1916 - Wilson vs. Hughes
Wilson in the 1916 campaign throws baseball's opening day first pitch; Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Incumbent President Woodrow Wilson, who doesn’t want to be perceived as using the White House as a political prop for his reelection bid, moves into a rented house in West Long Branch, New Jersey, for the duration of the campaign. The house’s owner offers him the place rent-free, but Wilson, a stickler for propriety, insists on paying. Meanwhile, Wilson’s well-financed campaign purchases thousands of four-color billboards featuring happy families in the foreground, with Wilson hovering godlike over them in a sky surrounded by golden clouds. (“He has protected me and mine,” is the accompanying slogan.)
In November, Wilson wins a squeaker over the GOP nominee, Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, taking the popular vote 49.4 to 46.2 percent and capturing the Electoral College 277 to 254.
A month after the election, Wilson, in his State of the Union address, decries “the dangers to the public morals of the present method of obtaining and spending campaign funds,” and urges stricter government regulation.
SOURCES: Jon Blackwell, “War Shadows an Election,” Asbury Park Press, February 28, 2000; Gil Troy, letter to the editor, The New York Times, June 24, 1992; “The Campaign and Election of 1912,” Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, Virginia; Woodrow Wilson, State of the Union Address, December 5, 1916.
Previous year: 1962
Previous election year: 1912 - Wilson vs. Taft
Next year: 1907
Next election year: 1920 - Harding vs. Cox