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United States presidential election, 1912
United States
1908 ←
November 5, 1912
→ 1916

  Theodore Roosevelt Debs
Nominee Theodore Roosevelt Eugene V. Debs
Party Democratic Socialist
Home state New York Indiana
Running mate Walter McKenna Unknown

President before election

Unknown
Democratic

Elected President

Theodore Roosevelt
Democratic

The United States presidential election of 1912 was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. It proved to be a critical moment in the history of the United States. Continuing the political dominance of the Democratic Party and the Remembrance culture, 1912 saw the election of Theodore Roosevelt, one of the few U.S. heroes of the Second Mexican War. Just two years later, the U.S. was at war with the Confederate States, a war which would see the U.S. finally regain its national honor.

The Fall Campaign[]

Roosevelt had made a name for himself in years after the Second Mexican War. His position as a war hero and a Democrat virtually guaranteed his election. Nonetheless, he faced a comparatively formidable opponent in Socialist Eugene V. Debs. Debs was the first Socialist to be elected to the United States Congress, and so had a level of recognition and public appeal that his predecessors lacked. Nonetheless, Debs' notions of economic equality just didn't resonate with the voters the way the concrete goals of Remembrance did.

Results[]

Roosevelt handily defeated Debs, continuing the Democratic monopoly on power. Within two years, the country was at war with the Confederacy and Canada, a war which Roosevelt eagerly and vigorously pursued, a war which the U.S. ultimately won under Roosevelt's leadership.

Roosevelt and Debs faced-off again in 1916, with the same result.

OTL Election[]

The 1912 election is today remembered as being among the fiercest and most boisterous political battles in American history, and was the iconic event of the Progressive Era. As in Southern Victory, both Theodore Roosevelt (who ran under the new Progressive Party) and Eugene Debs (who ran as a Socialist) were presidential candidates, though neither won the election. William Howard Taft, the Republican incumbent (who is also a character in Southern Victory) was also a losing candidate. The winner was Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson, who appears in Southern Victory as a Confederate president.

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