Chicago, IL

June 18 to 22, 1912

Nominated: William H Taft of Ohio for President

Nominated: James S Sherman of New York for Vice President

When the Republican party met in Chicago the party was divided. Roosevelt was attempting to win the nomination of his party and remove Taft. He had won the six primaries that had been held. Taft however controlled the party machinery. As the convention approached Roosevelt had 411 committed delegates, Taft 201 and La Follette 36. There were also 166 uninstructed delegates There were however, 254 contested delegates who were actually Taft delegates. Before the convention opened the Republican National Committee allocated the overwhelming majority of the disputed delegates to Taft. Roosevelt himself broke with tradition and attended the convention. It became clear as the convention opened that Taft had control. Roosevelt's forces tried to elect a convention chairman who was friendly to Roosevelt, but they lost 558 to 501. After a similar failure to seat a delegation pledged to Roosevelt instead of one pledged to Taft, Roosevelt concluded that his path back to the White House lay in starting a new party. He thus stopped attempted to block the Taft nomination and Taft was nominated on the first ballot.

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