During the period between New Mexico's annexation by the United States and statehood, the area was divided between largely Republican machine-run highland regions and its firmly Southern Democrat and Baptist "Little Texas" region to the southeast.[1] A split in the "Old Guard" of highland Republicanism meant that in the state's inaugural presidential election in 1912Woodrow Wilson carried the state through overwhelming "Little Texas" and southern desert support over ProgressiveTheodore Roosevelt and incumbent RepublicanWilliam Howard Taft.[2] Nonetheless, New Mexico was still Taft's fourth-strongest state by vote percentage reflecting the strong Hispanic machine loyalties to him in the northern highlands.[3]
In the East, supporters of Theodore Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Party rapidly returned to the Republicans, in the Mountain States many if not most of these supporters turned to the Democratic Party not only in presidential elections, but also in state and federal legislative ones.[4] Wilson was also helped by a powerful "peace vote" in the Western states[5] due to opposition to participation in World War I.
New Mexico was won by incumbent President Woodrow Wilson, who secured a tumultuous reelection against Supreme Court JusticeCharles Evans Hughes, and Socialist Party icon Allan L. Benson.[6] Wilson's reluctance to bid armed forces in World War I improved his image for this election, as a "peace candidate".[4] However, whilst many Progressive business leaders believed the Republican Old Guard stood for fraud and dishonesty, they nonetheless supported Hughes even whilst opposing GOP candidates for other statewide positions.[2] Consequently, despite its strong Democratic base at a local level that was completely absent in most parts of the West during the "System of 1896",[7] New Mexico was Wilson's third-weakest state in the West.
^Chilton, Lance; New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State, p. 95 ISBN0826307329
^ abHodgson, Illa D. and Garthwaite, Eloyse M.; 'New Mexico's Early Elections: Statehood to New Deal'; New Mexico Historical Review, January 1, 1995; vol. 70, issue 1, pp. 29-46
^Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 42 ISBN0786422173
^ abSarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305
^Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 47