1916 election

[CJK]

Why was this election so close? Usually incumbents who win win big, but until 2004 this was the smallest incumbent victory in American history. I understand that Wilson's electoral votes had to shrink due to the three way split that let him win in 1912, but what exactly kept this election from being a bigger victory for either side? What were the issues?

[Dan the Roman]

The Democrats had never really recovered from 1894, and the period from 1894-1930 was a Republican era. It was incredibly difficult for any Democrat to win a national election period, much less in a landslide.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Also, the only reason Wilson was the incumbent was because of Republican disunity.  Very few Taft or Roosevelt voters would have voted for him in 1912.  Wilson used his incumbency to improve his share of the vote considerably from 1912, so that his share of the PV in 1916 was largest any Democrat had had since Tilden in 1876.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Colorado is the state I don't get.  It gave Wilson over 60% of the vote in 1916, for no apparent reason.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Colorado is the state I don't get.  It gave Wilson over 60% of the vote in 1916, for no apparent reason.

  The incumbent Republican Governor, George Alfred Carlson, was defeated for reelection that year as well, so it might have been a case of local politics spilling over into the national ticket, but that's rank speculation on my part.

[Scam of God]

World War I = Iraq, in a way. Both were enormously controversial; Wilson had to simultaneously pretend he didn't want to get America involved and appease those sympathetic to the Allies.

[Bo]

The country was in an era of Republican dominance, and the reason why it was so close in the first place (why the Republicans did not win in a landslide) is due to Wilson's incumbency.

[hcallega]

The war was very unpopular in the west, for various reasons (German heritage, so far away from home, isolationist Republican tradition) and thus voted for Wilson. If you look at Taft+Roosevelt in 1912 you get a GOP landslide, so it's not surprising that it was so close.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I'm guessing tarriffs was used to fund the functions of gov't up until 1913. Once the income tax was established, it appeared to some as a war tax and where the war was unpopular at, the Republicans did their best at.