The Effects on American Politics From the Election of 1912
During the Progressive Era, Americans faced the challenge of choosing between four strong candidates of the election of 1912. Each candidate held concrete platforms that would have different effects on progressivism. Americans could chose the conservative presidential incumbent William Howard Taft(R), the New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson (D), the long-time fighter for social reform-Eugene V. Debs (S), or the former president Theodore Roosevelt of the newly formed Bull Moose Party (Progressive Party). Through this election many steps were taken to change the face of the election season, including women's rights, primaries, and third
The progressive party did a first in mandating that four women were to be members on the Progressive National Committee "Indeed, the most famous settlement house leader and social worker in American history, the beloved Jane Adams of Hull House in Chicago, was at the convention, and seconded Theodore Roosevelt's nomination for President. This was said to be the first time that a woman had addressed the national convention of a major party." (Theodore Roosevelt Association) It is also said that Helen J. Scott was a progressive elector in the state of Washington. If this is true, then that means, through the progressive party, the first woman truly voted for the president in the election of 1912.
This election was also the force behind the progression on the women's suffrage movement. TR showed his stance on the idea of securing equal suffrage to men and women alike in a speech in Vermont; "I have said not once but a score of times, that I put the domestic life above every other kind of life, and I honor the good wife and mother as I honor no other woman and no man.... Real issues affect women precisely as much as men. The women who bear children and attend to their own homes have precisely the same right to speak in