1908 United States presidential election in New York

1908 United States presidential election in New York

← 1904 November 3, 1908 1912 →
Turnout79.7%[1] Decrease 3.6 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 39 0
Popular vote 870,070 667,468
Percentage 53.11% 40.74%

County Results

President before election

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

Elected President

William Howard Taft
Republican

The 1908 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 3, 1908. All 46 contemporary states were part of the 1908 United States presidential election. Voters chose 39 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

New York was won by the Republican nominees, United States Secretary of War William Howard Taft of Ohio and his running mate Congressman James S. Sherman of New York. Taft and Sherman defeated the Democratic nominees, former Congressman and two-time prior presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska and his running mate Senator John W. Kern of Indiana. Also in the running was the Socialist Party candidate, Eugene V. Debs, who ran with Ben Hanford.

Taft carried New York State with 53.11% of the vote to Bryan's 40.74%, a victory margin of 12.37%. Debs finished a distant third, receiving 2.35% of the vote in the state.

New York weighed in for this election as about 4% more Republican than the national average. New York would prove to be a Republican stronghold during the Fourth Party System, voting for Republican candidates in the presidential elections of that era barring Woodrow Wilson's win four years later. This was the first time since its incorporation in 1898 that a Republican won New York City, something that has happened twice since, in 1920 and 1924.

Bryan had previously lost New York twice to William McKinley in both 1896 and 1900.

  1. ^ Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.