What if Tammany Hall didn't throw its support for Champ Clark in the 1912 United States Presidential Election. Would he be able to win the Democratic nomination against Woodrow Wilson?
What if Tammany Hall didn't throw its support for Champ Clark in the 1912 United States Presidential Election. Would he be able to win the Democratic nomination against Woodrow Wilson?
True, the Dems could win in 1912--but a fourth time around for Bryan would have been hilarious. He was already pretty shopworn as a three-time loser. And if anything could have cold-soldered the GOP factions back together in that year, Bryan's nomination would have been enough. The factions would have declared a temporary truce, perhaps nominated a compromise candidate (Hadley? Beveridge? Hughes?) and curb-stomped Bryan once and for all.
The Republican convention, though, was before the Democratic one. They had already named Taft and had their rather riotous split with Roosevelt. I think it unlikely that in the face of a Bryan candidacy that Roosevelt would think his chances worse rather than better: it may just encourage him all the more that he has a solid chance at victory.
With Taft and Clark we could see major defections to TR from both parties.
Now, what I wrote earlier might work if somehow there was a prodromal threat of a fourth Bryan candidacy: that might have served to yield a truce on the intramural GOP struggles as noted.
Why?
Clark had won the Democratic Primary in CA (a highly Progressive state) by almost three to one, and the Illinois Primary by two to one. This does not suggest that he was offensive to progressive Dems.
As for the Taft men their top priority was stopping TR, whose victory would threaten their control of the Republican Party. They knew this meant a Democratic victory, but that was a triviality by comparison. The identity of the Democratic candidate did not concern them. Indeed, from their pov, the worse he was, the better for them, since that improved GOP chances of a comeback in 1916.