1908 United States presidential election in Ohio

1908 United States presidential election in Ohio
Taft 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80%	Bryan 40-50% 50-60% 60-70%
President before election; Theodore Roosevelt; Republican	Elected President ; William Howard Taft; Republican

The 1908 United States presidential election in Ohio was held on November 3, 1908 as part of the 1908 United States presidential election. State voters chose 23 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Since the Civil War, Ohio politics had been controlled by a conflict between the anti-Civil War Appalachian southeast and German-American counties of the northwest, opposed both to the heavily Yankee and New Englander northeast and to the Ohio Company counties of the southeast.^[1] There was also an area of the Virginia Military District in the southwest that was historically the state's Whig stronghold and later voted Republican.^[2] The GOP had consistently controlled the state during this era, if largely due to the prevalence of Ohio natives on the ticket,^[3] losing only one electoral vote to Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1892. Following the nomination of William Jennings Bryan for the first time in 1896, another Ohio native and former governor in William McKinley strengthened the party's hold on the state by his appeal to white ethnic migrants in Ohio's cities.^[4] McKinley would also defeat Bryan in Ohio in 1900

In his third campaign against an Ohio native, Bryan extensively toured Ohio, associating Taft with John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil – whom Bryan criticized as "vicious lawbreakers".^[5] In September 1908 there had been reports of a major swing that would give Bryan a chance to be the first Democrat to carry the state since Franklin Pierce in 1852,^[6] but a week before Bryan's tour it was reported that Gold Democrats and labor were turning away from Bryan.^[7]

Ultimately, Taft won the state by a margin of 6.21%, a margin less than a third that by which Theodore Roosevelt defeated Alton B. Parker four years earlier.

^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 343 ISBN 9780691163246
^ Flinn, Thomas A.; 'Continuity and Change in Ohio Politics'; The Journal of Politics, vol. 24, no. 3 (August 1962), pp. 521-544
^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 352
^ Sullivan, James Casey; 'Against the Tendencies of the Times: The Republican Party and the Roots of Modern Conservatism, 1900-1930' (thesis), p. 93
^ 'Bryan Links Taft with Rockefeller: In Tour of Ohio He Makes Standard Oil Head and Carnegie His Chief Theme'; The New York Times, October 31, 1908, p. 3
^ 'Ohio Republicans Need Stirring Up: In Taft's Own State the Trend Is Now All Toward Bryan'; The New York Times, September 22, 1908, p. 2
^ 'Republicans Turn the Tide in Ohio: Bryan Wave, Which Threatened to Swamp Them, Is Now on the Ebb'; The New York Times, October 22, 1908, p. 4

[1] Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 343 ISBN 9780691163246

[2] Flinn, Thomas A.; 'Continuity and Change in Ohio Politics'; The Journal of Politics, vol. 24, no. 3 (August 1962), pp. 521-544

[3] Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 352

[4] Sullivan, James Casey; 'Against the Tendencies of the Times: The Republican Party and the Roots of Modern Conservatism, 1900-1930' (thesis), p. 93

[5] 'Bryan Links Taft with Rockefeller: In Tour of Ohio He Makes Standard Oil Head and Carnegie His Chief Theme'; The New York Times, October 31, 1908, p. 3

[6] 'Ohio Republicans Need Stirring Up: In Taft's Own State the Trend Is Now All Toward Bryan'; The New York Times, September 22, 1908, p. 2

[7] 'Republicans Turn the Tide in Ohio: Bryan Wave, Which Threatened to Swamp Them, Is Now on the Ebb'; The New York Times, October 22, 1908, p. 4

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