ELECTION SURPRISES: WOODROW WILSON'S RE-ELECTION
In 1912, Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, had been elected president in spite of the fact that more people voted against him than for him. He accomplished his minority election because the Republican majority was split between two major candidates, President Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt. In state after state, the Republican majority split their vote and Wilson carried the state with a plurality (less than a majority, but more than anyone else) of the popular vote. Although his total popular vote was far less than a majority, he won an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College.
In 1916, Wilson was facing a re-united Republican majority. He was not expected to be re-elected. In fact, due to the war crisis looming, Wilson had made plans to appoint Hughes (the Republican candidate) Secretary of State and then along with his Vice-President resign so that Hughes could take over the government immediately.
Wilson was easily re-nominated at the Democratic convention. At the Republican convention, Teddy Roosevelt wanted the nomination badly. But after his defection to the Progressive Party in 1912, the party regulars were not willing to give him that nomination. They settled instead on Supreme Court Justice Hughes, a former governor of New York.
Teddy Roosevelt decided to support Hughes, but only because he thought Wilson was even worse. Roosevelt considered Hughes (who wore a beard) a "whiskered Wilson" and said the only difference between them was a shave. Wilson campaigned on the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War" and Hughes took much the same position. Teddy, of course, couldn't wait to get into the war. Teddy's hawkish pronouncements during the campaign turned out to be Hughes' albatross.
Wilson's pro-peace and reform campaign proved extremely popular with the voters. Every time Roosevelt campaigned for Hughes, his nationalistic statements won more votes for Wilson. Roosevelt seemed to be campaigning more for war than for Hughes. After the election, some of Hughes' supporters sarcastically sent Roosevelt a telegram of congratulations on the election of Wilson. The telegram said "You contributed more than any other person [to Wilson's re-election] in America...Wilson ought to give you a cabinet position, as you elected him beyond doubt...You made Wilson a million votes."
Wilson's peace campaign, and his identification with reform measures of his first term, made his re-election possible. But some say that Hughes lost the election because of the famous "forgotten handshake." This incident happened, or didn't happen, in California. The Governor of California was Hiram Johnson, who had been TR's running-mate on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912, who was running for a senate seat. He led the Progressive faction of the California Republican Party. Hughes visited California and made the rounds of the regular conservative leaders, appearing to intentionally avoid the progressive leaders.
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