The story
On November 8, 1904, Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican who had become president when William McKinley was shot in 1901, won the White House in his own right. He took 336 electoral votes and 56.4 percent of the popular vote against Alton B. Parker, a conservative New York judge whom the Democrats chose after two losses with the populist William Jennings Bryan. Parker won 140 electoral votes, all from the South and the border states. Socialist Eugene V. Debs drew about 3 percent.
Roosevelt ran on his record. His administration had sued to break up the Northern Securities railroad trust, settled the 1902 coal strike by pressing both owners and miners, and secured the rights to build the Panama Canal. He called this approach a Square Deal: government as a referee between big business, labor and consumers. Parker tried to run as the safe, pro-gold alternative, but business donors and voters stayed with the popular incumbent. On election night Roosevelt promised he would not seek another term in 1908, a pledge that shaped the next two elections.
Why it mattered
- A personal mandate let Roosevelt push the Hepburn Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act through Congress in 1906.
- His promise not to run again opened the way for his chosen successor, William Howard Taft, in 1908.
- Regret over that promise helped drive Roosevelt's third-party Bull Moose run in 1912, which split the Republicans.
Sources
- Theodore Roosevelt: Campaigns and Elections Miller Center
- 1904 Presidential Election 270toWin
- United States presidential election of 1904 Britannica
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