1912 United States presidential election

The 1912 United States presidential election was the 32nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. Incumbent President John R. Lynch defeated Former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, former Speaker of the House J. Hamilton Lewis and former Senator Richard F. Pettigrew to win a second term as President, becoming the first African-American to be elected to that office.

Lynch had become President three years before, after President Theodore Roosevelt's death in 1909. After a stable three years in office, President Lynch was unanimously renominated at the 1912 Federal Republican National Convention, with Vice President John D. White (appointed by Lynch as per the Constitution) as his running mate. At the Farmer-Labor primaries, former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan faced former Senator Richard F. Pettigrew to win the nomination, which Bryan won narrowly, prompting Pettigrew's departure from the party and forming the Workers' Party of America in a Montana convention. While Bryan chose New York Councilman and Baptist Pastor Walter Rauschenbusch to be his running mate, the Workers' Party nominated Senator from Colorado William D. Haywood for the Vice Presidency. In the Liberal convention, former Speaker of the House Hamilton Lewis was nominated, after facing opposition from New York Governor Al Smith and Senator Oscar Underwood from Alabama.