Wilson faced two major opponents in the 1912 general election : one-term Republican incumbent William Howard Taft , and former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt , who ran a third party campaign as the " Bull Moose " Party nominee . A fourth candidate , Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party , would also win a significant share of the popular vote . Roosevelt had broken with his former party at the 1912 Republican National Convention after Taft narrowly won re-nomination , and the split in the Republican Party made Democrats hopeful that they could win the presidency for the first time since the 1892 presidential election
1912 Republican National Convention
1912 Republican National Convention
Woodrow Wilson