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 . Roosevelt emerged as Wilson 's main challenger , and Wilson and Roosevelt largely campaigned against each other despite sharing similarly progressive platforms that called for a strong , interventionist central government . Wilson won 435 of the 531 electoral votes and 41.8 % of the popular vote , while Roosevelt won most of the remaining electoral votes and 27.4 % of the popular vote , representing one of the strongest third party performances in U.S. history . Taft won 23.2 % of the popular vote but just 8 electoral votes , while Debs won 6 % of the popular vote . In the concurrent congressional elections , Democrats retained control of the House and won a majority in the Senate . Wilson 's victory made him the first Southerner to win the presidency since the Civil War
1912 Republican National Convention
1912 Republican National Convention
Presidency of Woodrow Wilson