The GOP Makes a Hard Right: 1912

1912 is the election that swung the Republican Party to the right. The right turn came about as a response to Theodore Roosevelt's challenge to President William Howard Taft. Taft had an underwhelming term as president and bungled several foreign policy decisions. T.R. handpicked Taft as his successor and felt it necessary to correct his mistake. Plus, he was bored. Roosevelt decided to run for a third term and challenged the incumbent Taft.
This was the first election in which primaries would be held to choose delegates to the national conventions. The Republicans held 14 primaries that year and Roosevelt embarrassed Taft by winning 9 of the last 10 primaries. Taft won three total primaries while Robert LaFollette won two. The conservatives thought Roosevelt a radical and the party bosses worried they could not control him. Taft united these forces and blocked Roosevelt's nomination. The G.O.P. had a civil war on its hands and did not care about keeping the White House.
Roosevelt bolted the GOP and formed the Bull Moose Party. He had to distinguish himself from both Democrats and Republicans by moving left. His "New Nationalism" combined business regulation, social justice, and court reform. TR wanted people to be able to recall justices. He also attacked Taft for stealing the nomination from the people.
The Democrats were ecstatic. The Republicans did not care if they won as long as they blocked each other. The Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was a former college professor and president and the incumbent governor of New Jersey. Wilson had a progressive record as governor and the south had no issues with him as Wilson was a hard core racist. Wilson campaigned on his "New Freedom" platform which opposed the "Triple Wall of Privilege." Wilson wanted to regulate banks, monopolies, and lower the tariff.
Meanwhile, if that was not enough, the Socialists got in the act again and nominated Eugene Debs again. The Socialists felt this was their time. They would total around 900,000 votes, and knew they would lose, but hoped to further their movement. However, there was a major split within the party between those that advocated violence and those that wanted to reform the country through the ballot box.
With the G.O.P. split, Wilson won. He totaled 42% of the vote. Taft and TR totaled 51% together, so it is likely a single GOP candidate would have won. However, they were not united behind a single candidate. The third party candidate Roosevelt finished second with 27.4% and Taft third with 23.2%. Even an assassination attempt on TR could not siphon off enough Taft voters. A disturbed young man believed the ghost of William McKinley told him to shoot Roosevelt. TR took the bullet in the chest, but it was stopped by the copy of his speech. (It was about the size of a phone book). Roosevelt finished the speech and went to the hospital 45 minutes later.
Following his defeat, Roosevelt went to the Amazon. He got very sick and almost died. The illness sapped his strength and he died in 1919 while gearing up to run on the GOP ticket in 1920. He was the favorite that year. Taft would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court following a Republican restoration in the 1920s. Wilson would lead the country into World War I after misleading the nation about his intentions in 1916. The Republican Party continued it's rightward drift. It would stay hard right until 1940 and remain the Conservative party in the United States for the rest of the century.