1912 United States presidential election in Utah

Last updated September 07, 2024

The 1912 United States presidential election in Utah was held on November 5, 1912 as part of the 1912 United States presidential election. State voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

After being overwhelmingly carried by William Jennings Bryan in its first presidential election from its statehood year of 1896, Utah was to vote Republican by increasing margins in the following three elections, with only Washington County in the Dixie region voting Democratic in 1904 and 1908. By 1909, there were just two Democrats in the state legislature – a number fewer than any other state except Michigan during the middle 1900s and 1920s.

However, during William Howard Taft's presidency, his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt became bitterly opposed to his policies on foreign affairs and the opening of public lands to private concerns.^[1] and thus decided to run in Republican primaries. Roosevelt's personal popularity and a powerful speaking tour was sufficient for him to "steamroll" through primaries, but Taft was able to prevail as the Republican nominee through traditional machine and party tactics.^[2] Reformers bolted the Republicans and formed the "Progressive" or "Bull Moose" Party with Roosevelt as standard-bearer. Taft – already unpopular with the public and not enjoying being President^[3] – decided to run, not in expectation of being re-elected but rather to preserve the GOP apparatus for future conservative action.^[4]

Because Taft made little efforts to campaign, he lost easily in most states; however, in Utah, a powerful political machine under long-serving senator and Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot had been developed to counter the anti-Mormon "American Party", which had become the effective opposition to the Republicans in local elections and had elected mayors in Salt Lake City.^[1] Combined with a very prosperous rural economy in both the farming and mining sectors, this produced strong loyalty among local Mormon communities to Taft,^[5] who was also supported by the local Mormon and non-Mormon press. Those supporting Roosevelt were viewed as "insincere" and as "office-seekers", although latterly such press criticism was toned down.^[1]

Taft was thus able to hold the state, with the maintenance of tariffs being critical for the 52 percent of Utahans who were farmers in 1912. Wilson and Roosevelt were most successful in the remote, less Mormon areas east of the Wasatch Mountains, and in some urban areas with more progressive tendencies. Socialist Eugene Debs, in the most successful of his five presidential campaigns, obtained eight percent of the vote but did much better than this in some mining areas.

Utah became one of the only two states to vote for Taft in 1912, the other being Vermont, and with 37.46% of the popular vote made the state his strongest victory in the election.^[6] Wilson became the first Democrat since statehood to win the presidency without carrying Utah. This was the last presidential election until 1960 (and the first such occasion since statehood in 1896) in which Utah did not back the national winner, and remains the last time the state voted differently than neighboring Idaho.

Results

1912 United States presidential election in Utah^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	William Howard Taft (incumbent)	42,100	37.46%	4
	Democratic	Woodrow Wilson	36,579	32.55%	0
	Progressive	Theodore Roosevelt	24,174	21.51%	0
	Socialist	Eugene V. Debs	9,023	8.03%	0
	Socialist Labor	Arthur E. Reimer	510	0.45%	0
Totals			112,386	100.00%	4

Results by county

County	William Howard Taft Republican		Woodrow Wilson Democratic		Theodore Roosevelt Progressive "Bull Moose"		Eugene V. Debs Socialist		Arthur E. Reimer Socialist Labor		Margin		Total votes cast
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Beaver	671	39.75%	602	35.66%	307	18.19%	106	6.28%	2	0.12%	69	4.09%	1,688
Box Elder	1,650	40.61%	1,402	34.51%	936	23.04%	75	1.85%	0	0.00%	248	6.10%	4,063
Cache	2,825	37.92%	3,296	44.25%	1,173	15.76%	135	1.77%	20	0.27%	-471	-6.33%	7,449
Carbon	771	34.93%	514	23.29%	541	25.87%	344	15.59%	7	0.32%	230^{[lower-alpha 1]}	9.06%	2,207
Davis	1,295	44.36%	1,142	39.12%	460	15.76%	21	0.72%	1	0.03%	153	5.24%	2,919
Emery	760	37.04%	760	37.04%	336	16.37%	190	9.26%	6	0.29%	0	0.00%	2,052
Garfield	673	62.60%	249	23.16%	128	11.91%	23	2.14%	2	0.19%	424	39.44%	1,075
Grand	191	33.75%	212	37.46%	118	20.85%	45	7.95%	0	0.00%	-21	-3.71%	566
Iron	695	49.71%	544	38.91%	63	4.51%	95	6.80%	1	0.07%	151	10.80%	1,398
Juab	1,171	35.38%	985	29.76%	344	10.39%	800	24.17%	10	0.30%	186	5.62%	3,310
Kane	426	75.27%	115	20.32%	20	3.53%	5	0.88%	0	0.00%	311	54.95%	566
Millard	970	41.10%	865	36.65%	397	16.82%	123	5.21%	5	0.21%	105	4.45%	2,360
Morgan	318	36.59%	233	26.81%	273	31.42%	45	5.18%	0	0.00%	45^{[lower-alpha 1]}	5.17%	869
Piute	205	37.41%	110	20.07%	146	26.64%	87	15.88%	0	0.00%	59^{[lower-alpha 1]}	10.77%	548
Rich	329	48.89%	238	35.36%	100	14.86%	6	0.89%	0	0.00%	91	13.53%	673
Salt Lake	12,719	35.14%	10,468	28.92%	8,899	24.59%	3,798	10.49%	308	0.85%	2,251	6.22%	36,192
San Juan	146	37.24%	146	37.24%	96	24.49%	4	1.02%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	392
Sanpete	2,488	41.98%	1,984	33.47%	1,272	21.46%	173	2.92%	10	0.17%	504	8.51%	5,927
Sevier	1,452	41.90%	915	26.41%	807	23.29%	287	8.28%	4	0.12%	537	15.49%	3,465
Summit	1,290	44.06%	983	33.57%	425	14.52%	226	7.72%	4	0.14%	307	10.49%	2,928
Tooele	950	44.21%	646	30.06%	261	12.15%	284	13.22%	8	0.37%	304	14.15%	2,149
Uintah	545	28.40%	566	29.49%	641	33.40%	165	8.60%	2	0.10%	-75^{[lower-alpha 2]}	-3.91%	1,919
Utah	4,185	35.45%	4,636	39.26%	2,295	19.44%	664	5.62%	27	0.23%	-451	-3.81%	11,807
Wasatch	1,210	41.71%	957	32.99%	432	14.89%	294	10.13%	8	0.28%	253	8.72%	2,901
Washington	712	43.60%	842	51.56%	72	4.41%	6	0.37%	1	0.06%	-130	-7.96%	1,633
Wayne	282	52.03%	183	33.76%	24	4.43%	53	9.78%	0	0.00%	99	18.27%	542
Weber	3,171	29.31%	2,986	27.60%	3,608	33.35%	969	8.96%	84	0.78%	-437^{[lower-alpha 1]}	-4.04%	10,818
Totals	42,100	37.46%	36,579	32.55%	24,174	21.51%	9,023	8.03%	510	0.45%	5,521	4.91%	112,386

Notes

1 2 3 4 In the county where Roosevelt ran second ahead of Wilson, margin given is Taft vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Taft percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.
↑ In this county where Taft ran third behind both Wilson and Roosevelt, margin given is Wilson vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.

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References

1 2 3 Wahlquist, C. Austin; ‘The 1912 Presidential Election in Utah’ (A Thesis Presented to the Department of History, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah)
↑ Kraig, Robert Alexander; 'The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State', Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Fall 2000), pp.. 365-366
↑ Conlin, Joseph R.; The American Past: A Survey of American History, Volume II: Since 1865, Volume 2, p. 607 ISBN 113394664X
↑ Craig; 'The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundation of the Liberal State', p. 368
↑ See Sarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly , Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305
↑ "1912 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
↑ "1912 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.

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[RooseveltdWilson-8] 1 2 3 4 In the county where Roosevelt ran second ahead of Wilson, margin given is Taft vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Taft percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.

[9] In this county where Taft ran third behind both Wilson and Roosevelt, margin given is Wilson vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.

[1912Presidential-1] 1 2 3 Wahlquist, C. Austin; ‘The 1912 Presidential Election in Utah’ (A Thesis Presented to the Department of History, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah)

[2] Kraig, Robert Alexander; 'The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundations of the Liberal State', Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Fall 2000), pp.. 365-366

[3] Conlin, Joseph R.; The American Past: A Survey of American History, Volume II: Since 1865, Volume 2, p. 607 ISBN 113394664X

[4] Craig; 'The 1912 Election and the Rhetorical Foundation of the Liberal State', p. 368

[5] See Sarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly , Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305

[6] "1912 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.

[7] "1912 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.

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