and public library board. Chafin ran for the House of Representatives in Wisconsin in 1882 and in Illinois in 1902. In 1886 and 1900, he ran for attorney general in Wisconsin and later ran for attorney general in Illinois in 1904. In 1898, he ran for Governor of Wisconsin. Presidential 1908 On July 16, 1908, Chafin was nominated by A. G. Wolfenbarger and Chafin won the Prohibition presidential nomination on the third ballot with 636 delegates voting for him against William B. Palmore, Daniel R. Sheen, Alfred L. Manierre, Will W. Tracy, Frederick F. Wheeler, James B. Cranfill, and Oliver W. Stewart. The vice presidential nomination was offered to Palmore due to him receiving the second highest amount of support, but he declined and the position was instead given to Aaron S. Watkins. While running for president he was also simultaneously running for the Prohibition gubernatorial nomination in Illinois, but was defeated in the primary by Daniel R. Sheen. In August, he was swimming at the YMCA in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he almost drowned, but was rescued by three people. On August 14, 1908, he was giving a speech in Springfield, Illinois, when a lynch mob started a race riot in an attempt to kill three black prisoners and while he was taking his handkerchief out from his pocket a member of the mob believed that he was pulling a gun out and threw a brick at him. In the general election he received 254,087 votes for 1.71% of the total popular vote. 1912 Chafin started his second presidential campaign on January 5, 1912, in Tucson, Arizona, and then traveled east towards Atlantic City, New Jersey, where on July 12, 1912, he won the Prohibition presidential nomination on the first ballot with 594 delegates after having his name presented by F. J. Sibley and Watkins was selected as his vice president again after two ballots. After winning the nomination he traveled towards the western United States and campaigned in all of the states along the Pacific Coast before the general election. During the campaign he traveled a total of 36,300 miles through thirty states and received 208,156 votes for 1.38% of the popular vote in the general election. 1916 In December 1915, he stated that he would not seek the Prohibition presidential nomination again for the 1916 presidential election and that he believed that Representative Richmond P. Hobson would receive