The Elephant

Back to The Election of 1912

Creator:
E.W. Kemble

Publication:

Harper's Weekly

Publication Date:
November 16, 1912

Description:

The 1912 Presidential election was a three-way contest:

• WilliamHoward Taft, the incumbent president, represented the Republican Party,symbolized by the Elephant.
• WoodrowWilson, the reform governor of New Jerseyand former president of Princeton University, was theDemocratic candidate, symbolized by the Donkey.
• TheodoreRoosevelt, the former Republican president (1901-1909), ran on theProgressive Party ticket, symbolized by the Bull Moose.

Woodrow Wilson won the election, but he did so with fewer popular votes than the losing 1896 Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, Many Republicans argued at the time that Roosevelt's Bull Moose campaign divided the Republican vote and gave the election to Wilson.

Source:
The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library