U.S. presidential election of 1908

United States presidential election, 1908

← 1904 November 3, 1908 1912 →
All 483 electoral votes of the Electoral College 242 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	65.4% 0.2 pp
Nominee William Howard Taft William Jennings Bryan Party Republican Democratic Home state Ohio Nebraska Running mate James S. Sherman John W. Kern Electoral vote 321 162 States carried 29 17 Popular vote 7,678,395 6,408,984 Percentage 51.6% 43.0%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes those won by Taft/Sherman, blue denotes states won by Bryan/Kern. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Theodore Roosevelt Republican Elected President William Howard Taft Republican

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

William Howard Taft
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1908 was the 31st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1908. Secretary of War and Republican Party nominee William Howard Taft defeated three-time Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan.

Popular incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt honored his promise not to seek a third term, and persuaded his close friend, Taft, to become his successor. With Roosevelt's support, Taft won the presidential nomination of the 1908 Republican National Convention on the first ballot. Having lost the 1904 election badly with a conservative candidate, the Democratic Party re-nominated Bryan, who had been defeated in 1896 and 1900 by Republican William McKinley. Despite his two previous defeats and the waning of the Free Silver issue, Bryan remained extremely popular among the more liberal and populist elements of the Democratic Party.