TR's Run

On this day in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt accepted the presidential nomination of the Progressive Party after a power struggle at the 1912 Republican Convention disqualified all the Roosevelt delegates thus denying him the nomination--this, despite the fact that Roosevelt had won every primary. William H. Taft, Roosevelt's named successor, had failed to live up to the leadership demands and policies of the former president.

Incensed by the inability of Taft to lead effectively, Roosevelt once again sought the office of president. He condemned Taft for being too beholden to big business. Running on a platform consisting of the Ten Commandments, he sought to promote the prohibition of child labor, women's suffrage, national social insurance, and limits on government incursion in labor disputes. The Progressive ticket got more votes than the Republicans, but the split enabled Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, to eke out a victory.