United States presidential election, 1904

Infobox Election
election_name = United States presidential election, 1904
country = United States
type = presidential
ongoing = no
previous_election = United States presidential election, 1900
previous_year = 1900
next_election = United States presidential election, 1908
next_year = 1908
election_date = November 8, 1904

nominee1 = Theodore Roosevelt
party1 = Republican Party (United States)
home_state1 = New York
running_mate1 = Charles Warren Fairbanks
electoral_vote1 = 336
states_carried1 = 32
popular_vote1 = 7,630,457
percentage1 = 56.4%

nominee2 = Alton Brooks Parker
party2 = Democratic Party (United States)
home_state2 = New York
running_mate2 = Henry Gassaway Davis
electoral_vote2 = 140
states_carried2 = 13
popular_vote2 = 5,083,880
percentage2 = 37.6%

map_

---

map_size = 350px
map_caption = Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Parker/Davis, Red denotes those won by Roosevelt/Fairbanks. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

title = President
before_election = Theodore Roosevelt
before_party = Republican Party (United States)
before_color = 3333FF
after_election = Theodore Roosevelt
after_party = Republican Party (United States)
after_color = 3333FF

The United States presidential election of 1904 was held on November 8, 1904. Incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican who had succeeded to the Presidency upon William McKinley's assassination, easily won a term of his own, thus becoming the first "accidental" president to do so.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Republican candidates

* Charles W. Fairbanks, U.S. senator from Indiana
* Mark Hanna, U.S. senator from Ohio
* Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States from New York

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic candidates

* Alton B. Parker, judge from New York
* William Randolph Hearst, U.S. representative from New York
* Francis M. Cockrell, U.S. senator from Missouri
* Richard Olney, former Secretary of State from Massachusetts
* Edward C. Wall, delegate from Wisconsin
* George Gray, former U.S. senator from Delaware
* John S. Williams, U.S. representative from Mississippi
* Robert E. Pattison, former Governor of Pennsylvania
* George B. McClellan, Jr. Mayor of New York City
* Nelson A. Miles, retired Commanding General of the United States Army from Massachusetts
* Charles A. Towne, U.S. senator from Minnesota
* Bird Sim Coler, New York City Controller

Candidates gallery

With Roosevelt's popularity nearing its peak, William Jennings Bryan, the nominee of 1896 and 1900, had decided to sit this one out, leaving what was considered the most worthless Democratic nomination since 1872 wide open. With former President Grover Cleveland refusing to come out of retirement as well, the Democrats met in Saint Louis in a surly and depressed mood. The only candidate who really wanted the nod was William Randolph Hearst, but the delegates instead nominated an unknown Bourbon Democrat named Alton B. Parker, a judge on New York state Court of Appeals, who accepted after he demanded, and got, an endorsement of the gold standard in the party's platform. 81-year-old millionaire industrialist Henry G. Davis of West Virginia was nominated as his running mate, ostensibly to pay for the campaign with his own funds. During the campaign, he contributed $185,000 ($3.7 million in 2002 dollars), which was over a third of the very small election fund.

Source: Keating Holland, "All the Votes... Really," CNN [http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/san.diego/facts/weird.facts/votes.shtml.orig]

Socialist Party nomination

Socialist candidates

* Eugene Victor Debs, U.S. union leader and socialist from Indiana

The Election of 1904 was the first election in which the Socialist Party participated. The Socialist Party of America was a highly factionalized coalition of local parties based in industrial cities and usually was rooted in ethnic communities, especially German and Finnish. It also had some support in old Populist rural and mining areas in the West. Prominent socialist Eugene Victor Debs was nominated for President and Benjamin Hanford was nominated for Vice President.

General election

Campaign

The lackluster Judge Parker made little headway against the wildly popular Roosevelt, who had already adopted popular reform positions such as increased regulation of the large corporations and conservation of natural resources, not to mention the "winning" of Panama, the Northern Securities suit, Conquest of the Philippines, the Venezuela affair, and so on and so forth. With the whole country cheering TR's campaign screeching "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!" There was little Parker could do to avoid being run over.

There was a ray of hope for the Judge, however. Joseph Pulitzer's New York World carried a full page story about alleged corruption in the Bureau of Corporations. TR admitted certain payments had been made, but denied any "blackmail." Roosevelt was so beloved that the issue didn't have traction and Parker carried only the southern states, and the charismatic Roosevelt won the most decisive victory since 1872.

Results

Theodore Roosevelt won in a landslide, taking every Northern and Western state. He also picked up Missouri.Source (Popular Vote): Leip PV source 2| year=1904| as of=July 28, 2005

Source (Electoral Vote): National Archives EV source| year=1904| as of=July 31, 2005

ee also

* History of the United States (1865–1918)

Further reading

; Books:* cite book| last=Blum| first=John Morton| title=The Republican Roosevelt| year=1954:** Series of essays that examine how Roosevelt did politics:* cite book| last=Gould| first=Lewis L.| title=The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt| year=1991:* cite book| last=Harbaugh| first=William Henry| title=The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt| year=1963:* cite book| last=Morris| first=Edmund| title=Theodore Rex| year=2001:** Biography of Roosevelt during the years 1901–1909; Web:* [http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1904.htm 1904 popular vote by counties] :* [http://www.msu.edu/~sheppa28/elections.html#1904 How close was the 1904 election?] - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University

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