Following the Panic of 1893 and the Populist movement, Michigan would turn from a competitive Republican-leaning state into a rigidly one-party polity dominated by the Republican Party.[1] The dominance of the culture of the Lower Peninsula by anti-slavery Yankees[2] would be augmented by the turn of formerly Democratic-leaning German Catholics away from that party as a result of the remodelled party’s agrarian and free silver sympathies, which became rigidly opposed by both the upper class and workers who followed them.[3] The state Democratic Party was further crippled via the Populist movement severing its critical financial ties with business and commerce in Michigan as in other Northern states.[4] A brief turn of the strongly evangelical Cabinet Counties toward the Populist movement in the 1896 presidential election would reverse itself following the return to prosperity under President William McKinley, so that these joined in Republican hegemony until the Great Depression.
In the 1894 elections, the Democratic Party lost all but one seat in the Michigan legislature,[5] and the party would only make minor gains there for the next third of a century. Unlike the other states of the Upper Midwest, the Yankee influence on the culture of the Lower Peninsula was so strong that left-wing third parties did not provide significant opposition to the Republicans, nor was there more than a moderate degree of coordinated factionalism within the hegemonic Michigan Republican Party.[6]
The state was not seriously affected by the split within the nationally dominant Republican Party during the Taft presidency. Only two of its ten Republican Congressmen were amongst the “Insurgents” who aligned with a revived Democratic Party.[7] However, during 1911 state Governor Chase Osborn became one of the first politicians to work for a return of Theodore Roosevelt to the White House,[8] and would soon call for both incumbent President Taft and rival progressive Robert M. La Follette to withdraw for Roosevelt to gain the nomination outright.[8] Roosevelt would also soon gain the support of state party leader Frank Knox,[9] although Taft supporters would dominate the state at actual party conventions.[10] The state’s few Democratic delegates backed eventual nominee, Princeton University PresidentWoodrow Wilson of Virginia.[11]
As of the 2020 presidential election[update], this is the last election in which Ottawa County, Sanilac County, and Missaukee County did not support the Republican candidate.[17][18] This was the first time since 1852 that Michigan voted for a non-Republican presidential candidate, and the only time Michigan ever voted for a third-party presidential candidate.
With 38.95 percent of the popular vote, Michigan would prove to be Roosevelt's third-strongest state in terms of popular vote percentage in the 1912 election after South Dakota (where Taft was not on the ballot) and California (where Taft was a write-in candidate).[19]
^Because Roosevelt finished first in Michigan as a whole, and Taft was second and the first-finished major party nominee, margin given is Taft vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Taft percentage minus Roosevelt percentage unless noted otherwise for the county in question.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabIn this county where Wilson finished second ahead of Taft, margin given is Wilson vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage.
^ abcdefIn this county where both Wilson and Taft finished ahead of state winner Roosevelt, margin given is Taft vote minus Wilson vote and percentage margin Taft percentage minus Wilson percentage.
^In this county Wilson and Taft tied for second position, margin given is as usual Taft vote minus Roosevelt vote.
References
^Burnham, Walter Dean (December 23, 1981). "The System of 1896: An Analysis". The Evolution of American Electoral Systems. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 178–179. ISBN0313213798.
^English, Gustavus P.; Proceedings of the Ninth Republican National Convention (1888), p. 234
^Sundquist, James (December 2010). Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years. Brookings Institution Press. p. 526. ISBN978-0815719090.
^"Swamped! The Democrats Drowned Out by a Tremendous Republican Tidal Wave". The L'Anse Sentinel. L'Anse. November 10, 1894. p. 1.
^Hansen, John Mark; Shigeo, Hirano; Snyder Jr., James M. (February 27, 2017). "Parties within Parties: Parties, Factions, and Coordinated Politics, 1900-1980". In Gerber, Alan S.; Schickler, Eric (eds.). Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–168. ISBN978-1-107-09509-0.
^Baker, John D. (December 1973). "The Character of the Congressional Revolution of 1910". The Journal of American History. 60 (3): 679–691. doi:10.2307/1917684. JSTOR1917684.
^ abPavord, Andrew C. (Summer 1996). "The Gamble for Power: Theodore Roosevelt's Decision to Run for the Presidency in 1912". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 26 (3): 633–647.
^Mark, Steven Macdonald (1977). An American Interventionist: Frank Knox and United States Foreign Relations (Thesis). pp. 32–55.
^Chace, James (2009). 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs — The Election that Changed the Country. Simon and Schuster. pp. 109, 112. ISBN978-1439188262.
^Chace; 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs, p. 156
^Chace; 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs, p. 229
^"Wilson Leading in Nearly every State: Polls by New York Herald Indicate Victory for Democrats — Illinois and Michigan Are Exceptions". Wichita Falls Times. Wichita Falls, Texas. October 9, 1912.
^"Comment and Gossip". Fremont Herald. Fremont, Nebraska. September 27, 1912. p. 3.
