Taft had little chance of winning in 1912, but was determined that TR not win. He referred to himself as a "man of straw" saying he had been one for too long, and that "even a rat in a corner will fight." Of course, describing himself as a cornered rat did not do much for his re-election chances.
The Democratic Party nominated Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. Wilson was also a progressive who agreed with TR and Taft on most issues. There were one or two issues on which Wilson and Roosevelt disagreed, and these became the basis of the campaign. Taft more or less dropped out of the campaign early, leaving it a mainly two-way fight between TR and Wilson.
All three candidates took to the stump in one of the most active campaigns yet. There was one lull in the campaign. On October 14, while getting into a car in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot by a fanatic named John Shrank. Shrank yelled something about no third term, and fired at Roosevelt. The bullet struck Roosevelt, but he refused to go to the hospital. He said that he had a speech to make and stated "I will make this speech or die." With great drama, he made his speech in almost a whisper to a silent audience. At the end of the speech, the audience stood and cheered, and Roosevelt finally went to the hospital. The bullet had struck the doubled over speech in Teddy's coat pocket, and lodged in his ribs near the lung. The doctor said that it would have been much worse if Roosevelt were not in such great physical condition. Both Taft and Wilson sent him telegrams of sympathy and ceased campaigning until Roosevelt was better.
When the votes were counted, there were no surprises. Wilson won an electoral landslide taking 435 electoral votes to 88 for Roosevelt and 8 for Taft. Wilson did not, however, capture a majority of the popular vote. Roughly six million people voted for Wilson, compared to four million for Roosevelt and three and a half million for Taft. But since the Republican Party split between Teddy and Taft, Wilson took most of the states with a plurality (less than a majority, but more than anyone else) vote. Since all the electoral votes of a state go to whoever wins the most votes, Wilson won forty states, most with less than a majority of the popular votes.
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