The 1912 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 5, 1912, and all contemporary forty-eight states participated as part of the
1912 United States presidential election
The 1912 United States presidential election was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. Democratic Governor Woodrow Wilson unseated incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft and defeated former Pr ...
. Voters chose three electors to represent them in the
Electoral College, which voted for
President and
Vice President.
This was the first
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pre ...
in which
New Mexico participated, having been admitted to the union as the 47th state on January 6, 1912. During the period between New Mexico's annexation by the United States and statehood, the area was divided between largely Republican machine-run highland regions and its firmly
Southern Democrat
Southern Democrats, historically sometimes known colloquially as Dixiecrats, are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States. Southern Democrats were generally much more conservative than Northern Democrats with ...
and Baptist "
Little Texas" region to the southeast. Running for reelection against the reformist policies of Wilson was
William H. Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, who secured the
Republican nomination over
Theodore Roosevelt. To counter not receiving the Republican nomination, Roosevelt then ran for president under his own
Bull-Moose Party.
New Mexico is indicative of this critical split in the industrialist Republican Party, because Wilson was able to attain victory, both in the State and nationally, with about 40% of the vote, due to a split in the "Old Guard" of highland Republicanism.
[Hodgson, Illa D. and Garthwaite, Eloyse M.; 'New Mexico's Early Elections: Statehood to New Deal'; ''New Mexico Historical Review'', January 1, 1995; vol. 70, issue 1, pp. 29-46] New Mexico was won by
New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, in what was perhaps the most politically diverse election in United States history. Nonetheless, New Mexico was still Taft's fourth-strongest state by vote percentage after
Utah,
New Hampshire and
Vermont, reflecting the strong Hispanic machine loyalties to him in the northern highlands.
[Menendez, Albert J.; ''The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004'', p. 42 ] The
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
had its best year on record under Socialist Party star
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialism, socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate ...
, who garnered almost six percent of the electorate in New Mexico, and nationally.
Results
Results by county
Notes
References
{{United States elections
New Mexico
United States presidential
1912
Events January
* January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established.
* January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.
* January 6 ...