1908 United States presidential election

1908 United States presidential election

← 1904 November 3, 1908 1912 →
483 members of the Electoral College 242 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	65.7%[1] 0.2 pp
Nominee William Howard Taft William Jennings Bryan Party Republican Democratic Home state Ohio Nebraska Running mate James S. Sherman John W. Kern Electoral vote 321 162 States carried 29 17 Popular vote 7,678,395 6,408,984 Percentage 51.6% 43.1%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Taft/Sherman, blue denotes those won by Bryan/Kern. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Theodore Roosevelt Republican Elected President William Howard Taft Republican

The 1908 United States presidential election was the 31st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1908. Republican Party nominee William Howard Taft defeated threetime Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan. Incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt honored his promise not to seek a third term (for him, a second full term), and persuaded his close friend, Taft, to become his successor. With Roosevelt's support, Taft won the presidential nomination at the 1908 Republican National Convention on the first ballot. The Democratic Party nominated Bryan, who had been defeated twice previously, in 1896 and 1900, by Republican William McKinley.

Bryan, part of the more liberal or progressive wing of the Democratic Party, ran a vigorous campaign against the nation's business elite. Despite this, he suffered the worst loss of his three presidential campaigns in his percentage of both the popular vote and electoral vote. Taft won 51.6% of the popular vote and carried most states outside of the Solid South. Taft's triumph gave Republicans their fourth consecutive presidential election victory. The Republican Party lost the presidency four years later to the Democrats, due to a party split between Taft and Roosevelt. Two third-party candidates, Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party and Eugene W. Chafin of the Prohibition Party, each took over 1% of the popular vote. This would also be the last election before Arizona and New Mexico gained statehood on January 6 and February 14, 1912.