The 1904 United States presidential election was the 30th quadrennial
presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1904.
Republican writer and humorist
Mark Twain defeated the
Democratic nominee,
William Randolph Hearst. Twain's victory made him the first president elected without any significant prior government or military experience.
Twain succeeded President
William P. Frye, who as
President Pro Tempore of the Senate,
took office in April 1903 when a freak blizzard
killed President
Theodore Roosevelt while he was visiting the
Rocky Mountains. Roosevelt himself was serving due to the
assassination of his predecessor,
William McKinley. Frye was not nearly as popular as Roosevelt and presided over a deeply divided Republican Party. Frye attempted to seek the
nomination in 1904, but was opposed by those espousing Roosevelt's brand of
progressivism, who preferred prominent
imperialist Senator
Albert J. Beveridge. Frye also faced a disorganized opposition from the anti-imperialist wing of the party. With the convention dragging into dozens of ballots, that faction put forward famous writer Twain's name for the nomination. Not expecting to receive the nomination but grateful for the honor, Twain halfheartedly allowed himself to be nominated. With Frye weakening with each successive ballot and with his faction eager to stop the ambitious Beveridge, many defected to Twain, hoping his charisma and widespread popularity would help the greatly weakened GOP in the general election. On the 46th ballot, Twain received the nomination in one of the largest upsets of the pre-primary era. He selected
Iowa senator and uncontroversial progressive
John P. Dolliver as his running mate.
On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Party was also
deeply divided. The conservative
Bourbon Democrat allies of former President
Grover Cleveland were in a deadlock with the allies of
William Jennings Bryan. Ultimately, a deal was made where one of Bryan's scions, newspaper magnate and U.S. Representative
William Randolph Hearst was nominated for president with Cleveland administration
Attorney General Richard Olney serving as the vice presidential nominee.
Despite both candidates having similar positions on
imperialism,
organized labor, and the
economy, the campaign was divisive and contentious. Hearst argued Twain was inexperienced, not serious enough, and too old for the strain of the presidency, as well as a radical on
civil rights and
immigration. Twain called Hearst a demagogue based on his own
conservative stances on civil rights and immigration, as well as declared in a
famous speech and letter that the born-into-wealth Hearst was a charlatan for insinuating that he was a champion of the
working class. Twain defeated Hearst by a moderate margin in the popular vote, but only lost two states outside the
South. Two
third-party candidates,
Eugene V. Debs of the
Socialist Party and
Silas C. Swallow of the
Prohibition Party, each took over 1% of the popular vote. High turnout resulted in the largest electorate at that point in
American history. With Twain's landslide victory in the electoral college, he became the first presidential candidate ever to receive at least 300 electoral votes.