1912 United States presidential election in New Jersey California, and the Republican nominees, incumbent President William Howard Taft of Ohio and his running mate incumbent Vice President James S. Sherman of New York. Wilson carried New Jersey with a bare plurality of 41.20% of the vote to Roosevelt's 33.60%, a victory margin of 7.60%. Taft came in third place with 20.53%. Coming in a distant fourth was Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs, who took 3.69%. Like much of the Northeast, New Jersey in this era was a staunchly Republican state, having not given a majority of the vote to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1892. In his initial
Russell S. Taft Russell S. Taft Russell Smith Taft (January 28, 1835 – March 22, 1902) was a lawyer, politician and judge who served as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont and Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. Russell Smith Taft was born in Williston, Vermont on January 28, 1835. He attended schools in Williston and Burlington, studied law with George F. Edmunds and others, and became an attorney in 1856. Among the prospective attorneys who learned the law in Taft's office was Rufus E. Brown, who later served as Vermont Attorney General. Taft was also the first President of the Vermont Life Insurance