The 1912 presidential election showcased four impressive
candidates who engaged in a remarkable debate about the future
of American politics. Besides William Howard Taft, the incumbent
Republican president, the campaign was joined by Eugene Debs,
the labor leader from Indiana, who ran on the Socialist Party
ticket; the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt, who bolted from
the GOP and ran as the champion of the Progressive Party; and
Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, who was
elected president. All four candidates acknowledged that
fundamental changes were occurring in the American political
landscape, and each attempted to define the Progressive Era's
answer to the questions raised by the new industrial order that
had grown up within the American constitutional system. That the
1912 election registered, and inspired, fundamental changes in
American politics suggests the historical significance of the
Progressive Party. Not only was it the driving force of this
election, but it remains the most