the convention.
Only days later, however, Martin Preston replied in a telegram that he could not accept the Presidential nomination, a declination that had not been expected nor prepared for. August Gillhaus of New York was later nominated in Preston's stead.